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Just days after making his first PGA Tour cut, BYU star Kihei Akina fired a career-best 64 to capture his first collegiate victory
Momentum in golf can be hard to find and even harder to sustain. For BYU’s Kihei Akina, it appears to be building at exactly the right time.
Akina has long looked the part of one of college golf’s most talented players, but the past week offered something more revealing: proof that his game is beginning to match the expectations. Just days after making his first PGA Tour cut at the Puerto Rico Open and finishing tied for 16th against a professional field, Akina returned to college competition and delivered the best tournament of his BYU career.
His closing statement was impossible to ignore. Starting the final round five shots off the lead, Akina played with the kind of freedom and control that top players trust when they know a low number is there. He made six birdies, added an eagle, and kept a clean card with no bogeys on the way to a career-low 64. The round gave him his first collegiate individual title and pushed him to a 54-hole total of 14-under par, also the lowest tournament score of his career.
What stands out most is not just the number, but the timing. Akina’s win came four days after competing under the pressure and spotlight of a PGA Tour event. For many players, that kind of stretch can be draining. For Akina, it seems to have sharpened something. He looked energized, confident, and fully aware that he needed to attack.
“I didn’t feel tired at all today,” Akina said. “I felt great coming into today and knew I had to go low.”
That mindset says a lot about where Akina is as a player right now. He is no longer just trying to hang around leaderboards. He is beginning to expect his way into the middle of them.
BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank pointed to the bigger picture when reflecting on Akina’s week, calling what he accomplished over the last six days “really quite amazing.” It is not hard to see why. There is a different weight to playing well across two levels of competition in the same week, especially when one of them includes a made cut on the PGA Tour and the other ends with a trophy.
Akina’s rise has also come at an important point in the season for BYU. His play helped lead the Cougars to another strong finish, and his form gives the program a player capable of changing the complexion of any tournament. When a team has someone who can erase a deficit with a bogey-free 64, the outlook changes.
There is also something revealing in the way Akina talks about the group around him. Even after claiming the first win of his college career, his focus quickly widened beyond himself.
“I know everyone on this team has really high potential,” he said. “I’m looking forward to playing our best golf as we get late in the season.”
That perspective fits the profile of a player growing into a bigger role. Akina is not just producing scores. He is setting a tone. The confidence, the tournament toughness, and the ability to follow one breakthrough with another all suggest that this is more than a hot round or a good week.
For Akina, this feels like the next stage of becoming the player many believed he could be. And if this recent stretch is any indication, he may only be getting started.
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