2019-20 UH Hilo Men's Golf Season in Review

COVID-19 Ends Season:The 2019-20 UH Hilo men's golf season came to a close on March 9 due to COVID-19 (all NCAA schools canceled play for the rest of the spring). The Vulcans had six tournaments in the books, but had at least four still to be played. 

What They Missed: Coach Earl Tamiya's team was a couple weeks out from playing in UC San Diego's tournament (March 23-24) and the Hanny Stanislaus Invitational (March 30-31). The were also set to play for the first time in The Goodwin on the Stanford University Golf Course (March 26-28), and they were to host the Pacific West Conference Championships on April 20-22 at the Waikoloa Kings' Course.

Bad News, Good News: Missing those final four matches, plus the opportunity to qualify for the regional tournament, was sad news for UH HIlo's two seniors Warren Miller and Taylor Patrick. But the good news came just a few days after the cancelation of the season--that all players, including seniors Miller and Patrick, will not lose a year of eligibility. All players would remain whatever their class was to start the season, be it freshman, sophomore, junior or senior.

Senior Salute: If Miller and/or Patrick decide to return for another senior year, they will have opportunity to add to the impressive numbers that they have already posted in their careers at UH Hilo. Patrick, from Surrey, British Columbia, is a four-year player that three times posted UH Hilo's second lowest season average. In 2018-19 as a junior, he finished second at the Dennis Rose Intercollegiate with a red-hot -7 score (73-68-68), with the pair of 68's holding up as his two best collegiate rounds. He was a PacWest Scholar Athlete all three seasons, and was a Third Team All-PacWest pick as a freshman. Miller arrived at UH HIlo after playing one season for hometown Cal State Bakersfield. He averaged just over 76 shots per 18 holes as a sophomore and junior, and clipped that to 73.78 this year. Miller opened the season with a career-best 66 at the St. Martin's Invitational, and was sitting at -7 after two rounds. The 66 is tied for the second lowest round in Vulcan history, and his two-day total at St. Martin's (137) is also second all-time at UHH for 36 holes.

More Record Book Entries: Miller's 73.78 in the shortened season is tied for tenth on UHH's Top Ten list. Sophomore Andrew Otani was the Vulcans' leader this year at 73.18, sixth all-time at UH Hilo. Otani also moved into tenth place in career scoring average at 75.23 (3.28 versus par). Miller's -8 at the three-round SMU Invitational last fall is tied for the fourth lowest score by a Vulcan in a tournament (he tied for sixth in the tournament). Otani and Miller were expecially good on par 5's this year. Again, albeit a shorter season, Otani average 4.57 on par 5's (best in school history) and Miller was at 4.71 (6th all-time). As a team, the Vulcans averaged better than 5 shots on par 5's (4.88), 3rd best in the Vulcan record book. Taylor Patrick has 98 birdies in four seasons, tenth on the UHH career list. The complete UH Hilo record book is linked at the bottom of this page.

Hawai`i Hilo Eagles: For this one season, maybe the Vulcans should have been the UHH Eagles. In six tournaments, the Vulcans had a school-record 14 eagles, which included five by Warren Miller. Andrew Otani had four, and Evan Merrier had three. For their careers, Miller has nine (second all-time) and Otani seven (fourth). Jared Kinoshita is the UHH career leader with 13. 

Rose Review: The Vulcans had their best overall tournament of the year at their own Dennis Rose Intercollegiate (Oct. 28-30) at the Waikoloa Kings' Course. After a rough start that saw them sitting ninth of 16 teams after the first of three rounds, they climbed up to a final of sixth place two days later. Andrew Otani shot a career-best 67 on the final day to finish in fifth place (72-76-67) in the medalist hunt. Evan Merrier also recorded a career-best with a 69 on the final day.

By the Numbers: Andrew Otani broke 70 four times during the season...Otani's fifth place finish at Dennis Rose and Warren Miller's sixth place tally at St. Martin's were UH HIlo's top medalist runs of the year...Newcomer Dustin Franko joined the Vulcans at the semester break, and shot even round 72's at the Amer Ari Invitational and the Bay Area Invite...Evan Merrier finished +1 at the SMU Invitational (70-75-72), tying for 26th in a large field...Freshman Nicholas Gomez worked his way up the Vulcan ladder, making the travel squad for the final tournament of the year. He finished +13 at the Amer Ari...Sophomore Noah Lau had a season-best 73 at the Western Washington Invitational.

Amer Ari was Awesome: The Amer Ari Intercollegiate always features many of the top NCAA Division I teams in the country, but the 29th annual edition took the accolades to another level. No. 1 ranked Pepperdine won the tournament with a molton-hot -19 on the final day (-39 overall), with Texas second (-37), Arizona State third (-36) and defending Amer Ari champion Oklahoma State fourth (-35). No. 2 nationally ranked Georgia Tech was sixth and No. 4 Texas Tech was seventh. Pepperdine's Andrew Mouw edged ASU's Mason Andersen in a play-off to win medalist honors (-13), with US Amateur Champ Andy Ogletree (Georgia Tech) tying for third with OSU's Aman Gupta (-12). The Vulcans co-hosted the tournament with the University of Hawai`i, with UH Hilo the only Division II team in the field.

Tamiya's Time: Vulcan head golf coach Earl Tamiya is the only leader the program has ever known, having just completed his 29th season.  The Vulcans have won four Pacific West Conference championships under Tamiya, in 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014. The 2004 Vulcans finished fourth at the NCAA Championships and the 2005 squad was fifth. 

Link to 2019-20 Statistics

Link to Vulcan Men's Golf Record Book