On a day defined somewhat by his steady iron play, UH-Hilo’s Keith Ng wasn’t particularly thrilled with his tee shot on the par-3 third. His bunker shot wasn’t much better, but sinking a 21-foot birdie served as a cooling effect in the hot desert air.
“I put some pace on it and it went in,” Ng said. “It got me going, and that calmed me down.”
The feeling proved to be contagious Monday for the Vulcans and players from Hawaii schools at the Pacific West Conference championships. Ng fired a 3-under 69 for a share of the lead in Litchfield Park, Ariz., boosting UHH to a two-shot advantage in the team race after the first of three rounds.
“The whole day, we were trying to limit mistakes, because it’s going to be a long week, it’s going to be hot,” Ng said. “Conditions weren’t exactly easy.”
The thermometer hovered above 95 degrees in the Phoenix area, but the scoring conditions, with little wind, were “pretty gettable,” Vuls assistant coach Kevin Ginoza said.
Making the turn at even-par, Ng played bogey-free golf the rest of the way to reach the top of the leaderboard along with Hawaii Pacific’s Keith Okada, the defending champ, and Chaminade’s Ryan Shields Vega. Matthew Watkins of Academy of Art and HPU’s Ryan Torres were at 1-under.
UHH’s Dustin Franko flirted with shooting under par until a double-bogey on No. 18 left him at 1-over in a tie for eighth. Andrew Otani, the only Vulcan who had played Wigwam Golf Course previous to the first round, shot 75 and was tied for 10th. Otani also made the turn at even-par but was tripped up by a triple-bogey on the par-3 11th.
Ng, who took home two medalist honors in the fall and tied for first once, did a better job of staying out of trouble. He said his key was “not putting myself in poor positions.”
“My irons were definitley a little better than I’ve been hitting the past couple of weeks,” Ng said.
Noah Lau’s 76 also counted for UHH — Nicholas Gomez’s 78 did not — which was 5-over in the six-team race. The Sharks were 7-over and Dominican was 11-over.
In the women’s tournament, Tia Kualii shot a 76 and was two strokes behind leader Claire Shubin of Dominican, and Kaelyn Uchida was another shot back. All four of UHH’s scorers were Waiakea alums — Kailey Oki and Tori Hironaga each carded 82s. Carli Shimokihara had an 88.
At 27-over, the Vuls were tied for fifth, nine strokes behind first-place Biola.
The Vulcans haven’t made noise at the PacWest championships since sweeping the team titles in 2014. Kristen Sawada won the women’s title that year.
“We’re going to keep our heads down and do our thing and let the scores add up at the end of the day,” said Ng, who is trying to become the first men’s PacWest medalist from his school since Blake Snyder in 2011.