Kapalua means “arms embracing the sea.” This week, the resort’s Bay Course embraced nearly everybody while hosting the Big West Conference Women’s Golf Championship.
More than half the teams had a shot at winning, with five going into Tuesday’s final round within 11 shots of each other.
Hawaii did not soar on the wings of its treasured tradewinds to its first championship, a year after coming in second to UC Davis. That honor belonged to UC Riverside, which overtook Cal Poly and outlasted six-time defending champion Davis.
Long Beach State was next and the Rainbow Wahine were two shots behind that, despite an early surge and getting all five players in the top 35. UH junior Izzy Leung took third after a front-nine 33, while junior Raquel Ek and freshman Kaci Masuda tied for 11th.
The top five teams ultimately ended within 11 shots of each other. It made for little satisfaction for the home team after last year’s runner-up finish, but a lot of BWC aloha.
“I like that we are all closer now, Davis is not running away with their seventh in a row,” said Wahine coach Lori Castillo, who lived on the Bay Course before coming to UH eight years ago. “They graduated some seniors and it brings everybody together, which is nice. It was a great experience for everyone.”
The Big West Men’s Championship will be in Hawaii in 2019. This year’s is May 2-4 at Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley, Calif. It could be just as fierce and foster as much conviviality — even without the 30 mph winds and killer views.
Long Beach State captured two titles last month and UC Davis just won at Stanford, blowing by top-ranked USC and the eighth-ranked Cardinal in the process. UC Irvine will defend its BWC title.
Hawaii hasn’t finished higher than sixth since joining the conference in 2013 and was last a year ago. To be part of the conversation, the Rainbow Warriors will have to work harder from the neck up.
“Looking at it in context, where we are now, if we play like we can, we can win,” UH Coach Ronn Miyashiro says. “But we’re not playing well now. We’re having a bad stretch. We were horrible at Arizona State, made a lot of mistakes. Then we went to Santa Cruz and made more.”
His team went back to work Wednesday for its final push, with Miyashiro more concerned with their confidence than any swing nuances.
Junior Skye Inakoshi, who heads into the BWC Championship with the conference’s third-lowest scoring average (73.0), has anchored Hawaii along with sophomore James Horton and senior Scotty Yamashita. Inakoshi shared medalist honors at the 40th John A. Burns Intercollegiate in February and was third in Nevada. So was his team, in its best finish of an erratic season.
That is not rare in men’s or women’s college golf. It is not rare in golf, period. What Miyashiro and Castillo work on more than anything is what goes on in their players’ heads.
“No one is playing with a lot of fear on this team, which is good,” Castillo said at Kapalua. “There are no huge mental games going on with this five. That’s the stuff that holds you back. At this skill level, it’s 80 percent mental.”
She will have four seniors next season and is bringing in California freshman Malia Ebersberger, whose father J.D. used to be Mauna Kea’s head pro.
Castillo is not expecting Moanalua graduate Eimi Koga back. She transferred to UH from Washington in the fall, won her first tournament — helping the Wahine to their first team victory since 1996 — then qualified for the Japan pro tour and now lives there.
Miyashiro has signed Waiakea’s Trevor Hirata and Moanalua’s Nick Nelson. He is hoping to sign two more players, and come out of the BWC Championship with “a good taste in our mouth for next year.”
“If we don’t win, as long as we’re competing to win all three days I’ll consider that a successful tournament and end of the year,” he says. “Hopefully that goes into the summer when the guys do their own thing. I hope it helps them so we’ll be ready in the fall.”
