Kono has to make a career choice

Honolulu’s Stephanie Kono could be the most successful golfer in UCLA’s storied history by May.

Kono could also be in New Jersey or Brazil, playing for pay on the LPGA tour.

The three-time All-American got through the tour’s Stage II qualifying last week with Maui’s Shayna Miyajima, who has been playing the LPGA Futures Tour since finishing at San Diego State. If Kono clears the last hurdle — the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament, Nov. 30-Dec. 4 in Florida — she will have a huge choice to make.

“It’s kinda complicated,” Kono explained by phone from the UCLA driving range Monday night. “Up until this year the process was a little different. All the college seniors played Futures Tour qualifying so they’d have someplace to play after graduation. This year, because they combined Futures and LPGA qualifying, you were forced to play both.

“My original plan was to just try to get Futures Tour full status. But if you get through Second Stage and don’t play Third Stage it’s not full status. You need to play the Third Stage. It makes it complicated because if you play well and get your LPGA card you have to turn pro.”

Kono could become the Bruins’ first four-time, first-team All-American. She also has a shot at the school’s career victories record in her senior season. The Punahou graduate was ranked fourth in the preseason and lifted UCLA to the NCAA championship in May.

Maybe more to the point, she loves college. Kono is on track to graduate in June in Art History. She calls the last four years “the best time of my life.” The LPGA has forced her to consider cashing in her senior season.

Kono would not allow herself to ponder her golf future until she finished Top 20 last week. Now she is actively seeking advice and trying not to make herself crazy. The LPGA has been her dream since she left, after winning State Women’s Match Play at 11, along with pretty much every other meaningful Hawaii title.

She qualified for 23 USGA championships and played on the victorious 2010 U.S. Curtis Cup team. All she has left to prove is in the LPGA.

“As far as the team goes I accomplished what I wanted,” Kono said. “The reason I came to UCLA was to win a NCAA national championship as a team. Having done so relieves a lot of pressure.

“I think I’m ready for the LPGA. I would love to be able to play more professional tournaments. I’ve played the U.S. Open three times, but it was my only pro tournament all year. It’s kind of hard to play the toughest course the LPGA plays all year everytime you’re in a pro tournament. I’m really excited. College golf is so much fun, but I’m very excited for the next level.”

This week, Kono’s challenge is more immediate. While she and teammate Brianna Do — this year’s Public Links champion —were getting through the LPGA’s Second Stage, their young teammates were winning their first tournament. UCLA coach Carrie Forsyth has a rule that if a player finishes Top 20 they are exempt into the next tournament. That leaves Kono, Do and one other teammate to play off for the last spot on the team at UCLA’s next tournament.

“I do feel (it’s) a little unnecessary,” laughs Kono, who has Top-10 finishes in nearly two-thirds of her collegiate starts. “My teammates are so good I feel very lucky. They push me in my game.”

Kono wasn’t the only Hawaii golfer looking at all her options at the Stage II qualifier. Mililani’s Lisa LaFollette did not get through Stage II, so she will go back to flying Boeing 757/767s for Continental Airlines. La Follette, the 1990 Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play champion when she was known as Lisa Anderson, made her first solo flight at age 14, survived a mid-air collision at age 16 and became a commercial airline pilot at age 22.