WAILUA — No. 33 Peter Kuest found four birdies in the wind at the Wailua Golf Course to finish the opening day of the John Burns Intercollegiate in a six-way tie for the lead, Thursday.
After crossing three-under, Kuest of Brigham Young University, the defending individualist, got hit by a boogey on No. 17, but came back with a birdie on No. 18 to end the day, at 69, tying with Jonathan Kang of University of California, Irvine, A. Segundo Oliva Pinto of UNCW, Sam Bennett and Josh Gliege of Texas A&M, and Tommy Kuhl of Illinois.
Kuest and Pinto’s performances helped place their teams in a tie for the lead, BYU and UNCW each finishing at 287, a stroke ahead of Texas A&M who was led by Bennett, and two strokes head of UC Irvine, led by Kang’s 69.
UC Irvine is tied for fourth with New Mexico at 289 who got its lead from Sam Choi carding a two-under 70.
Host University of Hawai‘i finished the opening day at No. 20 with a team-total 304 led by freshman Kotaro Murata who finished the last week’s Amer Ari Intercollegiate in a tie for 10th place.
“He was pretty sketchy at the start,” said UH coach Ronn Miyashiro. “He was two-over in his first two holes.”
Plaugued by four boogeys in his first five holes, the freshman from Japan found his first of three birdies on No. 9 after laying up on a comfortable 30-footer and relying on his short game for his first bird. Murata settled down and went 3-under over a five-hole stretch to finish at 2-over 74, tying with fellow Japan native Katana Irei at 38th place.
The golf tournament play will continue Friday with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. at the Wailua Golf Course. The final day for the Burns Intercollegiate is Saturday with a shotgun start at 8 a.m.
This will include several players that are the University of Hawaii.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
