Teenagers who won two of the three women's majors last year — both at Mid-Pacific Country Club — will be back in Lanikai for the 57th annual Jennie K. Wilson Invitational, which starts tomorrow.

Moanalua High School junior Kristina Merkle will defend her title. She will be joined by former teammate Jaclyn Hilea, who captured State Stroke Play last year at MPCC. Hilea attended the International Junior Golf Academy Postgraduate program after high school and has a golf scholarship to Furman for the fall.

The first major of the women's season will also feature Punahou sophomore Anna Jang, who won the state high school girls championship last week. University of Hawai'i teammates Xyra Suyetsugu, Nancy Shon and Erin Matsuoka, who helped the Rainbow Wahine reach their first NCAA Tournament and Top-50 national ranking, are also playing.

There are 19 in the Championship Flight, including former Jennie K. champions Bobbi Kokx and Lesly Ann Komoda.

Play starts at 7 a.m. each day. Leaders go out at approximately 9 a.m. Sunday.

KONA OPEN AT KONA CC

The 2007 Kuma Contracting Kona Open will be Saturday and Sunday at Kona Country Club's Ocean Course. Olomana head pro Norman Ganin-Asao made Kona his first professional title last year when he birdied the final hole to beat Ivan Cunningham, Jarett Hamamoto, David Havens, Regan Lee and Matt Pakkala by a shot. Former UH-Hilo golfer Garrett Okamura was low amateur.

Professionals playing for approximately $15,000 include Asao, Pakkala, Mark Morrison, Regan and Reynold Lee, Hamamoto, Pierre-Henri Soero, Joe Phengsavath, Cunningham, Ron Castillo Jr., Kevin Hayashi and John Lynch.

Amateurs in the field include Okamura, Honoka'a senior Sean Maekawa, and Kellen and Casey Watabu — the reigning U.S. Public Links champion who just won the Hickam Invitational.

JUNIOR GOLF AT MAKALEI

MAKALEI OFFERING THREE PROGRAMS FOR JUNIORS

Makalei's Keiki Golf offers three programs starting this month. The Golf Membership program costs $200. Driving Range Membership is $100. Both are good through Aug. 31.

Golf membership allows players to tee off from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. daily, with the junior and a parent playing for free. Juniors must attend pre-membership etiquette training. The range membership allows juniors to hit balls all summer when accompanied by a parent.

The Keiki Summer Swing costs $350 and is good through Nov. 30. It includes golf and range memberships, golf shoes and a Makalei hat. They can also participate in six clinics by PGA pro Kyle Herzberg; cost is $10 each.

For more information, contact Herzberg at 325-6625 or kherzberg@hawaiiantel.net.

CLASSIC RAISES $60,000

More than $60,000 was raised at the 31st annual AIG Hawai'i Aloha Section PGA Classic. The event is now the Aloha Section PGA Foundation's primary fundraiser.

The foundation, a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization, was created to help programs such as junior golf development, the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame, research and education, fund scholarships and promote golf in Hawai'i.

The Classic was held at Turtle Bay Resort, with 48 teams and 288 players.

On the Arnold Palmer Course, the Turtle Bay Golf 2 team of professional Jerry Mullen and amateurs Del Galicinao, Bob Swarz, Jay Takahara, Cedric Nakayama and Pati Evile won with 106.

On the George Fazio Course, the Honolulu Ford team of pro Beau Yokomoto and amateurs Dave Chun, Keith Nakamura, Peter Suemori, Kelvin Sato and Kenneth Yamato won with 99.

NOTES

Hawai'i Golf Hall of Famer David Ishii has been invited to play The Senior PGA Championship next week. The Champions Tour's first major of the year will be at the Ocean Course at Kiawah in South Carolina. The 16-year-old course features 10 holes directly along the beach, most of any course in the Northern Hemisphere. Golf Digest called it the "Toughest Resort Course in the United States." Ishii qualified by finishing 13th at this year's Turtle Bay Championship. He missed the Senior PGA cut last year in Oklahoma.