UH-Hilo golfer Dustin Franko has been a busy guy, doing more than the typical student or athlete.
The junior, from British Columbia, was named to the All-PacWest first team while teammate Andrew Otani landed on the third team on Tuesday. Franko is also at the NCAA West/South Central Regional championships in DuPont, Wash.
He was practicing on Tuesday but most importantly, preparing for finals this week when the tourney runs Thursday through Saturday.
Franko had a season average of 72.93, finished second at two tourneys, and earned PacWest all-tourney honors with a sixth-place finish.
Otani had a season average of 75.50 and was the PacWest freshman of the year in 2018-19.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” said Franko when reached by cellphone. “I’m looking forward to this week. It’s been a busy one. I’ve got a lot of finals.
“My season was pretty successful, on paper anyway. We saw a glimpse of our team’s potential at the PacWest championships. We’ll only get better next year.”
The Vulcans lost by two strokes to Holy Names for the PacWest title. Otherwise, more Vulcans would be golfing with Franko, who’s accompanied by women’s coach Jim DeMello because coach Earl Tamiya couldn’t make the trip, and volunteer coach Sean Maekawa, who’s in his second year.
Blast from the past
In golf circles, Maekawa is an easy name to remember because he’s a member of a very exclusive club. The 2007 Honokaa graduate is the only four-time BIIF champion. He still remembers the feeling of winning the last one in 2007.
“The last one was the best by far,” he said. “I really wanted to complete the four-peat because I knew no one had ever done that before. My nerves were normal, but I just wanted to play like I know how to play and focus during that time.”
After college at Oregon, he played at Q-school, on Canadian Tour qualifiers, and mini-tours in Arizona before returning home, where he works as an assistant pro at Waikoloa Beach Resort.
Maekawa is an authority on making pressure putts or hitting clutch shots with something bigger on the line, like making rent or affording a food bill, than a trip to the NCAA championships. So, basically, he’s been there, done that.
“I just want him to try and stay in the moment, take one shot at a time,” Maekawa said. “He’s fully capable of making nationals.”
He’s watched Franko for two years and described his strength as ball-striking.
“He hits it really good. We just have to keep him in the moment,” Maekawa said. “If he takes it one shot at a time, he’ll do great.”
A ‘bulldog’
DeMello was doing a solid for his friend Tamiya. He’s only known Franko for a short bit but likes what he’s observed so far.
“He’s a good kid, works hard, good student, takes the game seriously,” DeMello said. “He prepares well. I’ve only been around him a couple of days now. We flew over Monday. It’s our off day (Tuesday) and Wednesday we have Covid testing. We were practicing but he said he needs more time to finish his studies.”
Tamiya knows Franko well enough to call him a bulldog, someone who’s got a good head on his shoulders and avoids taking on more water when a bad shot opens a hole somewhere.
“He’s got very good composure. He doesn’t get rattled and doesn’t compound mistakes,” Tamiya said. “A lot of kids will make bogey after bogey. He comes back right away. He’s very level-headed. He’s a bulldog. His real strength is his whole game is pretty solid. He doesn’t make that many mistakes, and his scores are good.”
Funny, when you run a golf program in Hawaii, the recruits often come to you. It begs the question: What kid wouldn’t want to spend four years in college golfing in Hawaii?
“He called me. We saw his numbers and brought him in. He likes living in Hilo,” Tamiya said. “We have another one from Canada (redshirt freshman Jungwan Lee). They both like Hilo.”
Of course, there’s a major difference in recruiting for golf from baseball. The scores clearly state what type of player you are, so Tamiya vets the good scores and discards the ones that look like average duffers.
“It’s amazing how many emails I get from all over the country. When they call, they’re more serious,” Tamiya said. “When the calls come in, it’s a little different. When the numbers are bad, I don’t respond.”
He has one local golfer on his roster, freshman Ethan Hironaga, a 2020 Hilo graduate, whose cousin is Tori Hironaga, a freshman on the women’s team, and a 2019 Waiakea graduate.
“He’s a good boy. He just has to get a mental game at the college level,” Tamiya said. “He’s slowly coming around. He was never exposed to national tournaments, but once he gets more mature he’ll be fine. We’ve been taking him on all the road trips. He has the potential to succeed.”
Northern star
Meanwhile, Franko reflected on his golfing history in British Columbia, where there’s a comparable climate to Hilo.
“It doesn’t snow, so the ground doesn’t freeze, and you can golf year round,” he said. “The province is in the mid 20s. That’s the low 80s. I don’t do Fahrenheit. I’m majoring in business but would like to do something in the golf world. Playing golf would be ideal. If that doesn’t work out, I’d like to get into coaching.
“Other than a two-week rain span, I’d say Hilo has been perfect. It’s equivalent to Vancouver as far as the amount of rain. I’m not used to warm rain. I couldn’t ask for more or want to be anywhere else.”
In his city of Delta, a lot of the meat is shipped from Alberta, so Franko has grown up eating steak and potatoes. But he’s taken a liking to kalua pork cabbage as his go to local Hilo meal.
And yes, Dustin Franko has a good sense of humor and does watch James Franco movies.
“It’s a different spelling, but he’s a good actor,” Franko the golfer said. “He and his brother (Dave) are great. Growing up I liked Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas, similar swings to myself and Tommy Fleetwood, the English golfer.”
Well, if Franko ever switches his major to writing, maybe there’s a golf movie with brothers James and Dave Franco playing against McIlroy, Thomas, and Fleetwood for a bowl of kalua pork cabbage.