KAPOLEI — Rosie Jones put the pedal to the pearls yesterday, gliding to a four-shot victory in the inaugural Kinoshita Pearl Classic at Kapolei Golf Course.

When it was over, Jones broadly grinned through several pictures while holding her trophy — a spectacular silver platter with 144 inlaid pearls that was about the same size as 19-month-old Riko Kinoshita, daughter of Kinoshita Pearl President Akira Kinoshita. Jones also collected $50,000.

Jones, who turns 50 next month, went into the final round a shot behind Colleen Walker and just as nervous as she had been those 13 times she won during a 24-year LPGA career that ended in 2005.

By the time the final twosome made the turn, Jones was 1-under for the day, 6-under for the tournament and two up on Walker.

"I didn't make any putts," Walker said. "Had I made some putts I might have put some heat on her, but I didn't. And you're going to have to beat her."

Jones has made that tough in her short Legends career. She has three wins in seven starts.

"I was playing really steady golf and I birdied the ninth hole. That gave me a lot of confidence right there," said Jones, who finished at 7-under-par 137 with rounds of 67 and 70. "I got a glimpse at the scoreboard after that and saw nobody was really making a big move with a low score. I knew the golf course was playing a little bit tougher today so I felt pretty comfortable with that."

Jones, whose only bogey came on the fourth hole, never came close to faltering. She flirted with birdies all over the back nine, making just one — from 10 feet on the 14th. But her cushion kept expanding as Walker bogeyed twice to fall into third behind Nancy Scranton.

They swapped spots on the final hole, when Scranton three-putted and Walker drained a long birdie putt, chasing it in with a Tiger-like fist pump.

It was nearly identical to the bomb that gave her a 66 Saturday and did the LPGA's Legends Tour proud in its Hawai 'I debut. The 45-older tour started in 2000 and plays its first major next month.

Walker (75—141) collected $35,000, and another $2,000 for her tournament-low round. Scranton got $21,500 for a share of third with Kris Tschetter (71), making her Legends debut. Both finished at 142. Last place was worth $5,312 and all 35 golfers were given a strand of pearls.

But the biggest winner might have been Kapolei. The LPGA played its Hawaiian Ladies Open here soon after the course opened, from 1996 to 2001. Kapolei has matured extremely gracefully. The "mature" women of the Legends Tour were in awe.

"It's a beautiful golf course," Walker said. "And the greens are beautiful. They roll really true. Everything is in really good shape here."

Or, as Jones put it: "It could take on the (LPGA) tour right now, it sure could."

Hawai 'i has no LPGA tournaments scheduled next year for the first time since 1981, a prospect not lost on Jones.

"We feel really lucky on the Legends Tour that we have an opportunity to come over here because so many of us played in Hawai 'i over the years," she said. "I don't think any of us ever thought we'd get to come over here again."