Hawaii’s Michelle Wie will be in this week’s ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open. The LPGA’s season-opening event starts today at Royal Canberra Golf Club, where it is part of the Australian capital’s centenary celebration.
Wie is also in next week’s limited-field Honda LPGA Thailand. She received a sponsor’s exemption. The second LPGA Lotte Championship is April 17-20 at Ko Olina Golf Club.
A year ago, Wie was 17th in the Rolex world ranking. She is now 66th. She missed the cut in 13 of 23 starts last year, had just one top 10 and finished 64th on the money list. She is the ninth-ranked American, with only third-ranked Stacy Lewis in the top 10.
The Solheim Cup is this August, at Colorado Golf Club. The U.S. team will be made up of the top eight American players on the Solheim points list (Wie is ninth), the next two highest-ranked eligible players from the Rolex ranking and two captain’s picks. The captain is Meg Mallon.
The U.S. leads the biennial team competition 8-4, but Europe is coming off a win in Ireland in 2011.
Hawaii’s Stephanie Kono and Ayaka Kaneko, who did not retain their LPGA playing privileges, will join Britney Choy and Xyra Suyetsugu on the Symetra Tour this year. That developmental tour starts next week at the VisitMesa.com Gateway Classic in Arizona.
Moanalua graduate Tadd Fujikawa is playing the first two eGolf Professional Tour events, this week at Hilton Head Island, S.C. (Palmetto Hall Championship), and next week at Okatie, S.C. (Oldfield Open). He is also planning to play in the April qualifier for the new PGA Tour Canada. That season begins in June.
Punahou graduate Alex Ching, the 2008 state high school champion, ended up with conditional status for the second year of the PGA Tour’s Latinoamerica tour. Ching finished 28th at last week’s first qualifying tournament, in Lima, Peru. The top 20, who came from nine countries, earned full-exempt status with the next 22 claiming conditional status.
The only American to get exempt status was Gunner Wiebe, son of Champions Tour player Mark Wiebe and Ching’s former teammate at San Diego. The final qualifying tournament is this week in Florida. It has a field of 130, from 20 countries.
The top five at the end of the PGA Tour Canada and Latinoamerica seasons earn playing status on next year’s Web.com Tour. Players finishing Nos. 6-10 on the Order of Merit will be exempt into the final stage of the Web.com Tour Q-School in the fall.
Next week, Hawaii’s Parker McLachlin will play in Web.com’s Panama Claro Championship in Panama City.
Notes
>> Hawaii hosts its annual John A. Burns Intercollegiate next week at Turtle Bay’s Palmer Course. Play begins at 7:30 a.m., Wednesday through Friday. Cal, No. 1 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, is defending its team title against 13 Division I teams and D-II Hawaii Hilo and Brigham Young-Hawaii, playing on its home course. Third-ranked New Mexico is also in the field. Cal sophomore Michael Kim is the top-ranked college player in the country.
