Aaron Wise of Oregon, a sophomore from Lake Elsinore, Calif., claimed his second victory of the season, closing with an 8-under-par 64 to beat Rico Hoey of team champion USC by two strokes in the Amer Ari Invitational on the Kings Course at Waikoloa Golf Resort in Waikoloa Village, Hawaii.
Wise, who won for the fourth time in his Oregon career, posted a score of 69-67-64–200, 16 under par. Earlier this season, he captured The Jackrabbit at the Prairie Club in Valentine, Neb.
“Aaron is playing golf at an extremely high level, in every respect,” said Coach Casey Martin, whose Ducks finished third in the first event of the Spring Season. “He’s come back since late last spring, into the summer and the fall on a mission.
“He wants to be the best player and he’s doing everything he can. You look at his record in college and amateur golf and I think he makes a case for being the best. This was one of the best fields in college golf and he took them down.”
Hoey, a junior from Rancho Cucamonga, finished at 68-68-66–202, followed by Maverick McNealy of Stanford, a junior from Portola Valley, at 68-68-67–203.
Jonathan Garrick of UCLA shot 69-66-72-207 to tie for fifth with Zachary Olsen of Oklahoma State, who finished at 69-67-69–205, while Vince Whaley of Georgia was seventh at 71-68-68–207, followed by Jonah Texeira of USC at 70-67-71–208 and Jon Rahm of Arizona State and Spain at 71-68-70–209.
Corey Shaun of UCLA carded a score of 70-70-70–210 and tied for 10th with Tobias Eden of Arizona State, who wound up at 70-71-58–209, Conner Kumpula of Oregon State, who shot 66-71-73–210, and Jared du Toit of Arizona State, who came in at 71-67-72.
Robby Salomon of Cal State Monterey Bay posted a score of 71-69-71–211 to finish in a tie for 13th that included Ryan Knop of UC Davis, who totaled 75-70-66–211, Kevin Velo of San Jose State tied for 30th at 72-67-75–214, and Matt Lee of Pacific tied for 62nd at 73-74-72–219.
USC, coached by Chris Zambri, recorded its fifth straight top-10 finish with a score of 278-275-282–835, 29-under, followed by UCLA at 279-272-286–837, while Arizona State totaled 290-271-281–842 and tied for third with Oregon, which came in at 282-279-281–842.
Oklahoma State was fifth at 282-283-280–845, followed by Stanford at 278-284-284–846.
San Jose State tied for 13th at 285-291-291–867, Pacific tied for 16th at 294-290-299–883, UC Davis was 18th at 296-299-296–891 and Cal State Monterey Bay finished 19th at 297-305-294–896.
