Mariel Galdiano’s historic march to medalist honors at the U.S. Women’s Amateur wasn’t the only record score by a Hawaii golfer last week.
On his way to Boise State, Donny Hopoi took time to shatter the scoring record at the Army Invitational. The 2014 Kamehameha graduate won by 12 shots over Tyler Ota Saturday.
Hopoi’s rounds of 66-67-66 left him at 17-under-par 199, the lowest score — by six shots — since the tournament moved solely to Leilehua in 2005. To put his score in perspective, the average winning total the previous 11 years was 7 under. Matt Ma’s second-round 68 was the next-best score of the week, by anyone, on a course that plays 7,000 yards.
Hopoi is transferring from Dixie State to Boise this fall, after helping the Trailblazers to two PacWest titles and a ninth-place NCAA Regional finish. Hopoi tied for 13th at regionals.
“My game is a little more refined now,” Hopoi said. “I think college golf taught me to grind for every stroke and that is what I feel I have improved on since going to college. In college, you don’t want to let your team down so you grind to try to save every stroke possible.”
Hopoi hopes the move to D-I sets him up for the future.
“My goals for my final two years of college golf are to work as hard as I can both on the course and in the classroom,” he says, “to first earn my college degree and second to prepare myself as best I can to transition into the professional ranks.”
Isaac Jaffurs (75—221) won a playoff over Brandan Kop (73—221) to capture Army’s Mid-Am Flight. The A Flight champion was Brian Pang (77—233). Glenn Kakuni (76—237) won B Flight by 12 and Charles Tanabe (85—251) captured C Flight.
Local teams share fourth at Mary Cave Cup
Both Hawaii teams earned a share of fourth in last week’s Mary Cave Cup, played at Sycuan Golf Club in El Cajon, Calif.
Southern California 1 captured the title with a 36-hole score of 7-under-par 137 (71-66). Both Hawaii teams shot 141. Reese Guzman and Kamie Hamada closed with a 70 and the team of Chloe and Naomi Wong shot 71 in the final round.
Guzman finished third in stroke play, four shots out of first with rounds of 75-73. Naomi Wong (76—154) tied for ninth, Chloe Wong (79—156) earned a share of 13th and Hamada (74—159) tied for 19th.
The tournament was established in 2004 to offer junior girls a tournament similar to the Eddie Hogan Cup, held this weekend in Portland. It is named in honor of Mary Cave, a volunteer with San Diego Junior Golf for nearly 50 years.
Sakuma finishes 19th at Trusted Choice
Alanis Sakuma earned Hawaii’s best finish at the 48th Trusted Choice Big “I” National Championship, which ended last Thursday at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento.
Sakuma (79—302) tied for 19th in the third-oldest junior golf event in the country. Matthew Shen (79—299) was 54th in the boys flight. Karissa Kilby and Evan Kawai missed the cut.
Juniors from 39 states participated.
