BYU, Akina Lead After Two Rounds at 2026 Bridgestone Collegiate Invitational
NAPA, Calif. -- The opening two rounds of the third annual Bridgestone Collegiate Invitational took place Monday under bright and warm conditions at Silverado Resort. BYU freshman Kihei Akina carded rounds of 65 and 67 for a 12-under, three-stroke individual lead heading into Tuesday’s final round. BYU leads by 11 shots over North Alabama.
Round 1
Akina and San Francisco sophomore Henry Styles recorded what would be the lowest rounds of the day, both seven-under 65s. Akina made eight birdies to only one bogey while Styles downed eight birdies, an eagle on the par-5 5th hole, one bogey, and one double bogey.
BYU had three players complete the opening round inside the top 10 (with ties) individually and carded a tournament-record 267 (-21) to build a four-stroke team lead over defending champion Tohoku Fukushi. The Cougars won the inaugural Bridgestone Collegiate Invitational in 2024.
“It’s awesome to have your team come out and play like we did,” said BYU Head Coach and 2015 GCAA Hall of Famer Bruce Brockbank. “To shoot 21-under the first round, that means your guys are rolling. We hadn’t been able to put a round like that together for a little while, but I thought the guys hung in there really well and we got going to shoot a great score.”
Round 2
Akina carded seven birdies, including five on Silverado Resort North Course’s front nine, and two bogeys for a five-under 67 that gave the Alpine, Utah, native a three-stroke lead after 36 holes.
“I feel like I have a bunch of momentum with my game right now,” said Akina, who has finished inside the top five in his last four collegiate tournaments with a win at the R.E. Lamkin Invitational on March 10. “The swing’s feeling good and my putting’s feeling good right now, so I need to continue staying in my process.”
Just a freshman, Akina has competed in five professional tournaments in his young career. He finished T16 at the PGA TOUR’s Puerto Rico Open on March 8 and played in the PGA TOUR’s Bank of Utah Championship and the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship in 2024 and 2025.
“My favorite part of the day was about five minutes ago watching my teammate birdie his last hole,” he said.
BYU’s seven-under 281 helped grow the Cougars’ lead to 11 (267-281, -28) over North Alabama after the Lions’ 16-under 272 (287-272, -17) paced the second round. Four BYU players and three North Alabama finished the day inside the top 10 (with ties) individually.
“Kihei’s 65, a guy that’s playing with a lot of confidence right now, was super,” continued Brockbank. “The golf course is in great shape and the greens were rolling. We got a little bit of a taste of it and see if we can get some of that tomorrow.”
Final-round pairings begin at 9:30 AM PST Tuesday and live scoring can be found on Scoreboard Powered by Clippd.
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