January 14, 2025 • by David Tenneson / Photography: Waikoloa Beach Resort
There just aren’t many better ways to shake off the holiday rust than to visit a college golfer’s paradise in Hawaii. Hosted by the University of Hawaii - Hilo (DII golf program), and run by legendary head coach Earl Tamiya since 1991, the Amer Ari Invitational is a favorite destination tournament for some of the top teams in the country, regularly making it one of the strongest fields in the men’s D1 college golf season.
Here, college golf historian David Tenneson looks back at highlights from previous seasons and picks out some interesting stats ahead of this year’s renewal.
This tournament was founded during the 1990-91 season in an agreement between Hawaii-Hilo Athletic Director Bill Trumbo, the University of Hawaii (Manoa), and the TaylorMade golf company. It was inaugurated in January 1991 under the name TaylorMade Big Island Intercollegiate.
The event retained various parts of that title over the years while also including the main tournament course — Waikoloa Beach Resort — up through the 2009 edition.
In 2010, the tournament was renamed in honor of a longtime supporter named Mr Amer Ari (above left, with Waikoloa Beach Director of Golf Kevin Ginoza), the year after his son, Zady, graduated from the UH-Hilo team.
A cool aspect about long-running high-profile events like this one is that you can look back among past tournament results to pick out the names and scores of future collegiate coaches.
The very first playing in 1991 included Jean-Paul Hebert (playing for Texas, now coaching UNLV), Bowen Sargent (NC State alum and long-time Virginia head coach), Derek Freeman (Oklahoma Sooner who coached UCLA to an NCAA team title in 2007), and Jack O’Keefe (Arkansas alum who is now the Director of Golf at Augusta).
There are too many coaches to properly highlight them all here but some others include: Glen Millican, Ryan Donovan, Bill McDonald, Casey Martin, Chris Zambri, Ryan Murphy, Tim Mickelson, Greg Robertson, Josh Gregory, David Inglis, Michael Beard, and Alan Bratton, who earned his first career victory here in 1992 while playing at Oklahoma State and returned to coach the Cowboys to several team titles post-2014.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of an epic Amer Ari where Tiger Woods did something he didn’t often do: lose. The superstar Stanford freshman made up a two stroke deficit in the final 18 holes to catch Arizona State sophomore Chris Hanell, but lost to a 15-foot birdie on the first sudden-death playoff hole.
Oklahoma State, led by senior Alan Bratton and Trip Kuehne who finished T4, took home the ‘Big Island Intercollegiate’ team title and would go on to defeat Stanford a few months later for the NCAA team title in another dramatic playoff.
The Hanell/Woods co-medalist playoff was the first in the tournament’s history, but there have been four others with very intriguing names. Before we get to those, you might be interested to know that Matt Kuchar actually shared co-medalist honors with one of his Georgia Tech teammates twice in consecutive years: 1999 (Carlton Forrester) and 2000 (Bryce Molder).
It wasn’t until 2011 that the Amer Ari saw another playoff, when UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay fell to Daniel Miernicki (above) of Oregon on the 7th playoff hole. The next year Texas superstar Jordan Spieth lost to USC’s Jeffrey Kang. In 2017, Fredrik Nilehn (below, with the victorious Texas Tech team) defeated both Rico Hoey (USC) and Jared du Toit (Arizona State). The most recent playoff came in 2020 when Pepperdine’s William Mouw defeated Arizona State’s Mason Andersen.
The team winners and individual medalist lists for this tournament rivals any regular season event, reading like a who’s who of college golf history. Beyond those already mentioned, individual medalists include Notah Begay, Anthony Kim, Tyler Leon, Cameron Tringale, Jonathan Moore, Nick Taylor, Jordan Niebrugge, CT Pan, Justin Suh (below), David Puig, and Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra.
If that wasn’t enough, there are also four players who have won this event then gone on to win the NCAA individual championship that year: Todd Demsey (Arizona State), Troy Matteson (Georgia Tech), Aaron Wise (Oregon, below), and Matthew Wolff (Oklahoma State).
Additionally, six teams have won both this tournament and an NCAA championship in the same year, three being Oklahoma State who accomplished this most recently in 2018. Since the NCAA championship moved to match play to determine the winner starting in 2009, at least one team from this field has made match play that same year as one of those top eight teams, three times earning the #1 seed - Oklahoma State in 2018 and 2019, Arizona State in 2021.
The wind has been a constant factor in this tournament over the years, leading to a drastic fluctuation in scoring. You can imagine, therefore, just how bad the wind was in 2023 to end up cancelling the whole tournament for the first — and so far only — time in the event’s history. Players were pulled off the course after only a few holes played each of the first two days with the wind so forceful that balls were moving on the green.
Instead of taking a complete loss on the trip, two Big12 and two ACC teams got together for a one-day officially NCAA-sanctioned match play event called the ‘ACC-Big 12 Showdown’, played at the Hapuna Golf Course. Reigning NCAA champion (#18 ranked) Texas took down (#10) Georgia Tech 4-1-1 while (#3) Texas Tech and (#4) UNC played to an official draw, although the Red Raiders technically won with the higher holes-won differential.
The showcase match was between Ludvig Aberg — then the #1 amateur in the World — and David Ford, who this year looks to match Aberg in earning a PGA Tour card by finishing atop the PGA Tour University rankings.
David Ford and UNC returned in 2024, blitzing both the tournament and school record books. The Tar Heels opened with an incredible 26-under-par 262 on the back of Ford’s 64 as well as 65s from his brother Maxwell and Dylan Menante.
Auburn broke that tournament record in round 2 with a 27-under 261, led by a Jackson Koivun 63.
In the final round, Georgia Tech tied a potential national record when their drop score came in at 5-under 67 on their way to a 265/-23 finish. In the end, UNC (above) finished at 68-under par (796) for a five stroke victory over Arizona State.
In just his second collegiate start, Arizona State freshman and 2022 US Junior Amateur champion Wenyi Ding (below) had the college golf world on the edge of its collective seat as he navigated his 54th and final hole. His closing birdie didn’t just secure his first win, it also placed him in the record books as the first player to break 190 in collegiate competition.
Ding’s historic 27-under 189 (63-64-62) bettered the previously lowest-known score of 192 which was held by several players including fellow Sun Devil Jon Rahm (21-under). Even in a field of low scores, Ding managed an astounding nine-stroke victory, which is undoubtedly a record when both players broke 200, and was nearly 22 strokes better than the field average at Mauna Lani’s North Course.
This year’s event is looking as strong as ever with six teams currently ranked in the top 10 in the nation and 12 of the top 50. The top of the ‘New Look Power 4’ conferences are represented with leaders of the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 — UNC, UCLA, and Arizona State respectively, along with the #2 ranked team in the SEC, Auburn. There are major rankings and individual award implications with an event of this caliber, making this Hawaii trip much more than a fun early season vacation!