What are the odds of a high school in the middle of the Pacific Ocean sending three golfers to play for Division I colleges? What are the odds of it happening twice in six years?
Next week’s David S. Ishii Foundation State Girls Golf Championship at Wailua Municipal will be the final high school competition for Punahou’s Mariel Galdiano, Allisen Corpuz and Aiko Leong. In the fall, they will be wearing UCLA, USC and Brigham Young logos.
Galdiano is going for an unprecedented fourth state high school championship Monday and Tuesday. The Buffanblu will be chasing their 10th team title in 11 years, a surge that covers the D-I trio of 2011 seniors — Cyd Okino (Washington), Alina Ching (Pepperdine) and Michelle Condry (San Francisco).
Wednesday and Thursday, Moanalua and a few others will try to prevent Punahou from capturing its seventh boys championship in nine years. The Menehune are anchored by seniors Kyosuke Hara and Shawn Lu, both headed to Oregon State.
Two Hawaii teammates heading to a Pac-12 team is rare. Three heading to prominent D-I schools is mind-boggling. So are the games of Galdiano, Corpuz and Leong, who have done so well in junior golf they have primarily focused on national and international events recently.
Galdiano, the eighth-ranked amateur woman in the world, will miss graduation to compete in her second Curtis Cup international team competition, in Ireland. At 10, Corpuz was the youngest to compete in a USGA event and has 10 Top 10s in AJGA majors. Both are among the Top 25 juniors in Golfweek’s ranking and have won a handful of Hawaii women’s majors.
Leong’s resume doesn’t have quite the bling, but it does include the 2015 Antigua High School Invitational title and a seventh-place finish at last year’s Big I national Championships. She also earned the 2015 Dr. Ho Spirit of the Game Award, one of the most coveted Hawaii State Junior Golf Association honors.
Leong, working on swing changes most of this season, is headed to a school clearly on the rise in a West Coast Conference with strong island flavor.
Last week, BYU won its first conference championship in 24 years, and fifth title of the season. Leong was “recruited” by good friend Rose Huang, a Cougar out of `Iolani who took second last week and was WCC Player and Freshman of the Year. Last week’s medalist was Ciera Min, out of Waiakea.
She is the second from Gonzaga to snag a conference championship, after University’s Alice Kim. The eight-golfer WCC all-conference team looks more like all-state this year, with Huang, Min and — for the fourth time — Pepperdine senior Marissa Chow (`Iolani).
Leong is the only one of Punahou’s 2016 DI trio not pondering a pro future. She plans to become a lawyer after she’s done at Provo — with school and a golf team atmosphere she has come to enjoy.
“I’ve never had a team before so it really taught me,” Leong says. “Now I actually do feel really happy for teammates when they do well. It’s also taught me to go with the flow with my team. We all want the same thing.”
She is in awe of Corpuz and Galdiano.
“It’s so hard to pick out the best part of their games,” she shrugs, “because everything is so good.”
The dynamic golf duo has the same problem, but ultimately Galdiano would like some of Corpuz’s uncanny accuracy with her approach shots. Corpuz points to her teammate’s putting.
“There’s nothing bad about Mariel’s game so there can’t be a best part,” she says, “but … her putting. I feel like everything inside of 10 feet, she’s just going to make it.”
The seniors are preparing for a boost in conditioning in the fall, in what Galdiano expects to be “preparation for a professional career” and “a really intense version of high school.”
Corpuz’s next team just won the Pac 12 and the second-ranked Trojans are looking for their fourth NCAA championship next month. Her father, Marcos, got his dental degree at USC and brother George is a sophomore there, “so it’s not too far away from home but still away from home.”
Galdiano, whose scoring average her final high school season is just under 68, has always admired UCLA’s “balance” and never really considered another school. She says it would “crazy” to help the Bruins get their first NCAA championship since Punahou alum Stephanie Kono was on the 2011 title team.
She shares her senior teammates’ thoughts about the atmosphere surrounding high school golf.
“You put aside what you want individually,” explains Galdiano, who finished 42nd in her second U.S. Women’s Open appearance last year and won the Canadian Women’s Amateur. “You are still striving to do your best, but taking into consideration the other people on the team, especially the younger ones because they’re going to have their time. We’re out there for each other, instead of trying to butt heads, you know?”
Their coach, Ed Kageyama, knows.
“Not only do they contribute to the team, but they do help each other and other teammates with their games,” he says. “They share ideas, thoughts and perspectives in which each can learn from another. As competitors, they push each other to do better. Having a someone pushing you in a positive manner benefits all.”
And, in rare and special cases, creates spectacular opportunities.
