University of Hawaii women’s golf reaches new heights

There would be no fairy-tale ending, but this University of Hawaii Wahine golf season had more than its share of enchanting tales.

The most prominent ended the regular season last month. Junior Kaci Masuda — the only UH golfer who grew up here — became the third Wahine in five years to win a tournament. With her extremely young teammates right behind her, Hawaii also tied for first with 29th-ranked Louisville in the Anuenue Spring Break Classic at Kapalua.

The Cardinals won the tiebreaker, but Hawaii might claim the future golf kingdom. Even with BWC honorable mention freshman Sahara Washington too sick to play the final two rounds, giving the Wahine no room for error, they closed with their low score of the season (879).

Stephen Bidne was named Big West co-coach of the year in his first season, despite a fifth-place finish in the league championship 10 days ago.

“That’s golf, right?” Bidne acknowledged. “That’s not where we wanted to be, but we battled back after a rough start.”

Bidne played Masuda, an all-conference second-team selection, along with three freshmen (Washington, Tyra Tonkham, Emma Lower) and sophomore Megan Ratcliffe most of the season. They put together the lowest scoring average in program history (75.4) and highest national ranking (81 currently in Golfweek/Sagarin, after a high of 79).

All those players were recruited by Lori Castillo, who retired last year after bringing the 2017 class in. She followed her former team faithfully this season from her new home on Hawaii island.

“It was awesome to watch on Golfstat.com and see what was happening …,” Castillo said. “I’m glad to know the program transitioned seamlessly.”

A crucial part of the transition was Bidne’s upbeat personality, which worked remarkably well with one of the youngest teams in the country.

“He’s a light-hearted human being who spreads positivity everywhere he goes,” said Masuda, a graduate of American Renaissance Academy in Kapolei. “You’ll always find him cracking jokes and smiling.”

The combination proved surprisingly effective.

Along with its T1 on Maui, Hawaii had two runner-up team finishes. Masuda led the team in three events, adding a second-place finish in Wyoming, but so did Washington, whose trio of top-20s included a third in February. Tonkham took third in the Big West and was top 20 at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational. Ratcliffe led the way at the Bruin Wave Invitational and Lower had two top-five finishes.

“With such a young team you usually have a learning curve and go through a rough patch,” Bidne said. What I’m most proud of is from the first tournament they showed up right away and had top finishes.”

With Lauren Kirkwood graduating, Masuda will be the only senior in the fall. Bidne says she is already a leader and Masuda concedes to trying to be a role model, particularly on the road and at practice.

Surprisingly, she doesn’t feel that old.

“I love these girls and they’re all like sisters to me,” she said. “We all get along so well that I don’t really think about it.”

They helped her compose the third-lowest individual scoring average in Wahine history (75.2) and become the program’s sixth medalist with her three-shot victory at Anuenue. She followed in the recent footsteps of Eimi Koga (2015) and Izzy Leung (2014).

With Masuda’s work ethic, fundamentally sound swing and growing confidence, to say nothing of the ability to shake off bad breaks in a game that breeds them, Bidne thinks she has a shot at BWC player of the year in 2019.

The Wahine’s learning curve was dramatic, starting in September.

“We’ve all become lot more confident, refined and balanced as a team this season, particularly with the freshmen who make up half of us,” Masuda says. “These girls are competitive internally and externally, which means they’ll keep fighting.”

They will be joined in the fall by Haruka Shintani, from Tokyo, and Nicha Vorrasanpisut, from Bangkok. Shintani’s father played professional baseball in Japan and she has been attending the Hank Haney Academy in South Carolina. Vorrasanpisut has also spent time in the U.S., with high finishes in big events since she was 6, according to Bidne.

The UH men’s team plays in the Big West Championship beginning Sunday at Industry Hills Golf Club in California. The Rainbows have finished last the past three years.

Nainoa Calip has the team’s only top-five finish in the BWC, tying for second in 2014. Freshman Justin Arcano, a Baldwin graduate, leads this year’s team with a stroke average of 73.6.