Former Hawaii Hilo golfer Nick Mason will try to win his fourth title in six years at this weekend’s 16th annual Hilo Invitational at Hilo Muni.

The tournament has a two-day pro-am, Friday and Saturday. The 36-hole stroke-play championship is Saturday and Sunday.

Mason, who also won the Mid-Pacific Open last year, was the first amateur to win at Hilo, in 2004. That started a run of three consecutive amateurs, with Kellen-Floyd Asao and Jarett Hamamoto winning the next two. Pros captured the first six Hilo Invitationals, and the past six.

Dean Wilson is the only other golfer to win two Hilo championships. Hilo pro Kevin Hayashi won the overall title in 1999 and was low pro to Hamamoto — his cousin — in 2006.

Rain forced organizers to shorten last year’s tournament to 18 holes for the first time. Mason, Hamamoto and Ryan Michimoto finished at 2-under-par 69 to tie for first. Mason won on the second playoff hole.

Manoa Cup champ Matt Ma and Hilo junior Ciera Min tied for low amateur honors at 70. Ma won that playoff on the sixth extra hole.

Hayashi, TJ Kua, Dave Eichelberger, John Lynch, Casey Nakama and Shayna Miyajima are among those joining Mason in the professional flight. The championship (amateur) field includes Ma, Min, Jonathan Ota and Kyosuke Hara.

Wie trying to get back on course

Michelle Wie called 2012 "the worst year I’ve ever had in my entire career" before last week’s LPGA season opener. Then she missed another cut, shooting rounds of 74-73 at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open to come up two shots short.

This week, Wie is playing the Honda LPGA Thailand, a limited-field (70 players) event with all but one of last year’s top-50 money winners. Yani Tseng, the world’s top-ranked female golfer, has won the past two titles in Thailand. Last year, she birdied the final hole to beat Ai Miyazato, who went on to win the inaugural LPGA Lotte Championship at Ko Olina.

Wie went on to miss 10 cuts in a year where "one thing led to another and it kind of snowballed," she said last week. "The next thing I knew I was kind of struggling to keep my head above water."

Wie "started from scratch" in the offseason, "ripping everything apart" to try to rediscover the game and confidence that helped her win two tournaments and make two Solheim Cup teams in her first three official LPGA seasons.

The 23-year-old graduated from Stanford with a degree in communications less than a year ago. She has no regrets about her time in college and draws no parallels between her graduation and golf decline.

"Just the people who I met (at Stanford), it was just a life experience that I really needed," Wie said. "I think that growing up in the spotlight, I had a fairly normal childhood but a nominal childhood. I almost had to grow up a little bit quickly."

On Friday, the Punahou graduate received a sponsor’s invitation to play at next week’s HSBC Women’s Champions tournament in Singapore. Players qualify with a victory the previous year, or by finishing in the top 20 in the Rolex rankings. Wie is currently 74th.

This year’s LPGA Lotte Championship is April 17-20 at Ko Olina. The full-field event has a $1.7 million purse. For more information, visit lottechampionship.com.

Wilson, McLachlin on Web.com Tour

Hawaii’s Dean Wilson and Parker McLachlin are playing in this week’s Panama Claro Championship, the season-opening event on the Web.com Tour.

Others in the field of the $600,000 event include 2008 Mercedes-Benz Championship winner Daniel Chopra, Will MacKenzie, Hank Kuehne and Jason Gore. The tournament begins today at Panama Golf Club. McLachlin was second in 2006 in Panama.

On Sunday, Maui’s Sam Cyr earned a share of 14th at the Singha Esan Open, a $100,000 event on the AseanTour in Thailand. The two-time NAIA champ shot rounds of 68-68-72-71 to finish five shots out of first. Cyr is playing the Zaykabar Myanmar Open this week. The Asian Tour opener has a $300,000 purse.

With rounds of 73-75, Moanalua’s Tadd Fujikawa missed the cut by two at last week’s Palmetto Hall Championship. The eGolf Tour’s season opener was played on Hilton Head Island (S.C.). In Wednesday’s opening round of eGolf’s Oldfield Open, at Okatie, S.C., Fujikawa fired 75.

Notes

» The Rainbow Wahine finished 12th on Tuesday in their first tournament of the spring, the 12-team Folino Invitational in Industry Hills, Calif. The Wahine closed with a 331 for a 54-hole score of 1,000 — 98 shots behind champion Gonzaga. Senior Ka‘ili Britos led UH for the fifth straight tournament, finishing 34th at 78—240. Gonzaga sophomoreAlice Kim, a University graduate, was 17th at 76—232.

Mid-Pacific graduate Hayley Young, a senior at Boise State, finished sixth at 74—226. Britney Yada (Waiakea), a Portland State senior,was 23rd (81—234).

» Hawaii Prince will be the site of a half-day golf school conducted by the Brian Mogg Golf Academy on March 1 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mogg is one of Golf Magazine’sTop 100 Teachers. He is assisted by 2012 Aloha PGA Teacher of the Year Tommy Hines. Cost is $295, which includes a round at Prince. Call 729-7465 for more information.