WAIKOLOA — University of Southern California freshman Kyle Suppa picked a good day for his best round at the Waikoloa Kings’ Course. The Punahou grad and Honolulu native fired an 8-under par 64 for a share of the individual lead after the first round of the Amer Ari college golf tournament on Thursday.
WAIKOLOA — University of Southern California freshman Kyle Suppa picked a good day for his best round at the Waikoloa Kings’ Course. The Punahou grad and Honolulu native fired an 8-under par 64 for a share of the individual lead after the first round of the Amer Ari college golf tournament on Thursday.
“I’ve played here a lot. It’s always a lot of fun,” Suppa said, who estimated his best round at the Tom Weiskopf-designed course previously was a 67. “It was playing pretty easy with the lack of wind. I hit my irons real well and made a few nice putts.”
Teeing off at hole No. 14 after the shotgun start, Suppa set a scorching pace, birdieing three of the first four holes and rolling in a 30-foot eagle putt on the par 5 18th hole. Bogeys on holes No. 9 and 10 prevented a perfect day, but Suppa finished strong with a birdie on his final hole.
“I wasn’t playing that great last semester, but I’ve been working on a few swing changes and it seems to be working well,” Suppa said. “This is the best I’ve played in a while.”
Suppa is tied for the individual lead with Arizona State’s Jared duToit at 8-under. TCU’s Stefano Mazzoli is a shot back at 7-under.
Suppa is golfing as an individual, which means his score doesn’t count toward USC’s team total. Despite that, the Trojans sit in second place at 18-under 273, three strokes off leader Texas Tech (21-under 270).
“I gave them a little bit of advice, but a lot of these guys have played here before,” Suppa said. “I’m not surprised. We have a really good team.”
The No. 17 ranked Red Raiders rode a pair of 6-under scorecards from Fredrik Nilehn and Federico Zucchetti to the top of the leaderboard. Rounding out the top three squads is No. 6 Stanford, led by Maverick McNealy at 4-under. McNealy was the recipient of the McCormack Medal in 2016, which is presented annually by The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews to the world’s top amateur golfer.
Oregon’s Wyndham Clark, who was ranked No. 1 by the NCAA heading into the spring season, shot a 2-under 72 in the first round.
UH-Hilo is hosting the prestigious event for the 26th year, and the bevy of low scores didn’t surprise UH-Hilo assistant coach Ron Takahashi one bit.
“That’s the caliber of play we have here. It’s some of the best college players in the nation,” Takahashi said. “It’s expected.”
The Vulcans didn’t have a good day on the course, finishing at the bottom of the leaderboard. No golfer finished under par, but Takahashi was optimistic.
“We have a whole new team — a young team,” he said. “With the competition out there, they were nervous. But I don’t think we embarrassed ourselves out there and made it through the round.”
There are 21 teams in the tourney, including the two teams that battled it out in the NCAA Championship last spring in defending national champion Oregon and Texas. Four squads currently ranked in the top 10 are also in Waikoloa, along with five of the top 10 players in the NCAA rankings.
The tournament has built a reputation of attracting some of the best golfers in the nation, with names like Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Matt Kuchar among the cast of former greats to come to the Big Island.
Today’s second round start is slated for 7:30 a.m.