The University of Hawai`i Hilo team with the longest season of all begins that journey this week in the Pacific Northwest.

The Vulcan men's golf team will tee off the 2016-17 year with tournaments in Olympia (Sept. 23-24) and Bellingham, Wash. (Sept. 26-27), hosted by St. Martin's University and Western Washington respectively.

Since the NCAA doesn't offer the marathon as an official race, the golf season is probably the next closest thing they have to offer. A sprint, the golf campaign is not. This year, the Vuls will play four tournaments in the fall and six in the spring, with the season running from September to May.

"NCAA golf is almost a year-round deal," said Vulcans head coach Earl Tamiya. He should know, having been the UHH leader since 1991. "It's really the only sport that encompasses the full academic year. All tournaments count, so this next week is really 'go time' for us."

Including a practice round at each tournament, the Vulcans will get plenty of work this week, playing eight rounds in six days. In both Olympia and Bellingham, they will play a practice round, followed by two rounds (36 holes) on the first day and 18 on the second.

And in the northwest, they could see any kind of weather this time of year.

"We are ready to battle the elements," Tamiya said. "It's part of being in the marathon. We need to be prepared for and battle through anything."

19 teams will be at the St. Martin's tournament and only five of them are not NCAA Division II west region teams. The field includes defending West/South Regional champion Chico State, who is ranked fifth nationally in the Golf Coaches Association of American pre-season poll.

The only Vulcan that has seen the grind at this level before is sophomore Jared Kinoshita. The rest of the team graduated or is gone, including Third Team All-PacWest pick Kyeton Littel.

Last year as a freshman, Kinoshita was also a Third Team All-Pacific West Conference selection. He won the four-team Hawaii Challenge in the spring with a three-round score of +5 and averaged 76.08 strokes an outing on the season.

But he is the only Vulcan that Tamiya will recognize when they get on the plane this week.
Everyone else on the team is new, including three transfers and three freshmen. That would make 2016-17 a rebuilding year, right Coach?

"Nope, we will be better this year than last," Tamiya predicted. "I'll have a better idea of how much better we will be after this trip."

Joining Kinoshita in a Vulcan polo will be a pair of transfers from Bellevue Community College (Seattle)—Braeden Campbell and Eddie Abellar. Campbell could push Kinoshita for the No. 1 position. Fellow transfer Jeffrey Yamaguchi (Reedley CC), along with freshmen Preston-Lee Ching (Hilo), Taylor Patrick (Surrey, BC) and Trevor Kua (Lihue) will all battle for the top five scoring spots.

"Everyone will work harder knowing that the team is better," Tamiya predicted. "It's kind of a crap shoot right now as to who will end up where on the ladder. Not sure yet how it will all shake out."

Last year was a down year by Tamiya standards as the Vuls finished fifth in the PacWest tournament and did not qualify for a regional spot. They participated in the regional tournament in 2015 and the year prior to that, they finished second at the West/South Regional and were 13^th at the NCAA Division II national championships. The Vulcans have PacWest championship banner from the years 2006, 2008 and 2011.

"Our goal is certainly to return to regionals," Tamiya said. "Last year was not our normal kind of year. We hope to turn it around this year."

One annual highlight of the season, regardless of how the team does, is the Amer Ari Intercollegiate, hosted by Tamiya and UHH. This will be the 27^th year that the Big Island will welcome some of the top NCAA Division I programs in the nation to Waikoloa, this year on Feb. 2-4. This year's field includes No. 1 ranked Texas, No. 2 USC, No. 4 Oklahoma State, No. 8 Stanford and defending national champion Oregon. The tournament has been a fixture of UHH's season since Tamiya arrived in 1991.

"We are a quiet sport and program per say, without a lot of fanfare," Tamiya concluded. "That's just the nature of the sport at the collegiate level. But I feel like we do things right and we desire to represent our school and the state of Hawai`i well."

That first chance in 2016-17 is this weekend at the Olympic Golf and Country Club. The first step in a long marathon.