LIHUE, Hawaii — Men’s golf (281-277–558) posted a 3-under-par day two and ended up tied for fourth at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate at Ocean Course at Hokuala Friday.
“The guys are getting more and more comfortable on the course with the windy conditions and some of the tougher shots,” Director of Golf Todd Miller said.
Texas A&M (277-275–552) recorded a 5-under-par round two and LMU (276-276–552) carded a 4-under par on their way to sharing the lead at 8-under par. UNLV (281-274–555) concluded Friday in third at 5-under par by tying for the best round in the field with a 6-under-par score. BYU and New Mexico (281-277–558) once again tied each other and finished the day in fourth at 2-under par to round out the top-5.
Kihei Akina (68-69–137) climbed to the top-5 with his 1-under-par round. At 3-under par for the tournament, the freshman is tied for fifth and will look for his second consecutive top-5 finish in 2026.
Tyson Shelley (70-70–140) had back-to-back even-par postings to put himself tied for 17th. The Salt Lake native will be searching for at least a top-15 finish for the eighth time of his career on Saturday.
Jackson Mauss (74-68–142) posted a 2-under par to notch his lowest-scoring round of his career. As a result, the Draper native climbed up 39 spots on the leaderboard to be tied for 30th going into the final round.
"I hit my driver really well today," Mauss said. "I don’t think I’ve missed any fairways. I also made some nice putts to keep momentum going.
“Jackson has been working hard on developing a lower ball flight for windy conditions like Hawaii,” Miller said. “I feel like it’s paying off this week. All of his game is good right now, but the putter was impressive today.”
Simon Kwon (72-70–142) carded an even-par to match his teammate Mauss in 30th at 2-over par.
Peter Kim (71-73–144) capped off Friday sharing the 45th spot at 4-over par.
Parker Bunn (76-73–149) had a 3-over-par second round to be tied for 86th at 9-over par while competing as an individual.
"Our mindset going to the final round is to stick to our game plan and to play loose," Mauss said. "We know that we have a good chance of winning this tournament, and we are confident that we are capable to do it. We’re gonna have a lot of fun tomorrow.
“We had a team meeting after we finished our round today,” Miller said. “We talked about staying steady for 18 holes tomorrow, not pressing or being affected by bad breaks.”
The Cougars will look to contend for the top spot when the final round tees off at 12 p.m. MST Friday. Follow live scoring on Scoreboard and live updates on Instagram and X.