UHH junior Keith Ng has played in just three tournaments, but the transfer from the University of British Columbia is quickly building a case as the school’s greatest golfer ever.
Ng parred the 17th hole and birdied 18 to edge Hawaii Pacific rival Keita Okada by a stroke to win the Western Washington Invite on Tuesday at Blaine, Wash., joining former Vulcans Jared Kinoshita and Blake Snyder with two titles in their entire careers.
Four others hold the UHH record with three tournament wins in their careers: Nick Mason, Dalen Yamauchi, James Hall, and Logan Goulding. Ng still has five more tourneys this season and all of next season.
Ng finished the two-day, 36-hole tourney with a 1-under 71-72—143 total to sneak past Okada, who had a 70-74—144 total.
Okada, who won the PacWest title last spring as a freshman, was ahead by a stroke after the first round, but Ng balanced out his day with five birdies and five bogeys and put an exclamation point on his round with a tricky 10-foot downhill putt.
Ng won the season-opening HPU shootout, and Okada OVERSET FOLLOWS:took the following week’s Saint Martin’s Invitational, setting the stage for the PacWest’s two best young golfers in an early rubber match.
“Keith really grinded it out. He wasn’t perfect. He made saves when he needed to and converted birdies when he needed to,” UHH assistant Sean Maekawa said. “He just grinded it out.”
Ng’s defining characteristic isn’t his ability to make clutch 3-foot left to right break putts but his consideration to share the spotlight.
“It was definitely fun this week,” he said. “I worked pretty hard after the HPU win with coach Kevin (Ginoza), coach Sean, and coach Earl (Tamiya) on different areas of the game but more on the mental part of the game. Coach Sean has been helping me with breathing techniques, to stay in the moment and make sure I focus. I tried to do the things that I can do. Those were my main goals this week.”
UHH junior Andrew Otani had a 2-over 76-70—146 total to help the Vulcans finish tied for third in the nine-team field, behind Chico State and Montana State Billings.
Otani had five birdies and placed third. Dustin Franko was tied for 14th with a 6-over 76-74—150 total; Noah Lau was tied for 42nd with a 16-over 83-77—160 total, and Nick Gomez was 47th with a 19-over 83-80—163 total.
“We played really good and hung in there,” Maekawa said. “We’re pretty happy about that. The boys learned a lot from their other rounds up here, and we were able to execute and finish strong.
“Tied for third does a lot for our confidence. The boys know they can hang with anybody and how they finished proved it to themselves. We had some pretty strong teams up here, and I’m glad we were able to play the way we did.”
Ng doesn’t see Okada, a freshman from Japan, as a rival but rather as a Hawaii compadre.
“Keita is obviously a good player, a great ball-striker,” he said. “It’s fun to see two kids from Hawaii do well on the mainland. We joke around. It’s fun, a fun atmosphere. It’s pretty cool to watch his game to see what he’s good at.”
Obviously with the Ryder Cup over, Ng had a few sad thoughts about it but also summed up what he’s all about.
“Being Canadian, I always root for Europe,” he said. “They got battered this week, which is fine. Mike Weir, who’s Canadian, is my favorite player. He’s got sort of the game I emulate. He won on the champions tour recently. He still grinds and stays in his lane.
“That’s what I try to do, play my game.”
