Boys golf: Eagles soar on first day

Hawaii Baptist’s Noah Koshi and Mason Nakamura each shot a 70 in the first round of the David S. Ishii Foundation Golf Championships on Turtle Bay’s Fazio Course, sharing the lead with Roosevelt’s Kolbe Irei.

Chad Lee of St. Anthony was the only other boy to break par on Thursday, shooting a 71. A group of five others — Alexander Kam of Hawaii Baptist, Davis Lee of Mid-Pacific, Waiakea’s Isaiah Kanno and Punahou pair Evan Kawai and Remington Hirano — shot 73s and sit three shots off the pace.

Koshi and Nakamura matched each other with a 36 on the front and 34 on the back. Irei shot 35 on both nines.

The eventual winner of the tournament shared the lead after the first day in 10 of the past 12 years.

All four of Moanalua’s scoring golfers shot a 74 to give Na Menehune the team lead with 296 strokes, just ahead of Punahou’s 298. Waiakea is looming with 317 strokes. Defending champion ‘Iolani only has three golfers and won’t win the title, but all three of them shot lower than 78, led by Noah Lau’s 74. Despite having three golfers in the top five, HBA also is ineligible for the team title because the Eagles have no fourth entrant either.

Punahou has won six titles since 2008, Moanalua has won twice in that span.

Hawaii Baptist hasn’t had a state champion in boys golf since 1997, when Norman Asao claimed the title at Wailua. Roosevelt has never had an individual champion but had the runner-up three times, the last time in 1992.