Her second ace and her second win on the LPGA tour. Michelle Wie walked away with a huge victory at the CN Canadian Women's Open the last weekend in August.

Wie did it against one of the toughest minds on the Tour today, Jiyai Shin. Wie and Shin played against one another, teeing off together all four days, a very unusual situation.

The first day, Wie really took off, shooting a 65 with the ace.

I was pumped but cautious.

By Saturday, Wie had a three-stroke lead over her nearest competition, Shin, but Shin caught up with a 68 and Wie shot a 72, wiping out her advantage. That took the two into the final day tied for the lead.

With her record in her final rounds in years past, that third round was a little worrisome for fans watching from around the world. But Wie put it all together on Sunday with her gorgeous swing, a game that was in the fairway and a great win. She won the three strokes back and no one really challenged her, except herself.
(The mosquitoes seemed to be her biggest bother.)

Wie fired a 70,  Shin of South Korea shot a 1-over 73 and tied for second with Kristy McPherson of South Carolina (66), defending champion Suzann Pettersen of Norway (69) and Jee Lee Young from South Korea (69).

After getting her official victory dousing of champagne by the official celebration emissary of the Tour, Christina Kim, Wie got hold of that trophy and hoisted it above her head with a huge grin and a glorious smile.

Wie didn't forget to thank everyone from the podium on the microphone: "Thank you to CN for hosting…Golf Canada. Thank you to volunteers...Thank you to the fans...you guys are spectacular. Thank you So Much."

FUJIKAWA WINS BY NINE STROKES

Tadd Fujikawa didn’t just win an event on the eGolf Tour, he won the eGolf Tour Championship. And he won it by 9 strokes at Spring Creek Golf Club. Granted, the course was playing soft after a drenching. But still 9 strokes is incredible.

Fujikawa has always known he can win.  He’s done it more than a couple of times in Hawaii. Back to back at the Mid Pacific Open 2008 and 2009 and Pearl Open 2007 championships, but this was his first on “foreign soil”.

"This win is much different" Fujikawa said. "I played well there, too. It's just a different atmosphere out here, and the competition is a lot stronger out here.

"Knowing that I can go out and compete and win on this tour will be very important for me going into Q-School."

Fujikawa won’t have to worry about the PGA Tour Qualifying School tournament entry fee.  eGolf is providing that $4,500 to the top-20 on the money list. The Tour Championship $25,000 paycheck moved him into that top-20 list.

Fujikawa finished the tournament 64-65-66 and 68. 

With that win, Fujikawa finished the regular eGolf season 5th on the money list earning more than $63,000 and 3 top-five finishes.

Fujikawa says he is going to play this fall but hasn’t figured out his schedule yet. He wants to go back to work with his coaches at Sea Island, work on his game and get Q-school ready.

CASSY ISAGAWA’S NEXT STOP – SCOTLAND

Cassy Isagawa is another Hawaii player who has known victory but never on this scale.

Cassy Isagawa won the 35th Junior PGA Championship with a par putt on the third playoff hole after watching her 2nd playoff hole putt lip out. Isagawa defeated Ginger Howard of Florida at Sycamore Hills Golf Club. She is one of three Hawaii players to win the Jr PGA Championship. In addition to her victory, Golfweek named Isagawa Player of the Week, noting her other successes this summer on the mainland including finishes second at the Junior World Golf Championships and tied for first at the Junior Americas Cup.

With win earns Isagawa a spot on The Junior Ryder Cup team. It will be held on September 27-28 at Gleneagle Resort’s PGA Centenary Course in Perthshire, SCOTLAND!!  This Ryder Cup format will be played by foursomes, mixed four ball and singles.

Cyd Okino didn’t make the cut into match play but she shared the challenge with Isagawa by being her caddie.

RYDER CUP CHOICES

In a couple of days, we will know whether Tiger Woods has made the Ryder Cup team.
Team Captain Corey Pavin has had his share of grief over the issue but he made it very clear in a news conference that he has not made up his mind although Tiger Woods remains, with a number of other players, at the top of his list.

MP3 Audio: Cory Pavin talks about Tiger Woods.
(Click Cory Pavin link. Audio player will open in a new window.)

Pavin says the 8 players on the team already are perfect choices. He doesn’t have to pick certain types of players to counter another player’s weaknesses. They are all strong and well rounded.

Tiger Woods has made it clear he’d like to play on the team, even joking they could just put him in the singles matches where he excels.

MP3 Audio: Tiger Woods talks about being on the team.
(Click Tiger Woods link. Audio player will open in a new window.)

Woods made that comment after his Whistling Straits appearance. After Firestone, where he appeared to hit rock bottom, he was very clear that if his game is as bad as it was at Firestone, he couldn’t want to play, adding that no one hitting 18 over par deserved to be representing on the Ryder Cup team.

BUNKER-GATE

Sloppy. Overrun. Overwhelmed. Rules. Those words come to mind when I think of what happened to Dustin Johnson. Johnson had to take a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker during the final round of the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, ending what could have been a three-way playoff between Martin Kaymer, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson.

But Johnson put his club down onto the sandy soil inside a bunker, which is against the rules of golf.  But why would a seasoned golfer and his caddie violate such a basic rule with so much at stake?
 
What wasn't so straightforward was knowing where the bunkers are at the Pete Dye designed Whistling Straits on the shores of Lake Michigan.

I call his photo: “The Bunker – The people – The Madness”

You had to read the memo to know that local rules applied. All bunkers, even though outside the ropes, were real bunkers and not waste areas. Johnson admitted he hadn’t read it:

MP3 Audio: Dustin Johnson talks about the experience.
(Click Dustin Johnson link. Audio player will open in a new window.)

Those bunkers looked more like waste areas given the spectators standing in them, the cigarette butts, the empty bottles and cans, the assortment of paper and other trash and some creative sand castles built by the children.  

But do not let that fool you, oh talented golfer. You see sandy soil - beware. Why didn't the assorted volunteers and rules officials move the spectators out of the bunker so Johnson could see where he was? Not their problem apparently.

Or was it.

I think it was sloppy work on the part of the PGA of America. Spectators should not be allowed to trample through the bunkers.
 
So the Johnson and his caddie were sloppy for not reading the local rules memo.
The PGA of America was sloppy for not having better crowd control.
 
ANOTHER GERMAN STORMS PGA AND THE FIRST INDIA BORN WINS

It's been a great year for European golfers and golfers from around the world.

Only one American golfer claimed victory in this year’s major championships. Phil Mickelson won the Masters. After that, an Irishman, Graeme McDowell won the US Open; a South African, Louis Oosthuizen, won at the British Open; and a German, Martin Kaymer, won the PGA Championship.
 
If you follow the European Tour at all, you know Kaymer has been on a streak for the past few years, winning multiple times on that stage. Now he has broken through, winning a major, on U.S soil.

He says that is huge for his self-confidence.

MP3 Audio: Martin Kaymer on winning a major.
(Click Martin Kaymer link. Audio player will open in a new window.)

So while his trailblazer, Bernhard Langer, continues to win championships on the Champions Tour, Kaymer is taking his place on the PGA Tour.

PGA TOUR SEASON WRAPS MAKING HISTORY

And then in the final event of the PGA Tour regular season, before the Fed Ex Cup race begins, the first man from India wins on the PGA Tour. He’s on his way to Kapalua for the SBS Championship.

Arjun Atwal became the first Monday qualifier in 24 years to win a PGA Tour championship. They are celebrating in India and very proud of their man, Atwal.

This golf in the Olympics thing makes a lot of sense now, doesn't it.

LPGA SAFEWAY CLASSIC

On the LPGA Tour, Ai Miyazato became the #1 player in the world with her victory at the Safeway Classic at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Oregon.

She is living up to the hype.

Remember when she played against the men at the Pearl Open in Hawaii at Pearl Country Club and everyone said she was the "it" girl coming out of Japan?

And when she came to Hawaii to play at Turtle Bay, when there was an LPGA event in Hawaii, the media center had to be expanded to include the ballroom to make room for the over 60 media outlets that came from Japan to cover Miyazato?

Huge expectations on small shoulders, smiling and proud to know she is bringing it home for her fans in Japan.

Michelle Wie, still a full time student at Stanford (she's taking 21 credits this Fall) is at least still making the cuts. She took home a little over $8,000  for her work at the Safeway Classic.

Great to see Kristina Merkle, all nervous about meeting and competing against the likes of Laura Davies, also in the mix from day one. One of her Facebook notes was about meeting Laura Davies and having her back cracked.  She didn’t make the cut but she did play very well. She probably won’t agree. But tell her. She did well.

HAWAII STATE WOMEN’S GOLF ASSOCIATION MATCH PLAY

In the Championship Flight:  Nichole Sakamoto over Mariel Galdiano 1up
A-Flight:  Charlee Kapiioho over Marleen Billedeaux 6 / 5
Cyd Okino was the defending champion.

MAUI OPEN

For someone who says he only plays once a week, he sure did a bang up job of beating the competition in the 53rd Maui Open played at the Dunes of Maui Lani last month.

Royden Heirakuji, a 2005 quarterfinalist at the U.S. Amateur Public Links, sank a beautiful 25-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to beat Brian Sasada, a pro at Waiehu Municipal Golf Course.

Heirakuji, a Makawao resident, was kind of in a hurry to finish the tournament so he could catch his flight to Oahu to get to work. He was in the third to the last group and shot a 1 over 73 to beat tie Sasada, who was playing in the second to the last group.

The Maui News was there. Robert Collias wrote:

After Heirakuji striped his drive down the middle of the 428-yard, par-4 No. 1 in the playoff, Sasada's drive stopped about 50 yards short of that after hitting a tree.

Sasada put his 2-iron from 215 yards in front of the right-front greenside bunker while Heirakuji put his approach shot on the green.

Sasada chipped to about 10 feet with his third and Heirakuji lined up his putt to win this tournament for the first time after a couple of flight titles in the event he has been playing in since the 1980s.

Moments after Sasada told his opponent to ''make it'' on the green, Heirakuji did.

''Gosh, I have no idea how far that was,'' Heirakuji said of the putt. ''I just sent it out there about five feet and hoped for the best. I figured I had to make a good stroke because Brian is going to make his putt and it just so happened to go in. That is how it is.''

Heirakuji says the Publinks is his focus every year - he has represented Hawaii at the national tournament 10 times - but he has had his eye on a Maui Open crown for some time.

''I am ecstatic, just wanting to play and having things turn out the way they did, it is exciting,'' Heirakuji said. ''I have been playing this thing for 25 years, pretty close. It feels great to join the list of Maui Open champions. That is what you play for and it feels real good.''

Sasada, a four-time Maui Open champion - his last title coming in 2001 - said he was happy to see Heirakuji's putt go in. The former Makena pro played collegiately at the University of Hawaii-Hilo. ''It is nice to see Royden win, he is a nice guy.''

In the Senior Flight, Makena’s Kirk Nelson took home the trophy. He’s been winning so much this year, he’s ready to go to the Champions Tour Q-School and I say..go for it.

MAUI WOMEN’S INVITATIONAL

The same day the men played at the Dunes at Maui Lani, the Maui Women’s Invitational was being played at the Maui Country Club.

Maui Women’s Invitational, Sunday's Final Round At Maui Country Club, Bobbi Kokx posted a two round score of 153 to win the event.

In the Championship flight, Debbie Katz was the winner with a 161.

BYE BYE LOVE

August 23 the official announcement came out. Elin Nordegren IS Elin Nordegren, shedding the name of Tiger Woods in their divorce degree. The amount she was given will be speculated upon forever since that was not to be discussed publicly. But they will share custody of their two children.

Other notable events in August:

3-time SBS Championship winner Stuart Appleby shooting a 59 on the PGA Tour. Appleby is well known in Hawaii since winning three SBS Championships on Maui at Kapalua. He’ll be back after his Greenbrier Classic victory.

During the WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone, Bubba Watson said his main goal this year was to make enough points to get on the Ryder Cup team.

Be careful what you wish for.

Watson came very close to taking a major this year and being on the Ryder Cup team.

One of my favorite photos this month: Tiger Woods, without a swing coach, getting help from caddie Steve Williams just before the PGA Championship. Woods then asked for advice from, and may be working with, Sean Foley.

HELLO LOVLINESS…

Hawaii’s Parker McLachlin, who plays for Waikoloa, will be taking some time out from golf this year to be with his wife and first born, a little girl. She was born in August. Makena Marie McLachlin was born last Wednesday. She weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces and was 21 inches long.

McLachlin has been home with his wife since withdrawing from the Reno-Tahoe Open a month ago.

Kevin Shimomura will represent the Aloha Section PGA at the 34th Callaway Golf PGA Assistant Championship in November, after winning a qualifier last week at Ko Olina Golf Club. Shimomura, from Ko Olina, shot rounds of 76-75 for a 7-over-par 151. He beat Pearl Country Club's Regan Lee with a birdie on the playoff hole to earn the section's qualifying spot. Lee is first alternate.

PATRIOT DAY

When you play a around of golf this first weekend in September, add a few bucks to your round. The money raised will help the families of the men and women, killed or disabled, serving our country. You can find out which courses are participating and more about what your money will do.

Here’s a link to the PGA of America’s Patriot Day website: http://www.playgolfamerica.com/index.cfm?action=patriot

At the Barclays, on  Tuesday before the event, Phil Mickelson and other players participated in a number of charitable events.

This past month, I’ve had the pleasure of talking with Cassy Isagawa and Tadd Fujikawa on “The Golf Club” radio/Internet show plus XM Sirius host Peter Kessler,  Global Golf Post editor/founder Jim Nugent, golf instructor John Hoskison, BBC’s Andrew Cotter, SB Nation Waggleroom’s Ryan Ballengee and Kapalua’s Gary Planos, just to name a few.

Hope you’ll join me in the clubhouse for fun and great golf tips this September.

And I want you to be a qualifier to win the trip to Maui for the Aloha Team Classic tournament on Maui and the only way for you to do that is to listen and call in to qualify.

You’ll get the round trip ticket on Go Mokulele, 5 nights at the Outrigger Napili Shores, 6 days in a Hertz Rent a Car, a round of golf for 2 at the Kaanapali Golf Course plus the opening and closing event tickets for the tournament. LPGA players will be playing with the amateurs who are playing to raise money for Maui youth charities. It’s wonderful.
The Aloha Team Classic at http://www.alohateamclassic.org/ .

The Golf Club” radio show every Saturday morning at 7 AM on The Jewel, 99.5 FM, on Oahu and on KONI FM 104.7 on Maui and on KTOH 99.9 FM on Kauai and on KPUA AM 670 in Hilo.

Thank you for your Mana and may you hit the sweet spot every time.

Danielle