Galdiano picked to Rolex second team

Mariel Galdiano, who won this year’s state high school championship, was named to the Rolex Junior All-America second team. The Punahou sophomore also played in her second U.S. Women’s Open this summer.

Rolex honors 48 boys and 48 girls from around the country. The top 12 are first team, the next 12 second team and the next 24 honorable mention. Allisen Corpuz, Galdiano’s Punahou classmate, earned honorable mention honors.

Galdiano is 12th in the current Polo Junior Golf Rankings, with Corpuz 24th.

WILSON TO PLAY BURNS

Their professional opponents have a semi-secret weapon, but the amateurs have a lineup as the 41st annual Gov. John A. Burns Challenge Cup gets closer.

Dean Wilson, who won $9 million on the PGA Tour, is coming home to give the pros a boost in this year’s Cup. Wilson is the reigning Hawaii State Open champ.

Amateurs have won the last six Cups to cut the pros’ lead to 23-16-1 in the Ryder Cup-style event. This year’s Governor’s Cup is Nov. 18-19 at Mid-Pacific Country Club.

The rest of the professional team might not be known until a few days before tee off. The amateurs are set. Of the 12 top point-getters in designated tournaments over the last year, 10 are eligible and playing.

The list is led by Manoa Cup champ Jared Sawada and State Stroke Play champion John Oda, a Moanalua senior who will play for UNLV next fall. They are joined by Tyler Ota, Todd Rego, Matthew Ma, Cory Oride and high school golfers Kyosuke Hara, Kyle Suppa, Shawn Lu, PJ Samiere, Brent Grant and Donny Hopoi.

Kalena Preus, now a freshman at Texas, and Richard Hattori, currently in Japan, qualified but declined their spots. The 12 golfers playing are eligible for the Nov. 25 Sony Open in Hawaii qualifying. The winner of that one-day shootout gets a spot in the PGA Tour event at Waialae Country Club, Jan. 9-12.

All the amateurs live on Oahu. Organizers are soliciting donations to the Aloha Section PGA Foundation to make it easier for neighbor island pros to participate.

WAHINE IN PAC-12 PREVIEW

Hawaii’s Rainbow Wahine golf team has been invited to play in the inaugural Pac-12 Preview, next week at Nanea Golf Club in Kona. The 12-team field includes six of the top 10 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.

UCLA is No. 1, followed by Southern Cal — with former Maui resident Kyung Kim — and Stanford. Washington, with Hawaii golfers Cyd Okino and Eimi Koga, is ranked fifth. Arizona and Arizona State are Nos. 9 and 10.

Oregon will also be at Nanea. Its No. 1 player is Maui’s Cassy Isagawa, who is ranked 48th nationally.

This is the first nonmember tournament ever played at Nanea, which is 10 years old. Golfers play 36 holes Monday and the final 18 Tuesday. Golf begins at 7:30 a.m. both days.

Kim is ranked second nationally, behind UCLA’s Allison Lee. Pepperdine sophomore Marissa Chow, an ‘Iolani graduate who will not be at the tournament, is seventh this week.

UH MEN AT PRINCEVILLE

The Hawaii men’s team will host the second annual Warrior Princeville Makai Invitational Monday through Wednesday at Princeville’s Makai Golf Club. There are 18 teams in the field, including defending champion Baylor.

The Bears are ranked 17th this fall. Arizona State (31) is the only other top-35 team on Kauai. Both Hawaii and Hawaii Hilo are playing, along with Boise State, Pepperdine, San Diego and San Francisco.

UH will play all 10 golfers, making "Green" and "Black" squads. Freshman Pono Tokioka, a Kauai High graduate, will make his first collegiate start.

In their first three tournaments, the Rainbows have been led by three different golfers — Ryan Kuroiwa, Tommy Yamashita and freshman Skye Inakoshi. Inakoshi tied for sixth in his third collegiate start, finishing five shots out of first and 5 under par, at last week’s Bill Cullum Invitational.

This is the final tournament of the fall season. Hawaii opens its spring season Feb. 5 at Hilo’s Amer Ari Invitational. The Rainbows host the John A. Burns Intercollegiate two weeks later at Wailua on Kauai.