In between the University of Hawaii’s 44th annual John A. Burns Intercollegiate and next week’s 35th annual Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational, something very rare happened.

Four Hawaii golfers made the cut in the Korn Ferry Tour’s $650,000 El Bosque Mexico Championship.

Seabury Hall graduate Alex Chiarella, who earned all-conference honors at the University of San Diego, grabbed a share of ninth. That bolted him into 46th on a season-long points list that ultimately sends its Top 25 to the PGA Tour.

Moanalua alum Brent Grant, who won the 2016 PacWest Championship in his short career at Brigham Young-Hawaii, was a shot back after closing with a 65 Sunday to move up 41 spots. That jumped him from 54th to 30th on the points list.

Grant’s high school teammate John Oda, an All-American at UNLV, had a bad weekend, but dropped just four spots to 17th on the list. And ‘Iolani graduate Lorens Chan, an honorable mention All-American at UCLA, tied for 51st and is now 149th.

Any player at the Burns — played last month at Wailua — would love to be in their golf shoes in a few years, or less. Many of the women at the Thompson Invitational, coming up Tuesday and Wednesday at Kaneohe Klipper, are striving to find their way to the LPGA.

The most direct trail to the tours is through college.

That makes UH freshman Kotaru Murata’s accomplishments in February significant. He was the Big West Golfer of the Month after a pair of Top-10 finishes at the Amer Ari and Burns Intercollegiate tournaments.

Murata was a combined 13 under par in events that featured some 20 teams ranked in the Top 50. He beat every Big West golfer in the fields, and 15 nationally ranked players at the Amer Ari.

The native of Matsuyama, Japan, couldn’t do that last fall, after coming to Manoa from Heritage Academy, partner school of the International Junior Golf Academy in South Carolina. Junior teammate Kanata Irei and Wahine sophomore Haruka Shintani also went there.

Murata has worked on his preparation since, “gathering information” during practice rounds to help him avoid trouble and know when to be aggressive.

“When I’m nervous, it’s not easy to calm myself down and I tend to make a wrong decision,” he says, “so making plans in advance can prevent it.”

He has also focused on not focusing the entire round, starting conversations about anything but golf when it is comfortable so he can “refresh his mind” and not wear out mentally. Physically, he has prevented fatigue by “grinding in the gym.”

“His game was always there, it was a matter of feeling comfortable and being able to excel …,” says UH coach Ronn Miyashiro, in his 22nd season. “Some time at home over Christmas helped him as far as really being comfortable where he’s at and allowing him to focus on what he needed to.

“And also experience — you can’t replicate play against high D-I teams until you play and we’re at as high a level as you can probably get with our schedule. That’s paid off.”

Miyashiro is looking for more players to shoot Murata’s numbers consistently in a season where Hawaii’s best finish is third to last. Junior Justin Arcano’s stroke average of 74.6 is a full two shots higher than Murata and no one else is below 75.

The Rainbows are on the road the rest of the season. The Wahine will also host the Anuenue Spring Break Classic the end of this month at Kapalua, then head to the Big West Championship on the “ninth island” of Las Vegas.

They have been extremely balanced so far, but have yet to finish better than fourth against a less challenging schedule. Junior Tyra Tonkham was fourth individually at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational in the fall. She leads the team with a 76.1 scoring average, with Sahara Washington, Shintani and Megan Ratcliffe — one of two seniors with Malia Ebersberger — all within a stroke.

The nice thing is everybody on the team can go low,” says third-year coach Stephen Bidne. “Now it’s a matter of getting four to do it the same round.”

Hawaii’s best finish since winning the inaugural Thompson Invitational in 1986 was third in 2005. That gives them something to shoot for next week against 16 opponents that include fourth-ranked Arizona State, Ohio State, North Carolina State and Osaka Gakuin.

They have the home course on their side.

“The scores are typically pretty high at Klipper compared to other events,” Bidne says. “Other teams are not used to Bermuda grass and the wind. The back nine is really tricky so we have to continue to play smart … make sure our mistakes are just bogey.’

Hawaii’s Division II teams will get to play at Waikoloa Kings’ in the PacWest Conference Championships, April 20-22. Last time that tournament was here, BYU-Hawaii won the men’s title at Turtle Bay in its final year of athletic competition.