The University of Hawai’i women’s golf team announced on Apr. 16 that it will host the Big West Championship at the Royal Kā’anapali Course in West Maui from Sunday, April 19 through Tuesday, April 21. This marks the third time the championship will be held on Maui and the fourth and final time Hawai’i serves as host while a member of the Big West Conference.
The event is significant for both the university and participating teams, as it determines which school receives an automatic bid to the NCAA regional field. If an individual champion is not from the winning team, that player also earns entry into a regional.
Hawai’i enters as the No. 7 seed and will play alongside UC Riverside and Cal State Bakersfield in Sunday’s opening round, with tee times scheduled between 12:10 p.m. and 12:50 p.m. The Rainbow Wahine last hosted this tournament in 2016 at Kapalua Bay Course and previously in O’ahu (1993) and Wailea Country Club (1989). Last year, Cal State Fullerton won its first Big West title led by Kaitlyn Zermeno Smith’s individual victory.
Fullerton comes into this year’s tournament ranked highest among nine competing schools at No. 41 nationally, followed by UC Davis (No. 63), UC Irvine (No. 83), Long Beach State (No. 98), Cal Poly (No.100), CSUN (No.120), UH (No.148), UC Riverside (No.164), and Cal State Bakersfield (No.175).
Kā’anapali Golf Course was built in 1962 by Robert Trent Jones Sr., making it one of only two such courses in Hawai’i designed by him; it will play at par-72 over a distance of 6,022 yards for this championship event.
UH’s lineup includes Maline Kraus—who leads with a scoring average of 75.27—Jasmine Wong, Emiko Sverduk, Chloe Ku, Sofina Firouzi, with Kaydence Kim serving as alternate golfer for this competition.
