Tee Party

Another week, even another year and it might have just been Stephanie Kono and Mariel Galdiano banging balls on the Ko Olina Golf Club driving range. Another episode of Hawaii’s “All My Gifted Golfing Children” at work.

But Monday they were there with Paula Creamer, the world’s 10th-ranked golfer. It was a women’s clinic and some 400 women, children and dads registered, stopped, looked and listened.

Creamer and Kono, a rookie, are playing in the inaugural LPGA Lotte Championship, which tees off Wednesday at Ko Olina.

Kono is one of three LPGA players from Hawaii, with Michelle Wie and Ayaka Kaneko, who is also in her first full year on tour.

All are 22, or about a decade older than Galdiano. The Maryknoll eighth-grader qualified for last year’s U.S. Women’s Open at the age of 12.

She was second in the State Women’s Stroke and Match Play championships at 11. Two years earlier, the prodigy who picked up golf at age 4 — “At that instant, I just loved it,” she says — was asked to speak to “the little kids.” The mere thought of it made her cry.

She has come a long way. So has Hawaii junior golf.

“It’s incredible,” said Creamer, a 25-year-old Californian. “I think Hawaii has done a great job. They are producing female golfers, Michelle … everybody. It’s nice to see such passion behind the game here. People love it. They just love watching golf and being part of it.

“I’ve been lucky enough to come from an incredible area, as well, where people actually care about it. You don’t find that everywhere. It’s pretty neat what Hawaii is doing for golf.”

The clinic covered everything from practice priorities to the sparkles in Creamer’s pink golf balls.

“I’m such a girl,” she grinned.

Later, asked what she fears most in golf, she grinned again.

“I don’t fear anything,” the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open champ said. “You are talking to a woman.”

Creamer was amiable and funny, far from the hyper-competitive golfer she morphs into on the course.

“I’m not shy,” she warned the crowd. “I could talk to you for hours.”

She asked Galdiano how far she hits her 8-iron.

“Not as far as you,” Galdiano said. Then she launched a ball that hit a flag on the range. The crowd gasped and Creamer didn’t miss a beat.

“We’re going in,” she said with finality.

They stayed, and shared stories about ball spin, changing wedges four times a year, playing with men’s clubs, pace of play.

Creamer stressed the importance of always taking aim at a target when you practice. Galdiano added that the target could be as simple as “a coconut tree over there.”

All three of their swings are the antithesis of a Bubba Watson blast. The women’s game is one of rhythm and balance, as Kono articulately explained. She, Galdiano and Creamer are no exception. Creamer has made nearly $9 million with that swing since turning pro at 18.

Kono, who won State Match Play at 11, was a three-time All-American at UCLA before getting her card last December. She will graduate in June and is looking to make her first cut this week.

“She’s still very confident,” says her coach, Kapalua’s Jerry King. “That’s the way golf is. You have ups and downs. It’s all about patience and perseverance. She gets it.”

“The most important advice I’ve ever gotten is to have fun,” said Kono, who did another clinic with Wie on Sunday. “No matter what the situation is. Whether you make triple or birdie or eagle it’s most important to have fun. I’m so lucky to be out here playing the game.”

Galdiano won’t be able to watch her this week. She’s got school, then she is going to an AJGA event in California.

She has time.

“I’d tell her it’s OK to dream big,” Creamer said. “There are so many opportunities these days. Take advantage of it. … Trying to win at every level is important.”

Notes

Maui’s Shayna Miyajima shot 74 on Sunday and won a playoff with Allison Hanna to get the final qualifying spot into the Lotte Championship.

Miyajima tied for second at Sunday’s qualifier, behind Jean Bartholomew (72). Pearl City’s Galdiano shot 76 to finish fifth, Hilo’s Kimberly Kim (78) tied for seventh and Pearl City’s Brittany Fan (85) was ninth in the field of 10.

Miyajima goes out at 12:40 p.m. in Wednesday’s first round.