Holy Names’ Edvin Backstrom apparently will not suffer from the Sophomore Jinx after an excellent freshman season for the Hawks in 2021-22. The Sweden native won the first tournament of his collegiate career last week with a school record round of 65 to add luster. He is your first PacWest Player of the Week in 2022-23 and Hawai`i Hilo is the first Team of the Week as the veteran Vulcan club led five PacWest squads at Saint Martin’s tournament.
2022 Schedule and Results
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Holy Names’ Edvin Backstrom, So., Stockholm, Sweden
Edvin Backstrom, who finished in second place at the Pacific West Conference Championships last spring in Arizona, blitzed the field at his opening tournament in 2022-23. Backstrom won the NCAA West Region Fall Preview at Fox Tail in Rohnert Park by five strokes with a red hot three-round score of 15-under par. His 65-67-69 was five shots better than Oklahoma Christian University’s Alejandro Armijo, who plays for the No. 3 ranked team in Division II. Backstrom’s 65 was a Holy Names school record, and the tournament win was his first as a collegian. As a freshman, in addition to his runner-up performance at the PacWest Championships, he also finished third at the Stanislaus Invite.
TEAM OF THE WEEK: Hawai`i Hilo Vulcans
Hawai`i Hilo, who tied for the PacWest title last spring but lost the trophy to Hawai`i Pacific in a playoff, began 2022-23 in impressive fashion. The Vulcans were fifth of 14 teams at the SMU Bishop Invitational at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash. The Vulcans turned in consistent scores of 292-291 for a 36-hole total of +7.
Andrew Otani paced UH Hilo with a fourth-place medalist standing, finishing at -4 (69-71). Teammates
Keith Ng (73-72) and
Dustin Franko (72-74) were also in the Top 20, tied for 14
th and 18
th respectively.
PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Five of the six PacWest men’s golf teams played in the tournament hosted by Saint Martin’s University. Behind
UH Hilo, the next PacWest finisher was
Academy of Art in tenth place in the 14-team field. The Urban Knights were +27, followed by
Dominican (+29),
Hawai`i Pacific (+40) and
Chaminade (+58)…ART U’s
Giulio Zanichelli had the second-best PacWest round behind Otani with -2 tournament (68-74), and was in second-place after the first day…Chaminade’s
Schuyler Peterson tied for 29
th (77-72), ART U’s
Anson Pan tied for 29
th (74-75) and Dominican’s
Elliott Nielsen tied for 35
th (75-75)…At the NCAA West Region Fall Preview earlier in the week,
Holy Names placed seventh of 11 teams and
Dominican was ninth.
LOOKING AHEAD: Five PacWest teams are playing as we speak at the Western Washington Invitational in Bellingham—
Hawaii Pacific, Hawaii Hilo, Holy Names, Academy of Art and
Chaminade. The tournament features 17 teams from across the west and Canada over two days (Monday-Tuesday).