Fifty has been a memorable year for David Ishii.

He turned 50 during last year's Senior British Open. This year, he will play in it, July 27 to 30 at Turnberry in Scotland.

Ishii will also be inducted into the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame May 1 at the Hawai'i Prince Hotel. He is already a member of the Hawai'i Sports Hall of Fame.

Ishii, who has won 14 times on the Japan tour, is the 59th inductee, and the only one this year. The induction will be a dinner instead of the traditional lunch. Tickets and sponsorships are available through the Aloha Section (593-2230 or aloha@pgahq.com).

The exemption into the Senior British Open was made possible by Ishii's 1990 Hawaiian Open victory. That PGA Tour win gave him a one-time invitation when he turned 50.

"It's going to be interesting because I've never been to Scotland," said Ishii, who played in the 1988 British Open. "It will be nice to visit."

He was home for a week after finishing up the Japan Golf Tour Organization Qualifying School, which was postponed after it started last year because of bad weather. He ended up tying for 56th, which won't get him into many JGTO events this year.

He plans to play a few on the regular tour, enter all eight Japanese senior events and play in some two-day Challenger tournaments. Ishii will be back home this month — after a putting lesson in Arizona — to play the Mid-Pacific Open.

He will stay for his David S. Ishii Foundation girls and boys state high school championships next month at Turtle Bay Resort. Ishii won the state championship as a Kaua'i High senior in 1973.

He will go back to the Champions Tour Q-School, if it is necessary. Ishii came up short at last year's Q-School while competing with the mumps. He said the tour is contemplating a change in its qualifying format that would allow golfers with tournament victories to play in restructured Monday qualifying each week.

Ishii played in his first Champions Tour event in January, when he was given an exemption into the $1.5 million Turtle Bay Championship. He tied for 29th and won $11,100. The purse at the Senior British Open is $1.8 million.

The Hall of Fame is further commemorated by the Aloha Section PGA Hall of Fame Championship & Pro-Am sponsored by Hawaiian Telcom. The tournament will be May 6 to 8 at Kapalua Plantation.