While Michelle Wie takes her final finals at Stanford, LPGA rookies Ayaka Kaneko and Stephanie Kono are playing in this week’s RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup, which tees off today at Wildfire Golf Club in Phoenix.
Wie will miss the first domestic event of the year while finishing her degree at Stanford, after 41⁄2 years of working part-time at school and on tour. She will participate in Stanford’s formal graduation in June.
Kono and Kaneko both missed the cut in their LPGA debuts in Australia a month ago and had some amusing memories, which they detailed for 808golf.com.
Kaneko wrote that she “didn’t play smart” and was disappointed to miss the cut, but enjoyed Australia — with one exception: “I had a hard time understanding what they were saying because of the accent, but I’m sure they felt the same way about my accent.”
Kono, a three-time All-American at UCLA, missed the cut after a torturous second-round 92. She can now laugh about it.
“It was like a living nightmare as I kept going from bunker to bunker on every hole!” Kono wrote. “The lady at the scoring table at the end of the round looked at me sympathetically as she calculated my score, and I think she and everyone else knew what happened due to all the sand in my hair and the helpless look on my face. Even worse, I had to take a midterm in my hotel room afterwards for my art history class!”
Kono, Kaneko and Wie are all expected to play in next week’s Kia Classic, which returns to the La Costa Resort & Spa, in Carlsbad, Calif. So far, Wie is the only one eligible for the Kraft Nabisco Championship the following week in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Kaneko and Kono would need to win this week or next, or finish in the top 10 next week, to qualify for the year’s first major.
The Symetra — formerly Futures — Tour opens next week with the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic, in Winter Haven. Leilehua graduate Britney Choy and Roosevelt alum Xyra Suyetsugu are on the preliminary roster.
LPGA volunteers needed
Wie, Kono and Kaneko will all play in Hawaii’s inaugural LOTTE Championship. The $1.7 million LPGA tournament is April 18-21 at Ko Olina Golf Club. Qualifying will be April 15, with practice rounds the following day and the official pro-am April 17.
Volunteers are needed. Those interested can call 792-9321.
LOTTE, an industrial conglomerate in Korea and Japan, has a three-year deal with the LPGA. The presenting sponsor is J Golf, the LPGA’s television rights holder in Korea. The 72-hole tournament ends on a Saturday so it can be shown live in Asia Sunday. It will be broadcast here on the Golf Channel.
Admission will be free Sunday and Monday and $10 daily the rest of the week. Tickets will be available at the main gate on tournament week. Season badges, good for the whole week, are $25. Children younger than 16 are free when accompanied by a ticket-buying adult.
Parking will be free along Aliinui Dr., with a shuttle service to the course.
Friends of Hawaii Charities is the beneficiary.
Ching earns WCC honor
Alina Ching, who led Punahou to its fifth consecutive girls state high school championship last year, was named West Coast Conference Player of the Month for February. The Pepperdine freshman scored what was a career-best fifth-place finish at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge last month, beating 29 of Golfstat.com’s top 100 players.
Ching opened this month by finishing second at last week’s Bruin Wave Invitational. She is now 86th in the Golfstat Cup Standings, based on scoring average.
Stephanie Kono, an LPGA rookie no longer on the UCLA team, is second on the Cup list. Cassy Isagawa is fifth and Kristina Merkle 18th. All three are former state high school champs.
