KAPOLEI — Golf is a game full of ironies.

Just ask Cindy Rarick, the former University of Hawai'i golfer who is near to winding down a 22-year LPGA career. She's 47, after all, even though she doesn't look it.

One of 70 players who had to finish up the second round of the Fields Open in Hawai'i after it was suspended late Friday afternoon, Rarick stepped to the tee at her first hole of the day — the par-3 12th — at 7:30 yesterday morning when play resumed.

She gets a hole-in-one.

Rarick really needed it, too, because she was in danger of missing the cut. As it turned out, even a par at that hole wouldn't have done it. Her sixth official LPGA ace enabled her to complete a round of 72 for a 36-hole total of 143, just making the cut by a stroke.

So what did she do at the same hole the second time around a couple of hours later?

She double-bogeys it for a 5 and finishes with a 77 for a 220 for 54 holes.

It was the same hole that Cristie Kerr incurred a 2-shot penalty in Thursday's opening round. That cost Kerr, who shot yesterday's low round, a 7-under 65, some big bucks as she finished in a three-way tie for sixth at 206 instead of a solo third.

Rarick finished tied for 67th, earning $2,551. But she was just glad to make the cut and be playing.

"It was just nice to be playing this afternoon," said Rarick, who made only five cuts in 13 events last year as a nonexempt player.

"It was a tough afternoon for me. I started out terrible. But the ace was fun today," said Rarick, who used a 4-iron to a friendly pin placement at the 171-yard hole.

Rarick said her mindset when she teed it up was that she knew she had to play well to make the cut. She never imagined holing it out.

"That was a great way to start," Rarick said about her ace. "I've never done that before (getting an ace on the first swing of the day). I didn't see it. I was just happy that I hit the green."

That was her highlight of the day.

Playing the back nine first in her final round, Rarick bogeyed the 10th and got that double on 12. She used a 7-wood this time because it played longer with a back-left pin placement. But she pulled it left, missed the green and three-putted.

Rarick bounced back with birdies at 15 and 16, hitting both greens in regulation, but bogeyed 18 to make the turn at 38. She finally birdied the nemesis par-5 fifth, which she had bogeyed twice. But then she doubled-bogeyed 7 and bogeyed 9, missing the greens in regulation both times.

Rarick hopes to play around 15 events this year, even if she has to Monday-qualify.

Still, she enjoyed her two weeks in Hawai'i in the LPGA Tour's season-opening events.

"I'm always happy to be playing in Hawai'i," said Rarick, who represents the Waikoloa Beach Resort on the Big Island.

A five-time LPGA winner, Rarick still regards her victory in the 1987 Tsumura Hawaiian Ladies Open at Turtle Bay as "definitely my most special" not only because it was her first but also because it was in Hawai'i.

So when will she finally hang it up?

"I don't really want to do at it too much longer. I've had my fill of really traveling the world. It's been wonderful. I still enjoy it when I get to the destination," she said.