DUPONT, Washington – The UH Hilo men's golf team played 36 holes of golf on Friday at The Home Course, playing the same 18 holes twice with a short lunch break in between.
The Vulcans found the front nine very much to their liking. The back nine? Not so much.
UH Hilo was near the top of the leaderboard for the front nine in each round at the Saint Martin's Invitational, but then struggled a bit after the turn. The Vulcans were in second place after the first nine holes of the day on the scenic course located on Puget Sound, and were -3 as a team on the front nine of the second 18 holes. In both rounds, the back nine took its toll and by the time the day was done, the Vulcans were tied for sixth place out of 12 teams.
The final 18 holes will be played on Saturday.
One Vulcan who defied the trend was Keith Ng. The transfer from British Columbia also had two very different rounds, but his were called round one and round two. Ng shot a 76 for the first 18 holes and then fired a blistering 66 for the second 18. That was the low score of the day for the 68 golfers in the field, and is just one shot off the Vulcan school record of 65 (shared by three people).
Ng had nine birdies in the afternoon round, six pars and two bogeys. On the front nine, the Richmond, BC native had three birdies but also had a double and a triple bogey. Ng made his Vulcan debut a few weeks back by winning the HPU Sharks Shootout. After two rounds today, he is just five shots out of first place.
UHH teammate Noah Lau was near the top of the medalist list after the first 18 holes, shooting a two-under 70. He finished the day at +2 (70-76). Other Vulcan scores were Nicholas Gomez (77-74), Andrew Otani (76-76) and Dustin Franko (76-77).
The individual leader is Ryan Feyrer of Grays Harbor CC at -7, followed by Dominican's Christian Schrodt (-6). There is a tie for third currently between Hawaii Pacific Keita Okada and Ryan Stolys of Simon Fraser, both at -5.
Western Washington is the team leader at -4, with Simon Fraser close behind at -1. There is a gap after the two leaders, with Lewis-Clark State in third place at +10. Cal State San Bernardino is fourth (+11), Dominican is sixth (+13), with the Vulcans, HPU and Montana State Billings next at +14.
All 12 teams will tee off on Saturday morning at 8 am PT with a shotgun start.
