Defending champions, Alex Omer and Alex Chiarella are tied for the lead after round one at 63 (-8).  Alex Omer hasn’t played in any professional tournaments since their win last year.  Todd Rego and TJ Kua are T1 with them, with Elliot Gouveia and Eric Dugas in third place at 64 (-7) after today’s round.

 

“Our strategy going into today was to give ourselves two looks at birdies on every hole. Omer always tees it up first for us and he hits his drive really well – he gets it in the fairway a lot and allows me to be aggressive with my drive” said Alex Chiarella of Maui, Hawaii.

Alex continued, “We got off to a bit of a slow start today, scrambling a bit (started on the back nine, shotgun start) but by the time we played the front nine, we hit a groove and started playing really well.  When we got to the first hole (par 5), the winds had switched on us and it was actually playing down wind (Kona).  Omer cut the corner a bit over the water and had a 6 iron to the green and put it right in the middle, giving him a fair chance at eagle.  I hit a pretty good drive and then had an 8-iron to the green. Omer’s approach shot onto the green allowed me to be more aggressive and I knocked my shot to about four feet of the pin.  I was able to sink the  downhill right to left putt for the eagle”