WAILUA — Punahou’s Alex Ching, Baldwin’s Justin Keiley and Kamehameha Schools Kapalama’s Alika Bell are in a three-way tie for the lead heading into the David Ishii Foundation/Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association Boys State Golf Championships’ final round today at
WAILUA — Punahou’s Alex Ching, Baldwin’s Justin Keiley and Kamehameha Schools Kapalama’s Alika Bell are in a three-way tie for the lead heading into the David Ishii Foundation/Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association Boys State Golf Championships’ final round today at the Wailua Golf Course.
Punahou currently holds a 15-shot lead over second-place ‘Iolani in the team standings.
Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion Ching turned in a good front nine — 34 — but started to fall apart on the back.
“I struggled after the front nine,” he said. “I made bogeys all down the stretch coming in.”
Ching is also coming off a weekend in which he and his teammates from Punahou tennis team won the state championships on the Big Island.
Ching struggled with his swing, saying he was a little off and that he needed to work out the kinks if he’s to do well in today’s final round. Ching also wasn’t making his putts. He two-putted most of his holes and only made one putt that was outside of 10 feet.
Ching, Keiley and Bell finished with 71. They were the only three golfers to turn in scores under par.
Matt Kitamori of Waiakea is one stroke back at even-par 72. Levi Miyashiro of host school Kaua‘i High School is two shots off the lead at 73.
T.J. Kua of Kamehameha Schools Kapalama is in a three-way tie at two-over 74. The two-time state runner-up of Lihu‘e said he had mixed feelings about his finish yesterday.
“The things I wanted to do, I didn’t do,” he said. “I wanted to attack the flag more and most of my putts I was hitting too hard.”
Kua made the turn at 38 and finished with 36 on the back.
“I had trouble finding my rhythm. Nothing was working for me. I was hitting my drives everywhere,” he said.
Still, he feels he is in a slightly better position than he has been in for the previous years. The last two state tournaments, he headed into the final day sharing the lead. Since that’s not the case now, he said this just might be better for him.
“I’m not in the lead so there’s nobody chasing me,” he said, later adding that he can only get better today. “This is my last year so I want to end my school year with a bang.”
Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation champion Cory Oride, who recently advanced to the U.S. Open Sectional Qualifier at the Lake Merced Club in Daly City, Calif., is at three-over 73.
Kaua‘i’s Wiley Yoshioka sits at 79. He was placed in an unfortunate situation when he had to take a two-stroke penalty on his back nine. He was charged with a lost ball and the stroke. Witnesses said they saw a visitor, who was playing on the course, picked up Yoshioka’s ball. When approached multiple times, the man denied picking up anything and Yoshioka was forced to take the penalty.
Punahou en0joyed a good state tournament week, last week. It opened by winning and setting a new team record in the girls golf tournament, also at the Wailua Golf Course, both its girls and boys tennis teams won the state titles on the Big Island, the boys judo team shared the state crown with Pearl City High School, the Buffanblu also girls water polo and baseball titles over the weekend.
Punahou has not won a state team championship in golf since 1997.
David Ishii Foundation/
HHSAA Boys State Golf Championships
May 13, Wailua Golf Course
Team Leaderboard
Punahou 71-73-74-76 — 294
‘Iolani 75-77-77-80 — 309
Kamehameha S. Kapalama 71-74-81-85 — 311
Waiakea 72-79-80-80 — 311
Baldwin 71-75-83-83 — 312
Kaua‘i 73-75-79-85 — 312
Individual Leaderboard
Alika Bell (Kamehameha Kapalama) 38-33 — 71 Justin Keiley (Baldwin) 35-36 — 71 Alex Ching (Punahou) 34-37 — 71 Matt Kitamori (Waiakea) 35 37 — 72 Levi Miyashiro (Kaua‘i) 35-38 — 73 Bradley Shigezawa (Punahou) 36-37 — 73 John David Nako (Punahou) 39-35 — 74 Jared Sawada (Mililani) 38-36 — 74 T.J. Kua (Kamehameha Kapalama) 38-36 — 74
David Saka (Moanalua) 38-37 — 75 Ryan Yoshida (Hawai‘i Baptist) 39-36 — 75
Cory Oride (Kaua‘i) 41-34 — 75 Eric Emmil (Lahainaluna) 37 -38 — 75 Joshua Hemens (Baldwin) 35-40 — 75 Andrea Topping (Kapolei) 36 -39 — 75 Taeksoo Kim (St. Anthony) 37-38 — 75 David Fink (‘Iolani) 37-38 — 75
Mikah Obrero (Hawai‘i Baptist) 36-39 — 75 Jonathan Keiley (Baldwin) 39-36 — 75
Alexander Chu (Maryknoll) 39 -37 — 76
BradleyYosaitis (Punahou) 35-41 — 76 Alex Wong St. Anthony) 37-39 — 76 Nick Kim (Kaiser) 36-40 — 76 Ken Takushi (Maui) 3 7-40 — 77 Corey Kozuma (‘Iolani) 38 -39 — 77 Naino Calip ( Kamehameha Hawai‘i) 42-35 — 77 Robb Inouye (‘Iolani) 38 -39 — 77 Raymond Fortucci (Kahuku) 38-39 — 77 Steve Kim (Pearl City) 37-41 — 78 Oliver Lam (McKinley) 39- 39 — 78
Evan Nagano (Pearl City) 39-39 — 78 Marc Arakaki Kalani 40 -39 — 79 Andrew Kunitomo (Kamehameha Maui) 40 39 79 Wiley Yoshioka (Kaua‘i) 39 -40 — 79 Alex Omer (Seabury Hall) 41 -38 — 79 Dalen Yamauchi (Waiakea) 39-40 — 79
• Notes:
• The individual winner will be determined by a two-round score and will be decided today.
• The team title will be determined by a combined score from the best four scores from its golfers.
• Last year’s title team: Kamehameha Schools Kapalama
