WAIKOLOA — UCLA’s Cole Madey fired a 7-under 65 second round and teammate Jonathan Garrick recorded a 6-under 66 to lead the Bruins to the top of the leaderboard at the 25th annual Amer Ari at the Waikoloa Kings’ Course
WAIKOLOA — UCLA’s Cole Madey fired a 7-under 65 second round and teammate Jonathan Garrick recorded a 6-under 66 to lead the Bruins to the top of the leaderboard at the 25th annual Amer Ari at the Waikoloa Kings’ Course on Friday.
Garrick and Madey are tied atop the individual leaderboard with matching two-day totals of 9-under 135. The Bruin duo have a one-stroke lead on Stanford’s Maverick McNealy, Oklahoma States’ Zachary Olsen, USC’s Rico Hoey and Aaron Wise from Oregon.
Oregon State’s Conner Kumpula, the first round leader, slowed slightly with a 71, but is still well within striking distance entering the final round with a two day total of 7-under 137.
Stanford, which led the tournament after the first day, now sits in sixth after a 284 second round and 14-under 562 for the tournament.
Auburn shot slightly better, but still underwhelming in the second round, managing three strokes better with a 290, for a total of 7-over 583. The top ranked Tigers are in 15th place. Michael Johnson (2-under 142) is the only Auburn golfer to shoot par or better in both rounds.
Cameron Kaneko has led the way for the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The freshman out of Marina High School in Huntington Beach, California turned in a 2-under 70 in his second round.
“It was an up and down round — a lot of scrambling all day. The short game saved me a lot and I was even par going into my last hole, but was able to pick up an eagle,” Kaneko said. “As a team, we dropped a few strokes and would have liked to have it a little different, but I think all-around we are playing pretty solid.”
The Rainbow Warriors combined for a 291 second round and are currently in tied for 12th place (4-over 580).
As for the weather in a place where wind has become a notorious game-changer, Kaneko wouldn’t mind if it decided to show up or stay home.
“Us being from here I would say we want the wind to pick up,” he said. “But the weather is nice right now, so we really wouldn’t mind either way.”
After a hot start, UH-Hilo fell back to 17th place with a 299 second round and a two-day team total of 13-over 589. Ric Yamamoto leads the way at 1-over 145.
“We had a good day on Thursday with a couple of people under par. Very competitive. We kind of ballooned to an 11-over score today. The conditions were a little tougher,” UH-Hilo assistant coach Ron Takahashi said. “This is an experience for our boys to see how it happens in DI. This is great practice for us and will help going forward.”
Also for the Vulcans, Kyeton Littel is a stroke back (71-75) of Yamamoto and tied for 61st place. Jared Kinoshita (74-77) and David Tottori (78-73) are tied in 92nd place at 7-over 151. Casey Tamura is in 109th place at 12-over 156 (74-82).
The final round tees off at 7:30 a.m. Saturday.
Vulcans split
The University of Hawaii at Hilo split their opening games at the Desert Stinger softball tournament in Nevada, beating Regis University 8-3 and falling to Cal State San Bernardino 8-5.
“The kids were patient at the plate and we had a lot of really aggressive base runners in the first game,” UH-Hilo coach Peejay Brun said in a release. “Our pitchers did an awesome job and didn’t give up a walk.”
Danielle Wilson picked up the win against Regis (4-3), striking out two and allowing five hits and three runs in five innings.
Brittany Huff had two RBI singles among her three hits and scored twice, and Victoria Garcia had a two-run single that gave the Vulcans a 6-3 lead and finished with three RBIs.
In the loss to the Coyotes (3-0), Wilson lasted just 1 1/3 innings, and Billi Derleth walked five batters in 3 1/3 innings.
Cristina Menjivar collected an RBI double and had three hits and Garcia was 2 for 4.
Emily T. Gail and the Hawaii Tribune-Herald contributed to this report
