{"id":472882,"date":"2025-12-26T13:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T13:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/472882\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T13:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T13:34:14","slug":"arakaki-of-kea%ca%bbau-downie-of-hilo-qualify-for-2nd-year-in-row-for-u-s-amateur-four-ball-championship-big-island-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/472882\/","title":{"rendered":"Arakaki of Kea\u02bbau, Downie of Hilo qualify for 2nd year in row for U.S. Amateur Four-Ball championship : Big Island Now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Qualifying round for the 11th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball was hosted Monday (Dec. 22) at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kauai.gov\/Government\/Departments-Agencies\/Parks\/Golf#section-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wailu\u0101 Golf Course<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in L\u012bhu\u02bbe.<\/p>\n<p>Calm and sunny conditions greeted golfers to the 18-hole, par-72, 6,962-yard municipal course designed by Toyo Shirai. The course has been voted by Golf Digest as one of Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s best 15 golf courses and rated by The Golf Channel as Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s No. 3 golf course.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/anson_arakaki_and_shaun_downie-1024x814.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-80678\"\/>Big Island residents Anson Arakaki of Kea\u02bbau and Shaun Downie of Hilo qualified Dec. 22, 2025, for the second year in a row to compete next spring in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball championship proper. (Photo Courtesy: Hawai\u02bbi State Golf Association)<\/p>\n<p>Wailu\u0101 also has hosted 3 U.S. Golf Association Amateur Public Links Championships.<\/p>\n<p>Big Island residents Anson Arakaki of Kea\u02bbau and Shaun Downie of Hilo shot a 6-under-par total score of 66 to qualify for the second year in a row to compete next spring in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball championship proper.<\/p>\n<p><b>ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD<\/b><b>ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD<\/b><\/p>\n<p>They finished one stroke ahead of Colorado residents Hunter Swanson and Maxwell Lange, who are the first alternates in the event Arakaki and Downie can\u2019t make it to the championship, and fellow Hawai\u02bbi residents Matthew Ma of Pearl City, O\u02bbahu, and Casey Watabu of L\u012bhu\u02bbe, who are second alternates.<\/p>\n<p>Arakaki and Downie advance for their second time in as many years to the four-ball championship May 16-20, 2026, at Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.<\/p>\n<p>Desert Mountain Club is a private community, offering the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.desertmountain.com\/golf\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">world\u2019s largest collection of Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses<\/a><\/strong> with 6 and a distinct 18-hole, par-3 championship course \u2014 No. 7 at Desert Mountain.<\/p>\n<p><b>ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Desert Mountain hosted the 1999 U.S. Senior Women\u2019s Amateur, Regions Tradition from 1989 to 2001, Charles Schwab Cup Championship in 2012 and 2014-16, Southwestern Amateur since 2013 and is the annual host of Desert Mountain Collegiate<\/p>\n<p>Arakaki and Downie are one of 128 teams that will play in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Desert Mountain Championship Proper.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Championship winners get:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>A gold medal.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Custody of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Trophy for 1 year.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>A 10-year exemption into the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Exemption for each team member into the 2026 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Exemptions into the 2026 U.S. Junior Amateur, U.S. Mid-Amateur and U.S. Senior Amateur, if age-eligible. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Their names engraved on the 2026 U.S. Golf Association Champions\u2019 plaque that will reside in the U.S. Golf Association Museum\u2019s Hall of Champions in Liberty Corner, N.J.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Four-Ball \u2014 also called Best Ball or Better Ball \u2014 is played as a duo. Each golfer plays their own balls, but the team score is the lower of the two individual number of strokes for each hole.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a variation of stroke play, the most common format of scoring while on the links, where players count every stroke for each hole in a round and the lowest total at the end wins.<\/p>\n<p>Follow U.S. Golf Association on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/usopengolf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">X<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/usopengolf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/USOPEN\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@usga?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TikTok<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/TheUSGA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Find additional information about the Desert Mountain championship at the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/championships.usga.org\/usamateurfourball\/2026\/articles\/fast-facts-for-2026-us-amateur-four-ball.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Golf Association\u2019s website<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Qualifying round for the 11th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball was hosted Monday (Dec. 22) at Wailu\u0101 Golf Course\u00a0in L\u012bhu\u02bbe.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":472883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[214504,214505,214506,214507,5643,214508,214509,214510,1430,48176,48180,48181,214511,214512,50227,214513,214514,214515,7600,214516,214517,62,214518,67,132,68,214519,214520],"class_list":{"0":"post-472882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-11th-u-s-amateur-four-ball","9":"tag-128-teams-to-play-in-championship","10":"tag-also-called-best-ball-or-better-ball","11":"tag-anson-arakaki-of-keaau","12":"tag-arizona","13":"tag-compete-next-spring-in-championship-proper","14":"tag-dec-22","15":"tag-desert-mountain-club","16":"tag-golf","17":"tag-hawaii-news","18":"tag-kauai-news","19":"tag-kauai-now","20":"tag-lihue-golf-course","21":"tag-may-16-20-2026","22":"tag-municipal","23":"tag-private-community","24":"tag-qualify-for-second-year-in-a-row","25":"tag-qualifying-round","26":"tag-scottsdale","27":"tag-shaun-downie-of-hilo","28":"tag-shot-6-under-par-total-score-of-66","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-u-s-golf-association","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-us","34":"tag-usga","35":"tag-wailua-golf-course"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}