University of Hawaii senior Jared Sawada won his third Francis Brown Four Ball Championship on Sunday, teaming with 13-year-old Evan Kawai to take the 62nd annual title.
Sawada/Kawai won the first three holes against Mark Takahama and Shannon Tanoue and never trailed. They were 5 up after nine holes and won 6 and 4. The winning team was 14 under through the 32 holes at Ala Wai.
Henry Natividad and Rod Baybayan won A Flight over Ronald and Bradley Rezentes 6 and 5. B Flight came down to the final hole, with Marcus Lake and James Oshiro winning 1 up over father-son team Merl and David Miyashiro.
Acosta wins local qualifier
Haleiwa’s Ryan Acosta shot 31 on the back nine to win Monday’s U.S. Open local qualifier, at Kuki‘o Golf & Beach Club.
Acosta’s 3-under-par 69 was a shot better than Hunter Larson. Both advance to sectional qualifiers.
Tam Channing (73) is first alternate. Larson and Channing are from the Big Island.
Kuki‘o is one of 111 local qualifying tournaments around the country. There will be another Sunday at King Kamehameha. The U.S. Women’s Open sectional is May 20 at Waialae Country Club.
This year’s U.S. Open is June 13-16 at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa.
Fink earns Pac-12 honor
Two-time Manoa Cup champion David Fink became the 11th Oregon State golfer to earn All-Pac-12 honors when he was named to the second team this week. Fink, from Kailua, has a team-best 71.74 scoring average and finished 17th at the Pac-12 championship.
The junior has two seconds this season — at the Gifford Collegiate and the Amer Ari Invitational.
The Beavers will play in their seventh consecutive NCAA Championship beginning next week at the Tallahassee, Fla., regional.
Hyundai event raises $350,000
This year’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions raised $350,000 for Hawaii charities. Since the tournament’s inception in 1999, the tournament and host organizations have donated more than $4.4 million to Hawaii Community Charities.
Among the charities receiving donations were Boy Scouts of America, Maui County Council; Friends of the Children’s Justice Center; Hale Makua Health Services; J. Walter Cameron Center; Ka Lima O Maui and Lahainaluna High School Foundation.
Those organizations partner with the tournament by providing assistance in promoting the event, providing volunteers and more. The Hawaii State Junior Golf Association and Maui Junior Golf also received a significant donation for their work in promoting and providing opportunities to grow the game for Hawaii’s youth.
Donations also went to participants in the Golf for Maui Charities program, which was open to any non-profit organization. Participants promoted the sale of tournament tickets and kept net proceeds.
Through Hyundai Motor America and its Hope on Wheels program (including the first Hope on Wheels 5K Run held during the tournament week), $83,670 was donated to the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children to further pediatric cancer research in Hawaii.
Notes
» Fresh off her win in last week’s David S. Ishii Foundation/HHSAA girls golf championship, Punahou freshman Mariel Galdiano tied for third at the AJGA Junior at River Ridge in Oxnard, Calif., last weekend. Galdiano, the only freshman in the top 18, shot 73-77 to finish four shots out of first.
» Punahou and UCLA graduate Stephanie Kono moved to 12th on the Symetra Tour money list with a tie for 32nd at last week’s Guardian Retirement Championship in Sarasota, Fla. Ayaka Kaneko, out of Sacred Hearts, opened with a 73, but was 15 over on the weekend and tied for 74th. Kono, Kaneko and Leilehua graduate Britney Choy, the 2004 state high school champion, will play in this week’s $100,000 Symetra Classic, in Charlotte, N.C.
» Registration is open for this year’s BMW Hawaii Invitational Pro-Am, June 1 at Royal Ka‘anapali. Three amateurs team with an Aloha Section PGA pro and each amateur on the winning team gets a free entry into the BMW event at Ka‘anapali on Sept. 5-7. That qualifies golfers for the BMW National Cup at Pinehurst.
Visit kaanapaligolfcourses.com/ bmwproam for more information and to enter.
