WAILUA — The University of Hawaii’s men’s golf team finished 21-over 309 after the first round of the 42nd annual John Burns Intercollegiate on Thursday at Wailua Golf Course.
Hawaii is 20th on the team leaderboard.
UH junior and Kapaa High School alumnus Bryden Salvador, playing for Hawaii as an individualist, finished the round 8-over 80.
“The first round was good. Putting, my ball striking, my driving, they were all decent. But sometimes when I let one loose, then it kind of got me wayward,” Salvador said. “Once I made a mistake, it kind of compounded. That led to a bogey or worse. But other than that, I was able to at least shoot the best score that I can after what happened today.
“Overall, the course was playing good. The wind right now is Kona winds. It’s a little bit different from what the regular conditions are,” he continued. “Hopefully tomorrow and the next day, I can improve on the score each and every day more and more and learn from the mistakes.”
Rainbow Warriors junior Cameron Kaneko and freshman Justin Arcano — a Baldwin High School alumnus and Wailuku, Maui native — both finished the round 4-over 76 on the par 72 course to be among UH’s team leaders.
“There were some tough holes out there, but I think overall, a little disappointed with what I ended up shooting today,” Kaneko said. “There was, I’d say, five holes that were playing tough. Then the rest were gettable, but didn’t take advantage of what I needed to.”
UNLV finished atop the team leaderboard Thursday at 18-under 270.
UNLV senior Shintaro Ban finished the round in the individual top spot with a 7-under 65. UNLV’s Harry Hall was tied for second with Arizona’s David Laskin at 5-under 67.
“Very pleased with how we’re doing right now,” Ban said. “We didn’t really finish too strong in the fall semester. We actually had an incoming freshman come in a little early, and he’s doing really good. He’s fitting in really nicely. I think that’s helping our team chemistry. We feel like we can actually go to nationals now. We feel a lot better as a team.”
Ban added about leading on the individual leaderboard: “A lot of us, we’re starting to compete a lot within ourselves. I think last year, we didn’t do that as much. I just feel like we’re actually, a majority of us are shooting under par. It’s good competition. We just want to battle within ourselves. If you can do that, then you should be all right.”
Defending tournament individual champion, Texas A&M junior Chandler Phillips, finished the round tied for seventh place with six other golfers, two of which are also from Texas A&M, at 3-under 69.
On the team leaderboard, Texas A&M is second with a 5-under 283.
“This course, this is the third year straight that I’ve been here. It’s been perfect every time,” Phillips said. “This time, it’s maybe a little bit better than the other times. But other than that, I really want to come back and try to win again — just play like I did last year and see where that puts me.”
On whether being the defending individual champ brings added pressure, Phillips said, “Not really.”
“I just go about it as, this is a new tournament,” he said. “That’s the past. It really doesn’t matter anymore, but it does feel good to come back to a place that you’ve won before and know that you can play really good. Just have that confidence in you. Maybe other people don’t have that, but I feel like I do. I just kind of go about it like that.”
Tournament play continues today at Wailua Golf Course. Shotgun start is scheduled for 8:30 a.m.
