Punahou senior Remington Hirano had some trouble concentrating Tuesday during the final round of the ILH individual golf championships.

There was heavy wind and intermittent rain on the Turtle Bay Fazio Course, but those weren’t the problem.

The last time Hirano played in the tournament, as a freshman, he walked the Turtle Bay course with his coach, Lance Suzuki, a member of the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame and his coach for 11 years. He did not have that luxury Tuesday because Suzuki, who won 43 times in the state, died last summer.

“It was hard to stay focused knowing that,” Hirano said.

“I tried to think about staying confident and staying in the moment and grinding it out. He (Suzuki) was a really tough guy. Every time he played, he would really focus. He wasn’t there to make friends necessarily. He had to go out and try to win. I take a little bit of that (with me), for sure.”

Hirano carded a 2-under 70 anyway to leave his competitors behind and claim the Interscholastic League of Honolulu title.

The University of San Diego commit was sick as a junior and didn’t qualify as a sophomore. As a freshman, he was in the final group after a solid first round, but wilted with an 80 on the second day.

This time, Hirano had the resolve to shoot low when it counted and finished with a two-round total of 2-under 142.

Despite the thoughts of his late coach, he continued to plug away. After three birdies and three bogeys on the front nine, Hirano suffered only one bogey on the back nine to go along with three more birdies, including a tap-in effort on the par-4 17th.

“I was in the front left greenside bunker, about 25 yards, and I chipped it to about 2 or 3 inches,” he said.

The Buffanblu’s Evan Kawai (71-75), who will join Hirano as a Torero, finished at 146, four shots back, along with Punahou teammate Kane Rogers (75-71) and ‘Iolani’s Andrew Otani (76-70).

First-round leader Ryan Kong of Punahou faded with a second-round 77 after his opening-round 70. Kamehameha’s Keliiokalani Kamelamela-Dudoit, another player in the final group after an opening 71, closed with an 80 to drop down the leaderboard.

After the victory, Hirano said, “It was a great way to end my ILH career. This is the course states (May 10-11) is at, so I will just try to take confidence from this and apply it to the state championship.”

On the girls side, Punahou’s Karissa Kilby won the individual championship Tuesday despite a 5-over 77 to finish the two rounds at 6-over 150. She started the day three strokes ahead of defending ILH and state champion Claire Choi of the Buffanblu, who struggled with an 82 to end up eight shots back at 158.

“Yeah, I was really lucky today, had a lot of good bounces,” Kilby said. “I didn’t feel like I was playing too great, but it worked out. I played good enough to make a few pars. A couple of times I made a good putt to save par, and my drives were good enough to stay in play, so that was good. Nothing was really great, but nothing was that bad. It was pretty cool (to win) and I’m going to keep working for states.”

Hawaii Baptist’s Kelsey Ota (79-76) finished in second place at 155, and Mid-Pacific’s Danielle Ujimori (77-79) and Maryknoll’s Allysha-Mae Mateo (78-78) tied for third another stroke back.