Dean Wilson will defend his title at the Prince Resorts/Taylormade Hawai'i State Open. The 54-hole tournament starts, Nov. 21, with a Pro-Am at Hawai'i Prince Golf Club. It benefits the Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association and Aloha Section PGA Foundation.

The first and second rounds tee off at 7 a.m. Nov. 21 and 22, with the final round scheduled to end around 2:30 p.m. Nov. 23.

Wilson, a Castle High graduate, is 79th on the PGA Tour money list this year. He won $1.35 million in his fifth year, the third straight year he has topped the $1 million mark. Wilson, who won six titles in Japan, donated his $7,500 first prize for winning last year's State Open to the O'ahu Junior Golf Association, where he started.

Wilson beat pros Joe Phengsavath and John Lynch by a shot, finishing at 9-under-par 207. Bradley Shigezawa, now a Punahou junior, played in the final group with Wilson and finished fourth to earn low-amateur honors. Cyd Okino has won the women's title the past two years. Larry Stubblefield will defend his senior championship.

Others in the Open Flight include former champions Tom Eubank, Jarett Hamamoto and Kevin Hayashi, former U.S. Public Links champion Casey Watabu and Lynch, Damien Jamila, Regan Lee and Brian Sasada. Amateurs registered include Shigezawa, Lorens Chan, Brandan Kop, TJ Kua and Ryan Perez.

Casey Nakama, who turned 50 this year, is in the Senior Flight along with Dean Prince and Dan Nishimoto. Champions Tour player Dave Eichelberger, who lives here, is tentatively planning to play. The Women's Flight includes Okino, Anna Jang, Kristina Merkle and Xyra Suyetsugu.

JUNIORS IN CUP PLAY

David Fink, Kristina Merkle, Bradley Shigezawa, Cyd Okino, Henry Park and Kimberly Kim are among those who will play for the Hawai'i team in the second annual USA Hawai'i-Japan Cup at Waikoloa's Kings' Course. The Cup opens Sunday with a Junior-Am.

The friendship tournament pits an all-star team from the Japan High School Golf Association against the best of the Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association, with 44 juniors playing in a Ryder Cup-style format.

The teams play four-ball matches in Monday's opening round. Tuesday will feature foursomes, with singles matches Wednesday. Play begins at 9:30 a.m. the first two days and 7 a.m. Wednesday.

Japan won last year's inaugural Cup. The tournament will be featured on Sunday's Emily T. Gail Talks Golf radio show, with Scott Head, Director of Golf Operations at Waikoloa Beach & Golf Resort, as a guest. The show airs at 6 p.m. on ESPN AM850 in Hilo and AM790 in Kona.

ISHII PLAYING IN JAPAN

After finishing second at last weekend's Fubon Senior Open in Taipei, Hawai'i's David Ishii will end his season with two events in Japan. Ishii will play in the PGA Handa Cup Philanthropy Senior Tournament Thanksgiving week near Tokyo, after participating in a two-day event that includes pros and amateurs next week near Osaka.

Ishii shot an 8-under-par 64 to take second at the rain-shortened tournament last week and called it his lowest round in more than a decade — "maybe ever." That event was an invitational played at the same time as the Japan Senior Tour's eighth tournament of the year.

Ishii, a 14-time winner on Japan's regular tour, played in the first seven senior stops this year and is 16th on the money list with about $57,000. He has top-10 finishes in his past four events and will finish in the top 30 to keep his playing privileges next year. The Handa Cup has the senior circuit's largest purse, $1.27 million.

Japan's Kiyoshi Murota, who represents Turtle Bay, won the senior tour's Order of Merit the first two years and is seventh this year. Murota also still plays on the regular Japan tour.

The David S. Ishii Foundation State High School Golf Championships will be played at Ka'anapali in May.

Q-SCHOOL IN STAGE 2

Former UH golfer Pierre-Henri Soero is two shots off the lead after the opening round of his PGA Tour Second Qualifying Stage at Southern Hills Plantation Club in Brooksville, Fla. Soero shot a 4-under-par 68 yesterday and is tied for fifth. The top 20 Saturday advance to final qualifying. Soero is a shot ahead of Robert Gamez, Grant Waite and Marco Dawson.

Chad Saladin, the 2004 Hawai'i State Open champ, is tied for eighth at the Second Qualifying Stage at Deerwood Golf Club in Kingwood, Texas. Saladin opened with a 71. That qualifying will advance 21 players to the final stage.

Former Hawai'i pro John Riegger, now playing out of Henderson, Nev., is one back of leader Chris Riley in the qualifier at Callaway Gardens-Mountain View Golf Course, in Pine Mountain, Ga. The top 20 from that site advance.

Hawai'i's Stan Souza, Mark Morrison and Lance Taketa failed to advance at last week's Champions Tour regional qualifying.

FOUNDATION HELP

The Hawai'i State Women's Golf Foundation awarded 16 stipends worth $9,000 to 13 golfers this year to help with expenses to USGA events.

Punahou sophomore Cyd Okino received money to play in the USGA Women's Public Links (Wisconsin), USGA Junior Girls (Connecticut) and U.S. Women's Open (Minnesota). Seven golfers got help to go to publinx, and two each for junior girls, Women's Amateur (Oregon) and the Senior Women's Championship (Oklahoma). Grants were also given to the Mid-Amateur (Michigan) and Course Calibration Seminar (Arizona).

Stipends ranged from $500 to $700. The HSWGF will start its 2009 program in June.

PRINCEVILLE 12TH

PGA pro Steve Murphy and his team of amateurs Dana Palama, Keith Yamamoto and Rory Raynot took 12th at the McGladrey Team National Championship at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina. The Princeville team competed against 40 other teams from across the country.

The team championship is the first grassroots amateur best-ball championship managed by PGA of America. PGA pros and amateurs competed for a minimum combined purse of $15,000 at each Section Team Championship and $200,000 at the National Team Championship.

NOTES

Ko'olau Golf Club will give golfers a coupon for their next round of golf when they bring in three non-perishable food items through Nov. 20. The coupon allows kama'aina to play for $39 and visitors to play for $89, any time on weekdays and after 11 a.m. weekends and holidays. It is good for 30 days after issue date. The Holiday Food Drive benefits Hawai'i Foodbank.