Hurst, Yan qualify for shot at Wie

Pat Hurst’s son is four years younger than Jing Yan. Somehow the 1995 LPGA Rookie of the Year and the 19-year-old LPGA rookie found common ground at Ko Olina Golf Club on Sunday.

Both qualified for this week’s Lotte Championship with the only sub-70 scores in a field of 21. Yan, who played with Moanalua alum Eimi Koga and Punahou graduate Cyd Okino at the University of Washington last year, fired a bogey-free 67. Hurst, in the first group out, played the back nine in 33 and had her 3-under-par 69 hold up.

Michelle Wie opens defense of her Lotte title when the 72-hole LPGA tournament tees off Wednesday. Wie, who won the U.S. Women’s Open two months after Lotte, will be Hawaii’s only participant.

Punahou junior Mariel Galdiano, one of just two amateurs Sunday, finished third — for the third time at this Sunday qualifier. The two-time state high school champion, who is 26th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, shot 70 along with Louise Stahle and Katy Harris.

Kristina Merkle, who won two state high school titles for Moanalua before Koga got hers in 2011, missed eagle on the final hole by less than an inch and shot a 71.

No one else broke par, including Hawaii’s Mari Chun (77) and Nicole Sakamoto (78), who are now playing professionally on the East Coast. Merkle is also back there, working near Sakamoto at the Polo Club of Boca Raton, in Florida.

Hilo’s Kimberly Kim had to withdraw when she suffered a broken arm.

Yan was nearly flawless.

"She did everything well," said Galdiano, who played in Yan’s group and wore a UCLA marker on her visor. "She got up and down every time she needed and got birdies when she had the chance."

Apparently, Yan has been doing that for a while. Born in China and raised in Singapore, she captured the Girls’ British Open Amateur Championship and the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 2013. The next year she won her second collegiate start, then left UW with visions of Rio.

"I didn’t really feel like leaving," Yan said, "but I really want to try and qualify for the Olympics next year."

She had five LPGA starts as an amateur, finishing 20th at last year’s Evian Championship. Since earning partial LPGA status at the Qualifying Tournament, she Monday qualified for one event and tied for 46th at last month’s HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore after being given an exemption.

Hurst, 45, has won six times and more than $7 million on the LPGA Tour. She came to Hawaii for a vacation "and now someone is making tee times for me," she grinned. "It’s nice."

She doesn’t see many more qualifiers in her future, opting instead to play only in events where she has some status and history, such as last week’s ANA Inspiration.

Hurst won the year’s first major — when it was called the Nabisco Dinah Shore — in 1998 and tied for 46th last week.

Playing at that level — for a year, let alone 20 — is something everyone else in Sunday’s qualifier would like to experience.

Sakamoto wants to know what it feels like to golf "when it really matters," in contention on the final few holes of an LPGA event. "I still have a lot of work to do," she said Sunday.

Merkle, whose 5-iron from 169 yards out on the 18th lipped out, was trying to get into her third LPGA tournament.

"The difference between watching these girls play and when you are actually competing with them," Merkle said, "is that you have to realize every shot is their life. It’s definitely a lot of pressure. I was thinking today, ‘Every shot counts. I’ve got to make this, I’ve got to make this.’ "