A change in the Champions Tour qualifying system could send Hawai'i's David Ishii on a major Mainland golf road trip next year.

The senior tour announced yesterday that nine spots will be open at its weekly qualifier beginning in 2007, up from two. Those eligible to enter the weekly qualifying include past winners on the PGA and Champions tours. Ishii, who turns 51 next month, won the 1990 Hawaiian Open.

The tour anticipates qualifying fields of 50 to 80 each week.

"I was hoping for that," said Ishii, who played in the last Champions Tour Qualifying School with mumps and did not earn playing privileges. "The only trouble with that is you have to travel all over and don't know if you will get in any tournaments. A lot of times you get there and don't qualify and have a week to kill. That's the junk part, but that's the only way to make it now. And, you get to see America."

Ishii was inducted into the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame this year. The Kaua'i High and University of Houston graduate won 14 times on the Japan pro tour, earning more than $8 million. Ishii has 35 victories in Hawai'i. His David S. Ishii Foundation has sponsored the state high school championships since 1997.

He was given an exemption to play in January's Turtle Bay Championship and finished 29th in his first Champions tour event. That earned him a place in last month's Senior PGA Championship, where he missed the cut.

Ishii gets another shot next week. He qualified for the $2.6 million U.S. Senior Open Championship, which opens Thursday at Prairie Dunes Country Club, in Hutchinson, Kan. Ishii tees off at 5:16 a.m. Hawai'i time Thursday and 9:31 a.m. Friday. Honolulu's Dave Eichelberger is also in the field, and tees off at 3:32 a.m. and 8:47 a.m.

ESPN will cover the first two rounds, from 8 a.m. HST. The cut will be made to the low 60 and ties, and those within 10 shots of the lead, after two rounds. NBC will show the final two days, beginning at 9 a.m. HST.

Ishii's Hawaiian Open win also earned him a one-time exemption into the Senior British Open. He will go to Scotland for that the end of July. Then he and wife Lorraine will make some decisions about next year's schedule.

"I could go to all the tournaments if I wanted," Ishii said. "If I'm going to do that maybe it should be next year because you've got to do it when you are young or it will be hard. I don't have to go to tour school now though."

Under the tour's new system, players have unlimited access to weekly qualifying with: