Joshua Hayashida just kept climbing.

Whether traversing Oahu Country Club’s hilly layout or navigating through the late rounds of the 114th Manoa Cup bracket, Hayashida seemed to be working uphill for much of his final 74 holes in the state amateur match-play championship.

His path appeared steepest 28 holes into Saturday’s open division final when 17-year-old Kihei Akina, one of the nation’s top junior golfers, went 4 up with just eight holes left.

But as the finalists made the hike up OCC’s most vertical stretch, Hayashida mustered a remarkable burst to reach the summit of the state’s oldest golf tournament.

After Akina opened up his widest margin of the match with a birdie on OCC’s 10th hole, Hayashida won the next six consecutive holes — going 3 under over that run — and closed out a 2-and-1 victory with a par on No. 17.

“It’s a mix of shock and, ‘I did it, I actually won this tournament,’ ” Hayashida said of the moment he sealed the title in his fifth Manoa Cup appearance. “This is surreal for me.”

Akina, a two-time Utah high school state champion ranked fifth in the country by the National High School Golf Association, was 3 up through Saturday’s first 18 holes and held off Hayashida’s charge early in the second round to maintain a cushion going into the back nine.

With Akina holding a commanding lead, Hayashida chipped into the deficit with a par on the par-3 11th then charged back with deft wedge shots to set up birdies at No. 12 and 13.

Hayashida caught Akina with a par on No. 14 and took his first lead of the match at No. 15 when a chip settled within a foot of the pin for another gimme birdie.

He went 2 up on the par-3 16th and another par at No. 17 capped a match that featured 22 status changes over the morning and afternoon’s 35 holes.

“I wasn’t really thinking, just let my instincts and let my practice take over,” Hayashida said of the comeback.

“The momentum totally shifted once I won 13, I think that’s when it turned. But at the same time I was just like, ‘you know what, I’m just going to keep doing what got me here.’ Just breathing, just totally not thinking about anything.”

Akina, 17, saw a chance to extend the match slip away when his lengthy birdie putt on 17 hit the back of the cup and bounced out in a sequence that seemed to epitomize his final seven holes.

Hayashida, 19, won the 2022 state high school championship while attending Hawaii Baptist Academy, about a half mile down Pali Highway from OCC and completed his freshman season with the University of Hawaii men’s golf program in May. He became the first Rainbow Warrior to earn the celebratory plunge into the club’s pool since Nainoa Calip’s Manoa Cup victory in 2014.

Hayashida’s closing surge on Saturday punctuated his third comeback win over a 24-hour span in the Hawaii State Golf Association’s marquee event.

Hayashida was 3 down with five holes to play in his quarterfinal match with Keanu Akina — Kihei’s older brother and his caddie for the finale — on Friday morning before rallying to win in 19 holes.

That afternoon, he went to No. 18 down 1 to Evan Kawai in his first appearance in the semifinals. He drained an 8-foot birdie putt to extend the match then won it on the 20th hole by holing a chip from 25 yards out for an eagle.

Hayashida was admittedly ticked off after missing a short birdie putt on No. 18 to go 3 down to close Saturday’s morning round. After about an hour break, he opened the second by sailing his drive well to the right, prompting a search by the players and spectators.

Hayashida’s father, Glen, finally spotted the ball amid a thick patch of grass and Joshua went on to save par and halve the hole.

“I was just about to head back (to the tee) or even concede the hole,” Hayashida said. “But once we found it I was like, ‘Hey we can make par here,’ and I just hit an incredible lob from 45 yards out.”

He closed to 1 down with birdies on No. 2 and 3, but Akina maintained then extended the lead before Hayashida stormed back.

Hayashida’s fortitude and touch on and around the greens were traits Zachary Sagayaga, his UH teammate and caddie for the tournament’s last three days, had seen during the fall and spring seasons with the Warriors.

“He just let the putter start flowing and that’s his biggest asset,” Sagayaga said. “When he gets the putter rolling he’s hard to beat. Nobody can really stop him from there.

“He had two top 10s during the UH season, so that shows how good of a player he is, and we’re playing against the best teams in the country.”

While Hayashida celebrated his first Manoa Cup title, Sagayaga went into the pool for the third straight summer. Sagayaga caddied for two-time champion Peter Jung in the 2021 and ’22 finals and improved to 10-0 as a Manoa Cup caddie with Hayashida’s title run.

They faced each other in the round of 32 on Wednesday with Hayashida pulling out a 3-and-1 win and they teamed up for the remainder of the week.

“He was amazing,” Hayashida said. “We agreed once we played each other that the loser would caddie. I just couldn’t let Zach go to someone else. He knows my game so well, we think so alike, and he was just a huge asset to my game.”