LIHUE — With three holes left in the final round, Texas A&M sophomore Chandler Phillips and Santa Clara junior Hayden Shieh were tied at 12-under-par. Phillips then birdied on each of those last holes to clinch the individual championship of
LIHUE — With three holes left in the final round, Texas A&M sophomore Chandler Phillips and Santa Clara junior Hayden Shieh were tied at 12-under-par.
Phillips then birdied on each of those last holes to clinch the individual championship of the John A. Burns Intercollegiate on Friday at the Wailua Golf Course.
“My coach told me, I think it was the 14th, that I was only one (stroke) ahead. I was like, ‘Oh, all right. I need to get my stuff together,’” Phillips said Friday. “Just kind of battled until the end.”
Phillips finished the three-day tournament 15-under-par 201 (67-66-68). Shieh stayed at 12-under-par 204 (71-66-67) to place second.
“Today, I just grinded it out,” Phillips. “At first, I wasn’t hitting very well. Everything wasn’t going great, then finished with three birdies in a row on my last three holes — pretty clutch. Other than that, I managed. It’s just a good feeling.”
University of Virginia took home the team championship with a collective score of 29-under par 835.
Texas A&M was second with a score of 25-under-par 839, and UNLV was third at 24-under-par 840.
“I think it was a continuation of the fall. We had a really good fall season,” said Virginia junior Danny Walker, who was the team’s leading scorer with 10-under-par 206 (69-71-66) and was tied with two others — Cal sophomore Collin Morikawa and UNLV sophomore Harry Hall — for third place individually.
“I think this was an opportunity to come out and show that the fall wasn’t a fluke — that we’re a really solid team,” Walker continued. “It was a really good week for us.”
Tournament host University of Hawaii slid one spot in the final day to finish 17th out of 18 with a total score 42-over-par 906.
“It’s just, like I’ve said every day, at this point in time you kind of take everything and go with it as far as experience with these guys,” said UH men’s golf coach Ronn Miyashiro. “I hate to say, but the realism is that my expectations can’t be that high because these kids don’t have the experience in playing college tournaments. For some of them, this is the first time playing this season.
“There’s still a learning curve. You always wish things would be faster, but the realism is that it’s not sometimes. So, there is disappointment on their part. But at the end of the day, as long as you take away something from this and are able to learn and improve on it the next time we get out there, then it will be good.”
UH’s leading golfers after the three days are junior Chayutpol “Smart” Kittirattanapaiboon who was 3-over par 219 (72-73-74) and sophomore Cameron Kaneko who was 4-over-par 220 (72-73-75)
“The two of them, Smart’s a junior now. He’s played a number of tournaments. And Cam played with us all last year, and he’s played extensively in our lineup. The experience for them, it’s a good thing,” Miyashiro said. “As a whole, we’re an even-par shooting kind of team. For us to compete, we all got to shoot even-par. We can’t have a few who are around even and then high-70s the rest of the way. That’s the kind of stuff we got to clean up.”
UH senior and Kauai High School alumnus Justin “Pono” Tokioka finished 9-over-par 225 (72-80-73). Hawaii sophomore and Kapaa High alum Bryden Salvador was 29-over-par 245 (78-78-89).
“I tried to keep positive,” Tokioka said. “Golf is really hard. You have to be really patient. I just wanted to go out and play and enjoy the experience. It’s great to be No. 1 on my team. It’s the first time I’m No. 1 on my team in four years. I felt a little bit pressured, but I really enjoyed the experience.”
Tokioka added finishing his last collegiate tournament on his home island was “bittersweet.”
“It’s the last time I’ll be playing here, and the last time my mom and dad can watch me play in a college tournament,” he said. “I’m so happy I had the opportunity to play here.”
Leaderboard
Final Round
Wailua Golf Course
Par 72; 6,991 yards
Team
1. Virginia, -29 (835)
2. Texas A&M, -25 (839)
3. UNLV, -24 (840)
4. Brigham Young, -8 (856)
T5. California, -4 (860)
T5. Santa Clara, -4 (860)
7. Arizona, -1 (863)
8. Washington, +4 (868)
T9. Texas-El Paso, +5 (869)
T9. New Mexico, +5 (869)
11. Grand Canyon, +10 (874)
12. Kennesaw State, +12 (876)
13. Utah, +18 (882)
14. North Dakota State, +21 (885)
15. Washington State, +32 (896)
16. Northern Colorado, +35 (899)
17. Hawaii, +42 (906)
18. Hawaii-Hilo, +61 (925)
Individual Top 10
1. Chandler Phillips, Texas A&M, -15 (67-66-68)
2. Hayden Shieh, Santa Clara, -12 (71-66-67)
T3. Collin Morikawa, California, -10 (71-66-69)
T3. Harry Hall, UNLV, -10 (71-70-65)
T3. Danny Walker, Virginia, -10 (69-71-66)
6. Jordan Gumberg, Arizona, -9 (66-72-69)
7. Shintaro Ban, UNLV, -8 (68-72-68)
8. Jimmy Stanger, Virginia, -7 (62-74-73)
9. Kavan Eubank, Texas A&M, -6 (69-69-72)
T10. Patrick Fishburn, Brigham Young, -5 (68-72-71)
T10. Andrew Orischak, Virginia, -5 (71-69-71)
University of Hawaii
Top 5 contributed to team score
1. Justin Tokioka, +9 (72-80-73)
2. Cameron Kaneko, +4 (72-73-75)
3. Samuel Schwartz, +14 (80-72-78)
4. Nicholaus Nelson, +19 (76-77-82)
5. Trevor Hirata, +22 (78-79-81)
Taiga Iwasa, +23 (77-81-81)
Chayutpol Kittirattanapaiboon, +3 (72-73-74)
Desmond Mello, +23 (83-78-78)
Bryden Salvador, +29 (78-78-89)
Shane Snow, +31 (81-85-81)
Full results at golfstat.com
