KOHALA COAST, Hawai'i – The 32nd Amer Ari Intercollegiate was canceled after being unable to complete play due to extreme wind conditions.
"We are extremely disappointed to have had to cancel the Amer Ari," Hawai'i Hilo assistant coach and tournament director Kevin Ginoza said. "But the weather is out of our control and with the strong wind gusts, we couldn't do anything about it."
Day 1 of the scheduled annual golf invitational on the west side of the Big Island was called off Wednesday after playing through a handful of holes. Golfers were scheduled to play 36 holes on Thursday, but even start times delayed one hour, play was suspended shortly after and further canceled in its entirety.
It's only the second time in the event's history that it was canceled.
The Vulcans will be off until the end of the month when they travel to La Quinta, California for the Coyote Classic hosted by CSU San Bernardino.
32ND AMER ARI INTERCOLLEGIATE
The 32nd annual Amer Ari Intercollegiate brought 20 total men's golf teams to Hapuna Golf Course at the Mauna Kea Resort — 18 of them NCAA Division I schools with the likes of No. 2 Auburn, No. 3 North Carolina, No. 4 Arizona State, No. 5 Stanford and No. 6 Texas Tech.
The field also featured 23 of the top 50 golfers ranked by Golfweek (as of Feb. 3), headlined by No. 2 Michael Thorjbornsen (Stanford), No. 3 Calum Scott (Texas Tech), No. 4 Ludvig Aberg (Texas Tech), No. 6 David Ford (North Carolina), No. 8 Jonas Baumgartner (Oklahoma State) and No. 10 Derek Hitchner (Pepperdine).
Rounding out the field of teams was No. 12 Georgia Tech, No. 14 Texas, No. 16 Pepperdine, No. 18 Oklahoma State, No. 23 Oregon, No. 30 Washington, No. 57 TCU, No. 69 Oregon State, No. 106 San Jose State, No. 113 UCLA, No. 145 UC Davis, No. 147 Hawai'i Manoa, No. 167 Pacific, Hawai'i Hilo and Osaka Gakuin out of Japan.
