The University of Hawai'i men's golf team will compete in the Big West Conference Championship, which runs Sunday, May 2 through Tuesday, May 4 at the La Quinta Country Club in southern California.
 
The Rainbow Warriors are seeded eighth in the nine-team tournament. UC Davis is the top seed followed by Long Beach State, Cal Poly, CSUN, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UH, and UC Riverside. CSUF is the defending champion. Over the last four tournaments, a different team has won each year. Last year's event was canceled due to the pandemic. 


Hawai'i will tee off Round 1 with UCSB and UCR beginning at 12:10 p.m. PT on Sunday. The tournament runs three days – 18 holes each day – at the 6,997-yard, par-72 course. 
 
The tournament is the fifth for the Rainbow Warriors this season, who has a win at the Pearl Collegiate Classic under their belts. UH will send a contingent of sophomore Kotaro Murata and seniors Justin Ngan, Justin Arcano, Kanata Irei, and Cole Yoshida. 
 
In four tournaments played this season, Murata leads the team with a 74.0 scoring average. He won the Pearl Classic with a 5-under 139 total, which included a 67 in Round 1 that tied for the team's lowest round of the season. Ngan is coming off his best performance of the year with a Top 20 finish at the Western Intercollegiate where he shared the first round lead with a 3-under 67.
 
UH's best finish at the Big West Championship was fifth in 2019 when the Warriors hosted the event at the Wailua Golf Course in Līhu'e, Kaua'i. Arcano tied for fifth place that year. In two previous Big West Championships, the Wailuku, Maui native has shot no worse than 75 in any round.