UH leads after the first day of college tourney
Hawaii’s Masuda on top in Anuenue Classic at Kapalua Bay Course
KAPALUA — The University of Hawaii women’s golf team plays four tournaments each academic year in the 50th state, but perhaps none is more important to the program than the Anuenue Spring Break Classic at the Kapalua Bay Course.
Hawaii is leading the event at 2-over 290, six strokes in front of 29th-ranked Louisville. Kaci Masuda, a UH junior from Pearl City, Oahu, leads the individual race by a stroke at 3-under 69.
Hawaii has not won a women’s team title since the 2015 Hobble Creek Classic in Utah and has just three team titles in its history as a program.
“It’s beautiful out here, the course is in great shape, the greens are great and obviously the girls are playing really good, too, which is an added bonus,” first-year coach Stephen Bidne said. “This is a good course. I mean, the wind can whip out here, so you have to be very patient out there. . . . We did a really good job.”
UH is hosting the event for the sixth time — Bidne and Masuda each know how crucial the event is as the final tuneup for the Big West Conference tournament April 15-17 in Irvine, Calif.
“It is very important, it is like a warmup for Big West, and of course, we want to play the best that we can when we play the Big West,” Masuda said after posting the only round under 70, which left her in the lead by one stroke. “Just shooting low always is pretty nice, especially since we’ve been working so hard for all this.”
Masuda reflected on her round that finished with a flurry — three birdies in the final four holes, including a 1-foot tap-in birdie on 17 and a 30-foot birdie on 18.
“I feel like I played pretty well today compared to the past times I’ve played here,” Masuda said. “I was pretty consistent with my short game. I was sticking pins all day, which was pretty nice. (A win here) would be sweet.
“This course is pretty tough, the competitors here are pretty tough as well. I would be very fortunate to win this.”
Bidne became the 13th coach in UH history after four seasons at Northern Colorado, his alma mater.
Emma Lower, a UH freshman from Mesa, Ariz., shot 72 and is tied for fifth. Hawaii sophomore Megan Ratcliffe is tied for 10th at 74, and freshman Sahara Washington is one more stroke back in a tie for 17th.
“They’ve been playing really good, especially for being a young team,” Bidne said. “Starting three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior the whole year, so they did a really good job staying patient and really executing our course management.”
The only Maui Interscholastic League graduate in the field is Utah Valley sophomore Kaylee Shimizu. The Baldwin High School graduate parred her first eight holes, but struggled as the wind picked up as the day wore on — most rounds took nearly six hours to complete — and she finished at 8-over 80, good for a tie for 57th.
“It was kind of rough out there, I was missing a lot of putts for par, so that kind of hurt a little bit on the course,” Shimizu said. “I always love coming back to Kapalua and Maui. My family’s here, so it always feels like home.”
Cal Poly’s Sophie Bergland aced the 138-yard 17th with an 8-iron. She was in a tie for seventh at 73.
“It looked good, so I knew it was close,” Bergland said. “But I didn’t know it was in until I checked the hole. It was like 3 feet short of the pin and then rolled in, so it was a pretty good shot.
“That was my first hole-in-one ever, so it was very, very cool. When we saw it was in there we all started freaking out.”
Santa Clara’s Kristin Le, a Punahou graduate, is in a tie for third at 71.
“It was kind of like a throwback when I played junior golf here in Hawaii because we traveled to all the different islands, and I love playing on Maui,” Le said. “It’s nice to be back, I always love coming home.”
The 54-hole event continues today and Wednesday at Kapalua.
* Robert Collias can be reached at rcollias@maui news.com.
Women’s College Golf
Anuenue Spring break classic
Monday’s First-Round Leaders
At Kapalua Bay Course
Team Scores
1 Hawaii 290 +2
2 Louisville 296 +8
3 Oregon State 301 +13
4 Santa Clara 303 +15
5 Long Beach State 304 +16
6 Utah Valley 305 +17
T7 UC Davis 306 +18
T7 Cal Poly 306 +18
T9 UC Irvine 307 +19
T9 CSU Fullerton 307 +19
11 Idaho 309 +21
12 East Tennessee St. 310 +22
13 UC – Riverside 312 +24
Individual Scores
Kaci Masuda Hawaii 69 -3
Ana Margarita Raga UVU 70 -2
Lauren Hartlage Louisville 71 -1
Kristin Le Santa Clara 71 -1
Emma Lower Hawaii 72 E
Holland Shourds LBSU 72 E
Kristin Engle Louisville 73 +1
Sophie Bergland Cal Poly 73 +1
Avery French UC Irvine 73 +1
Hannah Facchini UC River 74 +2
Susie Cavanagh OSU 74 +2
Courtney Sharkey CSUF 74 +2
Olivia Cason Louisville 74 +2
Megan Ratcliffe Hawaii 74 +2
Breanne Jones UC Irvine 74 +2
Madison Wood UC Davis 74 +2
Michelle Kim Idaho 75 +3
Olivia Benzin OSU 75 +3
Elsa Lundquist CSUF 75 +3
Sahara Washington Hawaii 75 +3
Ellie Slama OSU 76 +4
Nicole Schroeder OSU 76 +4
Hee Ying Loy ETSU 76 +4
Hannah Sun Davis 76 +4
Justine Lauer UVU 76 +4
Samantha Hutchison Davis 76 +4
Haley Tygret LBSU 76 +4
Ankita Kedlaya ETSU 77 +5
Pauline Welker CSUF 77 +5
Sophie Hausmann Idaho 77 +5
Yoonhee Kim Davis 77 +5
Chloe Wong Santa Clara 77 +5
Cara Barker LBSU 77 +5
Emily Sumner Santa Clara 77 +5
Caroline Cantlay Cal Poly 77 +5
Rei Nakatani Davis 77 +5
Janet Yeo UC Irvine 77 +5
Christine Danielsson Davis 77 +5
K. Sararat ETSU 78 +6
Valeria Patino Idaho 78 +6
Molly Skapik Louisville 78 +6
K. Moreno Santa Clara 78 +6
Jamie Harada Cal Poly 78 +6
Amanda Minni OSU 78 +6
Tyra Tonkham Hawaii 78 +6
Kaley In UC Irvine 78 +6
Desiree Gillaspy Cal Poly 78 +6
Jacqueline Twitty Louisville 79 +7
Jakeishya Le UC – River 79 +7
Hailey White UC – River 79 +7
Laura Gerner Idaho 79 +7
Tereza Melecka ETSU 79 +7
Maria Davis LBSU 79 +7
Sabrina Li UC Irvine 79 +7
Jennifer Yu LBSU 79 +7
Carly Dehlin UVU 79 +7
Kendall Gray Idaho 80 +8
Hana Furuichi UC – River 80 +8
Jacqui Ngo UC Irvine 80 +8
Kaylee Shimizu UVU 80 +8
Sarah Busey Santa Clara 80 +8
Brittany Farrell CSUF 81 +9
Krista Twet UC – River 81 +9
Isabella Lesa UVU 81 +9
M. Muehlbauer Cal Poly 81 +9
Felicia Medalla CSUF 82 +10
Yeji Ahn ETSU 86 +14
Mari Nishiura OSU 86 +14
Lauren Kirkwood Hawaii 91 +19