Hawaii Baptist’s Joshua Hayashida made his move on Pearl Country Club’s par-5s on Wednesday, while Punahou’s Raya Nakao recovered nicely from a rough start.
Hayashida shot another 1-under-par 71 to claim the boys title and Nakao carded a 72 to capture the girls crown at the ILH golf championships.
Hayashida’s total of 142 was four shots better than runner-up Dane Watanabe of ‘Iolani.
Nakao finished at 143, which was six strokes better than runner-up and Punahou teammate Kelsie Inouye.
Last week’s first round also was held at Pearl.
Hayashida, a senior, birdied three of the course’s four par-5s — Nos. 5, 12 and 17.
“Today, it was my driver,” said Hayashida, who led Watanabe by one stroke after the first round. “I took out my 3-wood today because I didn’t think I was going to need it. I wound up needing it on two par-5s and I pulled out my driver and I hit the green (in two). They were both inside 15 feet.”
Hayashida also birdied the eighth hole and bogeyed Nos. 3, 13 and 18.
He won five of the eight ILH events this season.
“These last couple of weeks, I’ve just been hitting the ball really solid,” Hayashida said. “That’s all that really matters. I can control where the ball is going and just keeping myself in places where I can score.”
Nakao, the girls winner from Punahou, got into trouble quickly with a double
bogey on the par-4 second hole. The girls started on the front 9 and the boys started on the back.
“I hit it on the right side, so I had to punch under a tree, but I hit it just a bit too high and I ended up hitting the tree,” said Nakao, a junior. “Then I hit short of the green there and I wasn’t able to get an up-and-down.”
She recovered quickly with pars on Nos. 3 and 4 and a birdie on No. 5.
“Two holes after that, No. 4, that’s usually a really difficult hole,” Nakao said. “People are usually satisfied with a bogey on that hole, but I was able to get on the green with my second shot and two-putt, so that just started the momentum for me and the next hole I birdied.”
Nakao, who led two golfers by three shots after the first round, also birdied Nos. 10, 11 and 17 and bogeyed Nos. 7 and 17.
“My coach, coach Anna (Murata), was just able to get me back on track and the rest of my round I got back into my groove and I was able to play to my satisfaction,” Nakao said of recovering from the early double-bogey. “I’m happy with how the round went.”
Watanabe, the boys runner-up from ‘Iolani, birdied Nos. 6 and 17 and bogeyed Nos. 4, 7, 11 and 14 in his 74.
“I was pretty solid, but I just couldn’t get a couple of putts to fall, which was unfortunate,” said Watanabe, a junior. “I thought I played pretty solid overall.”
Inouye, the girls runner-up from Punahou, birdied Nos. 2, 16 and 17 and bogeyed Nos. 7, 12 and 18. Her 72 matched Nakao for lowest round of the day on the girls side.
“My hitting was a lot
better than last week,” said Inouye, a senior, who started the round in eighth place. “My putting was good enough to hang in there on some holes.”
The top 15 girls qualified for the HHSAA/David S. Ishii Foundation State Golf Championships to be held May 6-7 at Ka‘anapali Kai Golf Course.
The top 22 boys qualified for the state championships to be held May 9-10 at Ka‘anapali Royal Golf Course.
State tournaments were not held the previous two years because of COVID-19.