Still stacking papers, amateur Kihei Akina rises into Mexico Open contention with 64

Kihei Akina, the middle of seven siblings, grew up on Oahu’s North Shore. His family lived in a small condo on the first hole at Turtle Bay Golf Club, where he’d chase around his oldest brother, Keanu, and mimic everything he’d do with a golf club. Keanu, who is 20 years older than Kihei’s youngest sister, now 8-year-old Kanani, played his college golf at BYU, where Kihei currently is a sophomore and one of the best amateurs in the world. Kihei admits he needed “a few more inches” to stick with his first love, basketball; he’s listed at a generous 5 feet, 10 inches.

Akina’s father, Alan, who hooped for BYU-Hawaii, instilled the concept of “stacking papers” in his kids, who are 4 for 4 in playing a Division-I sport and will soon add a fifth when Kiliana decides where she wants to play rugby, following sister Kiani, who did so for Harvard.

“Every workout, every day of practice, those represent individual papers, and you keep stacking them, day after day,” Kihei explained earlier this year. “Over a year or two, you might not have that high of a stack, but you keep stacking … and it might take seven, eight, 10 years, but that’s how you get to where you want to in life.”

The 20-year-old Akina might soon be adding an entire pallet.

He turned in a 7-under 64 Friday at the VidantaWorld Mexico Open to grab a share of the clubhouse lead at 11 under until Andrew Novak decided to speed away from the field late and rise to 14 under. The performance marked Akina’s lowest round in five PGA Tour starts this year and his eighth sub-68 score in his last nine rounds, which have all come this month as Akina has made three starts; he placed ninth at the Bank of Utah Championship and T-17 at last week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship.

“I’m feeling more comfortable with each round played,” Akina said. “This is my first time going from an event to another event, so back to back; it’s a little bit different for me in that aspect. Yeah, I feel like every new tournament, every new round is a learning experience for me, and this one here was a really great experience for me so far.”

Akina was 4 under on his round when he drove the green with mini-driver at the 296-yard, par-4 13th and tapped in for eagle. He then capped his day with an exclamation point, chipping in for birdie at the par-4 18th. Akina leads the field in strokes gained putting, which has offset the fact that he’s lost over a stroke and a half per round with his “shaky” approach play.

“Once I get my ball-striking where I want it to be, then I feel like I’ll be good to go and ready to compete for the weekend,” added Akina, who was nearly the first amateur to lead after 36 holes on the PGA Tour since Patrick Cantlay in 2011.

Though Cantlay never benefitted from PGA Tour University, the program that has awarded top college players with Tour status since 2021, the Tour noted when it rolled out its Accelerated pathway a couple years later that Cantlay would’ve been one of three players in the last decade to surpass the 20-point threshold (Justin Thomas and Patrick Rodgers were the others; Jon Rahm, Maverick McNealy and Collin Morikawa wouldn’t have).

Since Accelerated launched, Gordon Sargent, Luke Clanton and most recently Jackson Koivun have secured PGA Tour cards via that program.

By making the cut Friday in Mexico, Akina is now up to 12 points, most of any active amateur. A top-10 come Sunday would award him an additional point, while a top-5 showing would push him to 14 points.

He could be at 20 before he knows it.

Five points are available to players who reach No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking; Akina is currently ninth and would start earning the first of those five points once he cracks the top 5.

He’s not expected to compete on the PGA Tour again this fall, so his next chance to earn points would be the Jones Cup, a top amateur event held in January and that offers one Accelerated point to the champion. He is expected to earn a few more exemptions early next year; his agency, Sportfive, runs the season-opening American Express in Palm Springs and Puerto Rico Open, among others.

Each of college golf’s three national player of the year awards – Hogan, Haskins and Nicklaus – are worth three points apiece, but only the Hogan takes into account results outside of NCAA competition. While Akina missed BYU’s fall finale earlier this week, he posted two top-4s this semester, went 3-0 at the Big 12 Match Play and will enter the spring ranked 17th in the national individual rankings.

Making next summer’s U.S. Arnold Palmer Cup team is worth a point, too.

In other words, Akina has a bevy of opportunities to earn a PGA Tour card before his Accelerated eligibility runs out at the end of his junior year. There is some urgency, though; if Akina reaches 20 points by the culmination of next May’s NCAA Championship, he’ll be able to take up PGA Tour membership this summer, but if he does so after, he must wait until the start of 2028 to join the Challenger Series, the PGA Tour’s impending second tier.

“I’ve just got to keep playing well and keeping my foot on the gas,” Akina said.

And keep stacking papers.