As the University of Hawaii tees off into the heart of its season, it prepares to host one of the most popular tournaments in college golf — next week’s UH-Manoa John A. Burns Intercollegiate — and ponder its unique fate.

The Rainbows have a schedule almost any school would kill for, with five tournaments in Hawaii and six more at great layouts in California in Arizona. But they never actually play "at home" — on Oahu.

The 39th annual Burns Intercollegiate is Wednesday-Friday at Wailua on Kauai. Their two fall tournaments were at Princeville and Ka‘anapali, and the UH-Hilo events they play are both at Waikoloa Kings’.

They have to fly to every competitive round they play this season.

"It’s been weird," admits Ronn Miyashiro, Hawaii’s coach since 1998.

It has also made much financial sense.

Neighbor island contacts have reached out to Miyashiro recently and "given us a ton of support." He moved the Burns to Wailua last year in large part because the county helped sponsor it, throwing in free green fees — a tournament’s largest expense.

That happened about the time programs began to have reservations about making reservations for Hawaii. The Burns has been one of the college season’s most prestigious tournaments practically since it started. PGA Tour pros Tiger Woods, Notah Begay, Andrew Magee, Bobby Clampett and Spencer Levin are past champions and Ryan Moore set the tournament record (196) in 2005.

But rising room rates and airfares started to scare teams off, Miyashiro said. When the county stepped in, he was able to lower his entry fee, encouraging them to keep coming.

Haiku’s Justin Keiley won last year at Wailua, becoming the second Hawaii golfer — after Donald Hurter in 1984 — to capture the Burns.

The final round was canceled because of bad weather, but teams’ initial hesitancy about playing a municipal course was put to rest. Wailua, which has hosted USGA national championships, passed the playing test with flying colors.

"Even with the amount of rain we got, that course was still in prime tournament condition," Miyashiro said. "It will be even better this year."

Now Hawaii just has to make itself matter at its own event. The Rainbows were third in the inaugural Burns Intercollegiate in 1977, but have been no better than sixth this millennium. Their top finishes individually came from Matt Kodama, who was second in 2002, and Pierre Henri Soero and TJ Kua, who also had Top 10s.

Miyashiro has no idea what he will see next week. Five golfers have led Hawaii in its six starts so far — Skye Inakoshi, Scotty Yamashita (twice), Zachary Braunthal, Brian Lee and Pono Tokioka, when he played as an individual at Ka‘anapali.

Wailua is Tokioka’s home course and his game has improved dramatically as a sophomore. But his scores at last week’s Amer Ari Invitational are typical of his team — he opened with a 69, then shot 81.

"We’ve got guys shooting low numbers, but not consistently," Miyashiro says. "We see potential. If we didn’t see low numbers we’d be scared because it’s not there, but it’s there. We’ve had rounds in the 60s, but you can’t back that up with scores in the high 70s and be successful.

"It’s a matter of figuring out that things are different every day. Each round is different and you have to treat it differently. It’s not a confidence thing. If it was, we would not see those scores. They’ve got confidence, they just have to put it all together."

Ryan Kuroiwa (Aiea) and Lee (Punahou) are UH’s only seniors. There are two freshmen, from Thailand and Australia, which is where Miyashiro now recruits when too many of Hawaii’s best players go someplace else.

"I still strongly believe we have a lot of kids here who can compete at this level," Miyashiro says. "The difficulty now is they are so good they are hard to get. Money talks when it comes to athletics. Schools can provide a lot more than I can facility-wise and just in general. It makes it difficult, so we get the kids who just really want to play for us, or their parents want them to stay home."

Three of this year’s 16 Burns’ teams are ranked in Golfweek’s Top 30 — two-time defending champion California, New Mexico and UNLV. Rebel freshman John Oda, who won Hawaii’s state high school championship his senior year at Moanalua, is coming off his first collegiate win.

Wahine finish seventh

The University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine opened their spring season with a seventh-place finish Tuesday at the 11-team Gold Rush tournament, in Seal Beach, Calif. Host Long Beach State won the title with a 54-hole total of 902.

Hawaii shot 925, led by sophomores Izzy Leung (75—229) and Raquel Ek (79—230), who finished in the Top 25. Medalist was Brigham Young’s Lea Garner, who closed with a 73 for a total of even-par 216.

Leung has led the Wahine in five of their six tournaments this school year, winning the Oregon State Invitational to start her second season.