The University of Hawai'i women's golf team will enter this week's Big West Conference Championship as the No. 2 seed for the three-day event, which runs Sunday, April 10 through Tuesday, April 12 at the San Luis Obispo Country Club.
 
The Rainbow Wahine enter this year's tournament with their strongest chance to take home their first Big West Championship title. UH enters with a No. 80 national ranking, its highest since 2008, and boasts three tournament titles this season.
 
"We are looking forward to keeping up our impressive play this spring heading into conference at San Luis Obispo Country Club," head coach Stephen Bidne said. "The hilly tree-lined course is known for its extremely sloped and firm fast greens. This past year though the course has had some renovations over winter where they took out numerous trees and updated parts of the course so it will be a little different then when we were there a few years ago. The winds are projected to get over 20 mph in rounds two and three, so conservative play and ensuring we stay below the hole as much as possible on these tricky greens will be key to our success."
 
UH's best finish at the championship in recent years was runner-up in 2015 and third place in 2017. Last season, the Rainbow Wahine entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed but finished in seventh place.
 
The San Luis Obispo Country Club, which will play at 6,113 yards and par 72, played host to the championship five times during a six-year stretch from 2009-14. Host Cal Poly is the defending champion having won its second Big West crown since 2017. The Mustangs are the highest ranked Big West school at No. 68. Cal Poly, UH and UC Riverside will be paired with each other in the first round which begins at 7:30 a.m. PT.
 
UH's line-up includes Momo Sugiyama, Mayumi Umezu, Hyeonji Kang, Hana Mirnik, and Monica Johnson while Ting-Yu Liu will serve as an alternate. Sugiyama is a two-time Big West Golfer of the Month and leads the Rainbow Wahine with a 73.7 scoring average. The Gold Coast, Australia native has seven Top 10 finishes this season.
 
The team is confident and ready to go, and we're hopeful we can be that first team in program history to take home the title. It's 'Bow Time! "
 
Fellow Aussie Johnson was UH's top finisher at last year's Big West Championship with a tie for 17th place at 6-over 222. Mirnik also competed and tied for 22nd at 223.
 
"The team is confident and ready to go, and we're hopeful we can be that first team in program history to take home the title," Bidne said. "It's 'Bow Time!"
 
The second round is scheduled for Monday with the third and final round on Tuesday.
 
Tournament Facts
Date: April 10-12, 2022
Format: 54 Holes (18-18-18); 5-count-4
Time: Tee times beginning at 7:30 a.m. PT
Course: San Luis Obispo Country Club
Location: San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Yardage (Par): 6,113 yards (72)
Live Scoring: golfstat.com
Field (9): Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield, Cal State Fullerton, CSUN, Hawai'i, Long Beach State, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside