BYU, Akina Set Records, Win 2026 Bridgestone Collegiate Invitational
NAPA, Calif. -- Kihei Akina earned an exemption into the Korn Ferry Tour’s Blue Championship, held this July 9-12 at TPC Colorado in Berthoud, Colo., by winning the third annual Bridgestone Collegiate Invitational Tuesday at Silverado Resort. The BYU freshman led by three when the final round began and finished with a tournament-record 21-under 195 (65-67-63). The 21-under broke the school record for individual 54-hole par total while the 295 final score tied the school’s 54-hole score record.
Just a freshman, Akina has already competed in five professional tournaments in his young career. The Alpine, Utah, native 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.
“It’s going to be fun,” Akina said of earning the Blue Championship exemption. “I feel like it will be another learning experience for me. Playing on the Korn Ferry Tour is a great experience, so I’m looking forward to getting out to Colorado and seeing how it is.”
After setting the tournament record with their 21-under 267 in the opening round, every BYU player carded under-par final rounds on Tuesday for a school-record 26-under 262, claiming the team victory with a school-record 54-under 810 (267-281-262). Three Cougars finished inside the top 10 individually, including Akina, junior runner-up Peter Kim, and senior Tyson Shelley. Kim (67-72-61; -16) paced the champions on Tuesday with a tournament-record 61 (-11) that included seven birdies, two eagles, and no bogeys. Akina made birdie on nine of his final 14 holes Tuesday for a bogey-free nine-under 63, and Shelley (67-72-70; -7) converted four birdies for his final round two-under 70 to finish T5.
“It’s a lot of fun to have a lot of teammates up for the lead, and to get the team win is really special,” continued Akina. “The team has put in a lot of work. I think this is a big tournament for our momentum going into later in the season, so we want to play our best golf going late into the season and I think we’re starting to get there right now.”
“The big thing for us as a team was to stay focused on our process and take it one shot at a time. I think we did a good job of that this week. I’m really happy for Peter. I was watching his score the last few holes and our coach was telling me that he was going low, so I’m really happy for him.”
“I was trying to go out there and fire a low one,” Kim said, whose 61 tied for the second-lowest 18-hole individual round in school history. “I was seven shots back but really wasn’t thinking about anything but one shot at a time. I’ve been putting in a lot of work and I feel like my game is finally starting to come together. To put a low one out there today was really nice.”
“We got off to a slow start this spring but are really trying to ramp things up before the postseason and conference, so the team win means a lot.”
“These guys work really hard all year,” said BYU Head Coach Bruce Brockbank. “We’ve had some highs and we’ve had some pretty good lows this year. To see a group come out and get it going like we did this week is exciting for a coach and, more importantly, for the players.”
“Hopefully they get a bit of a stride now. This is a great time of year to get rolling and it was fun to see our all of our guys, even the individual, collectively play pretty well this week. Everybody on the team shot under-par, so that tells you that the golf course was in great condition. We got the putters hot and they were rolling, so everything was going our way. It’s always fun when that happens in college golf. That’s why you play an individual game as a team. When it goes like it did this week, you’ve got to celebrate that because that doesn’t happen very happen. The guys did it this week and I’m proud of them for their effort.”
“When everything comes together, when the pin is tucked on every par-3 and they hit right at it and make birdie, as a coach you just shake your head and say, ‘this is fun. This is why I do what I do,” BYU Director of Golf Todd Miller said.
“Kihei is as cool of a freshman as I’ve ever walked with. He keeps his heartbeat the same, his demeanor, his process is always the same. Whether he’s shooting even-par or eight-under par, it’s not really any different. He knows how to go about his business and enjoy the day, and it’s always a good walk with him. You have some players that are up and down and stuff like that, but he’s pretty chill all the time. With Peter, he’s been struggling for him, still been playing great golf but not to his level lately, so to see him break through and shoot a 61 out here to tie the course record, is an extra level of excitement and happiness for him.”
Todd Miller is the son of two-time major champion, World Golf Hall of Famer, and Silverado Resort re-designer Johnny Miller, who was among the family members in attendance on Tuesday.
“It’s super enjoyable to have Simon (Kwon), my nephew, playing on our team and then have all of our family watching him and hear some crowds and some clapping,” Todd said. “We don’t get a whole lot of that in college golf, and so to have a little bit of crowd out there watching our guys and cheering them on, it makes this just a little bit more special.”
UC Davis’ Lequan Wang and Santa Clara’s Matthew Robles joined Akina and Kim as top-four finishers while seven players tied for fifth individually. Santa Clara, defending champion Tohoku Fukushi, San Francisco, and North Alabama secured top-five team finishes.
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