The Las Vegas weather was hot, Hilo’s Dysen Park said, but the wind made it manageable.
Besides, Park was so sizzling with his golf game, the triple-digit temperatures probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
The 13-year put a memorable stamp on his stay at the World Stars of Junior Golf Championship, carding a 3-under 69, the second time he’s beaten par in a tournament.
He finished 12th in the boys 13-14 division at 229 after opening with consecutive 80s.
“My putter wasn’t working the first two round rounds, and I was not hitting very (many) greens,” Park said in a text to the Tribune-Herald. “Today was just one of those days that everything drops.”
Especially on at Paiute Golf Club’s back nine, which served as Park’s first nine holes Thursday.
The Waiakea Intermediate eighth-grader opened with back-to-back birdies before a birdie binge that saw him pick up four birdies during a six-hole stretch.
His most memorable hole came on the par-4 15th, which features split fairways. His drive went far left into the rough.
“It was a pretty remarkable birdie,” Park said. “I decided to take an 8-iron with bunkers in the front and wind into my face and I launched it into the air and it went inside 3 feet.”
After a bogey-free back nine, he played the front at 1-over, tying for the second best round of the day.
In the older boys division, Waiakea junior Aidan Oki closed with a 10-over 82 to finish at 243 and in tie for 19th.
Hilo High’s Chanelle Hwang made an eagle on the par-3 11th during a 76 that left her at 246 and in 14th in girls 13-14.
• Waiakea graduate Britney Yada shot a 76 during the opening round of the Symetra Tour’s Danielle Downey Credit Union Classic in Rochester, N.Y.. The projected cutline after the second round was even-par.
Yada, who held a conditional LPGA Tour card in 2017, is playing in her ninth Symetra tournament this season. She’s made three cuts on the developmental tour, with her high finish coming in a tie for 19th in Indiana in June.
