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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, February 11, 2006

Delasin kick starts LPGA's new year

Advertiser Staff

SBS OPEN AT TURTLE BAY

WHAT: First full-field event of 2006 LPGA season

WHEN: Feb. 16 to 18. From 7:10 a.m. Thursday and Friday, and 8:30 a.m. Saturday

WHERE: Turtle Bay Palmer Course (Par 72, 6,520 yards)

FREE JUNIOR CLINIC: 1 p.m. today, Fazio driving range, with Dorothy Delasin

QUALIFYING: 8 a.m. Monday

PRO-AM: 7 a.m. Wednesday

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Jennifer Rosales (8-under 208, tournament record)

PURSE: $1,000,000 ($150,000 first prize)

TOURNAMENT TICKETS: $10 daily or $25 for four-day pass. Children 15-under free when accompanied by ticketed adult. Free parking on Kamehameha Highway, with shuttles to first tee.

TV: The Golf Channel, 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. HST, and SBS in Korea

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Dorothy Delasin, who represents Turtle Bay Resort on the LPGA tour, will conduct a free junior clinic today, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., at Turtle Bay. The clinic will be followed by a nine-hole tournament.

Golfers ages 7 to 18 can participate. The clinic will be on the Fazio driving range.

Parents are also encouraged to attend. Delasin's clinic will include a discussion of playing on tour, keys to winning and goal setting, and tips on how to succeed at the highest level. She also will sign autographs and give away prizes.

Delasin has won four LPGA tournaments and was the 2000 Rookie of the Year. She will play in the SBS Open at Turtle Bay next week (Feb. 16 to 18) at Turtle Bay's Palmer Course, and the Fields Open in Hawai'i, Feb. 23 to 25 at Ko Olina Golf Club.

The SBS Open has commitments from nine of last year's Top 10 money winners, including Paula Creamer (2), Cristie Kerr (3), Lorena Ochoa (4) and Jeong Jang (5). Annika Sorenstam is the only one missing. Jennifer Rosales will defend her title. Former Hawai'i residents Cindy Rarick and Grace Park also are playing, along with Hall of Famers Juli Inkster, Patty Sheehan and Karrie Webb.

Approximately 20 golfers will try to qualify for two slots in the SBS Open Monday at 8 a.m. That field includes state high school champion Christine Kim, a Waiakea senior who got her spot by winning a pre-qualifier, and Punahou sophomore Stephanie Kono, who received an exemption into the qualifier.

The qualifiers will be added to the current field of 128. The tournament's two exempt spots, yet to be officially announced, will fill the field at 132.

Stanford freshman Mari Chun and Sacred Hearts Academy freshman Ayaka Kaneko have received exemptions into the Fields Open qualifying, which will be Feb. 20 at Ko Olina.

Chun won two of the three Hawai'i women's majors last year and captured the third — state match play — in 2004. She beat Kaneko in sudden death to take the 2005 Jennie K. championship. Kaneko just qualified for April's LPGA Takefuji Classic in Las Vegas, beating out two UNLV players.

All but a dozen of the players on the SBS Open final field list will play at the inaugural Fields Open. Punahou junior Michelle Wie, who tied with Kerr for second at SBS last year, is not yet entered at Turtle Bay, but did accept an exemption to play the Fields Open. Wie is not an LPGA member and can accept six exemptions a year.

Inkster, 45, will conduct a free junior golf clinic with Creamer and Morgan Pressel, whose combined age is 36, on Feb. 21. It will go from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Ko Olina's practice range. As part of the PGA Aloha Section's Get Into Golf Hawai'i and the PGA of America's PlayGolfAmerica programs, Ko Olina will bring in 250 elementary school children from the leeward district.