BANK OF UTAH CHAMPIONSHIP

October 2, 2026

Kihei Akina

Black Desert Resort

Quick Quotes

Q. Only amateur to make the cut and to do it in your home state. What does that mean to you?

KIHEI AKINA: Yeah, it means a lot. Especially playing here, this is my third year here, so just the past two years have been a great experience just to play here and to be able to make the cut kind of where it started for me my first PGA event is pretty cool.

Q. The birdies to finish were awesome, obviously. Having to do it almost in the dark, what were those last two holes like?

KIHEI AKINA: Pretty crazy, yeah. Kind of a wild finish. Starting with that putt on 16, I made a bomb for par there. And the greens are, they're kind of that late in the day they're kind of getting a little bit, a little bumpy. So I was just trying to roll the putts the best that I could, and if they went in, great. If not, then it is what it is, and I can just hold my head up high and say that I put a good stroke on it. But, yeah, I put a really good stroke on 17 and that one went in.

Then I hit a really good tee shot and then a great shot into the green on 18 to seal it.

Q. What did you have for the second on 18?

KIHEI AKINA: I think like 285. I was just trying to land it 10 yards on the front side. I can't remember what the pin was, but we were trying to land something 265.

Q. You have now made the cut three times I think in PGA Tour events this year. You're showing you've got a PGA Tour game. Is that sinking in on you? What are your thoughts about that?

KIHEI AKINA: No, not yet. I've got a long way to go before anything like that. I'm just trying to play the best golf that I can. Making cuts are great, but I want to compete at the end of the day, so I'm going to try and go out there this weekend and put a couple of good rounds together.

Q. Are you conscious though of PGA Tour Accelerated and what making a cut means in the points system?

KIHEI AKINA: A little bit, yeah. A little bit. It's in the back of your head. But, yeah, at the end of the day you can't really focus on that, you just got to focus at the task at hand and I feel like I did a good job of that today.