Wie event raises funds for HSJGA

Michelle Wie walked into her "Wie Love Ping Pong" fundraiser Saturday night at a Chinatown club, looked at the ecstatic and extremely loud crowd and grinned.

"What an awesome day, let’s start the party," she said. "No better place than to do it at home."

The 24-year-old Punahou and Stanford alum nearly made it a clean sweep Saturday, reaching the final of her benefit pingpong tournament with partner Travis Joerger (representing Ko Olina) before falling to Daniel Dae Kim and Henry Yoon (Mark Bratton). The eclectic event raised approximately $50,000 to fund two scholarships for the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association.

A few hours earlier, Wie had clinched the LPGA Lotte Championship at Ko Olina, signing autographs between holes near the end and nearly bringing Golf Channel broadcaster Mark Rolfing, from Kapalua, to tears.

"What I saw at the Masters was not even close to what happened today," Rolfing said. "I almost lost it at the end of the show."

It was Wie’s third LPGA win, but first in 80 starts. It was also her fourth top-10 in six starts this year. She had four all last year.

She attributed the breakthrough to a lot of hard work with her "team," a home crowd willing her to win and a pep talk from Meg Mallon and Beth Daniel, last year’s Solheim Cup captains, before she went into the final round at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She finished second to Lexi Thompson at the year’s first major earlier this month.

"I told them, I’m so nervous,’ and they are like, That’s awesome,’" Wie recalled. "Every time you feel nervous, just enjoy it. I think I really felt that today. Every time I felt nervous out there, I was looking around and I was like there was really no other place I would rather be. So I just had a blast out there today."

5 from UHH make PacWest first team

Hawaii Hilo swept both Pacific West Conference Golf Championships within the last week, and five golfers earned first-team all-conference honors.

Three Vulcans finished in the top six Saturday to lift UHH to a 20-shot victory in the men’s championship, at Hiddenbrooke Golf Course, in Vallejo, Calif.

The women won by three in their two-round event at Hawaii Prince, finishing at 623 Tuesday behind medalist Kristen Sawada (76150).

Jade Salvador was a shot back and Kacie Harada and Dayna Bersamin tied for 10th at 161. Nyssa Aoki (168) was 20th. Sawada and Salvador earned all-conference first-team honors and Harada and Bersamin are on the second team.

Junior Dalen Yamauchi fired 71 the final two days of the men’s event to take third at 3-over-par 219. He was one shot behind Dixie State’s Kenny You, the conference player of the year, and Dominican’s Mark Milton, who won the playoff and tournament title.

Hilo’s Kyeton Little (77221) and Chris Shimomura (74222) were fifth and sixth and joined Yamauchi on the PacWest first team. Corey Kozuma was named second team after finishing ninth at 225. Christian Agosto (239) took 27th.

Hilo’s team total of 887 was 20 better than Dixie State’s. Brigham Young-Hawaii (940) took sixth, Chaminade (941) seventh and Hawaii Pacific (953) eighth in the 10-team event.

The wins earned both Hilo teams automatic bids into the NCAA Division II Championships.

Miss Hawaii tournament coming up

Entries are out for the 18th annual Miss Hawaii Scholarship Golf Tournament, May 30 at Hawaii Kai. The tournament benefits the Miss Hawaii Scholarship Fund.

The format is three-person modified scramble and the cost is $180 per person. A shotgun start begins at 1 p.m.

Golfers can register at misshawaii.org/miss-hawaii-golf-tournament/. For more information, call Don Harada at 947-7575.

CORRECTION: The Miss Hawaii Scholarship Golf Tournament will be held on May 30. An earlier version of this story and the story in the print edition said it would be held on May 18.