Matt Kuchar, Notah Begay and Anthony Kim have all earned medalist honors at the University of Hawaii-Hilo’s Amer Ari Invitational. Next week’s tournament at Waikoloa Kings’ might have the best field of any of the previous 21.

Half the country’s top 16 collegiate golf teams, including top-ranked Texas and No. 2 Oregon, will play Feb. 1-3.

The Longhorns bring the two top-ranked players in senior Dylan Frittelli and freshman Jordan Spieth. Texas won its last three tournaments in the fall by an average of 21 strokes. Frittelli and Spieth, the U.S. Junior Amateur champion, both have stroke averages of just above 70, with eighth-ranked teammate Julio Vegas just behind.

Oregon’s Eugene Wong is ranked third, and was Golf World’s "Player of the Midseason" for his work in the fall, when the Ducks also won three events.

Fourth-ranked Patrick Rodgers will be here with Stanford, along with No. 6 Cheng-Tsung Pan from Washington, No. 7 Patrick Cantlay (UCLA) and No. 10 Julien Brun (TCU).

Cantlay, Spieth and Rodgers are 1-2-3 in the World Amateur Rankings.

Hilo coach Earl Tamiya figures this is a better collection than the early days of the tournament when Tiger Woods was coming over.

His team is coming off one of its most successful — and surprising — seasons. With then-freshman Blake Snyder earning medalist honors, the Vulcans rallied to win the Pacific West Conference by a shot, then finished fifth at their NCAA D-II regional. With one senior and four freshmen, UHH took 11th at nationals.

This year, Hilo’s most seasoned player is junior Kelii Dias, out of Kamehameha-Maui. He has 10 underclassmen as teammates, including Snyder and Snyder’s former Seattle Prep teammate, Jamie Hall, who won last fall’s Dennis Rose Invitational. Hall had a stroke average of 72.3 in his first four collegiate starts and helped the Vulcans to a No. 17 D-II ranking. Chico State, the only other D-II team here, is ranked ninth.

"We’re young again," Tamiya says. "We’ll probably play three sophomores and two freshmen. We were decent this past fall. We hope to make it to regionals and then it will be a shootout again. Nobody thought we had a chance last year, but the kids never gave up. They really worked hard and they made it work. They surprised me, too."

Texas has 10 in-state players. Frittelli is from South Africa and the other two players are from Finland and Venezuela.

UH-Manoa also is at Waikoloa and senior TJ Kua is coming off a seven-stroke win at last fall’s Kauai Collegiate Invitational. Playing at home, he became the first Rainbows medalist since Mike Pavao in 1996.

Play begins at 7:30 all three mornings at Kings’. Admission is free.

The Rainbows will host the John A. Burns Intercollegiate, Feb. 15-17 at Turtle Bay’s Palmer Course.