WAIKOLOA, Hawai`i--At least for one glorious day,
Jared Kinoshita and the UH HIlo men's golf team showed that they can hang with the country's brightest college golf stars.
Kinoshita, feeling confident and comfortable on his home course, fired a six-under 66 to finish the day tied for third at the 28th annual Amer Ari Intercollegiate, hosted by the Vulcans and the University of Hawai`i at the Waikoloa Kings' Golf Course. Zach Bauchou from defending national champion Oklahoma State was one of only two players better than Kinoshita on the day, tearing up the course with a nine-under 63, just one digit off the course record. Oregon's Ryan Gronlund was second at -7 (65).
Kinoshita was in pretty good company in third, tied with the No. 3 ranked golfer in the world (amateur) in OSU's Viktor Hovland. Sam Foust of Oregon and Kyle Hogan of Texas Tech also checked in at 66. Kinoshita's tally was just one shot off his UH Hilo school record of 65 set on the same course last Fall.
The Cowboys, who won the NCAA title last year and are the defending Amer Ari title winners, took the Round One lead at 267 (-21). The No. 1 nationally ranked Cowboys have a two-shot lead over Texas Tech (-19) and are four shots ahead of Oregon (-17). No. 2 nationally ranked Georgia Tech and No. 8 USC are next at -11.
USC's Justin Suh, the defending Amer Ari medalist and No. 1 ranked golfer in the NCAA, shot a 68. The Trojans' Kaito Onishi, ranked No. 2 in the country, is still very much in contention with a 69.
The Vulcans are tied for 12 of the 18 teams in the field. They have the same 285 score (-3) as Oregon State, and are ahead (for now) of Osaka Gakuin (Japan) 288, UC Davis 289, No. 31 ranked Stanford (290), University of Pacific (290) and Hawai`i (297).
Kinoshita had solid support from teammate
Taylor Patrick, who shot a 1-under 71.
Warren Miller and freshman
Andrew Otani shot 74's to contribute to the team score.
Evan Merrier was next with a 75.
Round two of three will begin on Friday at 7:30 a.m.
For complete Round One results, click
here.
