Toa Yokoyama Turns Pro As Shorthanded UNLV Squad Battles At NCAA Championships

The UNLV Rebels women's golf team teed off in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Championships at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa on Friday. However, it wasn't quite as joyous as many may have hoped after their top player, senior Toa Yokoyama, announced shortly before the tournament that she would not be joining her team on a quest for a National Championship and would instead be going pro immediately and playing in the Epson Tour event in Hurricane, Utah later this week.

UNLV is making its first #NCAAGolf Women’s Championship appearance since 2015 this week.

But the Rebels are doing it without their best player, Toa Yokoyama, who is instead competing in this week’s Epson Tour event in Utah. She’s listed as an amateur but expected to turn pro…
— Brentley Romine (@BrentleyGC) May 16, 2025

We aren't here to judge any decision someone makes for their own career, but this was a brutal break for the women who did decide to represent UNLV in competing for a title. That group deserves their recognition, and they are senior Mayumi Umezu, senior McKenzi Hall, senior Hina Matsui, sophomore Zi Yu Foong, and freshman Amber Chen. Despite being shorthanded, all these ladies went out there and competed. Despite a terrible first round and having every reason to make an excuse, Rebels head coach Amy Bush-Herzer made it clear that she still believed in her team after Round 1 and made zero excuses for their poor showing.

“We didn’t play our best today,” Bush-Herzer said. “We’ve got more golf ahead of us, and I believe in this team’s ability to bounce back, fight for every shot and continue our amazing season.”

Following the first round of the tournament, the Rebels sat in dead last in 30th place. Despite the team's best efforts, they dug themselves too big of a hole right out of the gate to overcome and make the 15-team cut to advance to the next round. Especially being that they were already shorthanded to begin with without Yokoyama. With that said, it was still a magical year for this team and this doesn't take anything away from what they had already accomplished.

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