DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) Nasa Hataoka of Japan won the LPGA Tour qualifying tournament Sunday at LPGA International to earn one of 20 full tour cards for next season.

The 18-year-old Hataoka closed with a 1-under 71 on the Hills Course to finish at 12-under 348.

”It’s really hard to be a professional golfer,” Hataoka said. ”The LPGA is one of the best leagues, so I’m going to try to prepare as soon as possible.”

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Hataoka won the 2016 Japan Women’s Open, becoming the first amateur and the youngest champion to win a major tournament on the Japan LPGA Tour.

Tiffany Chan was a stroke back after a 69. She became the first player from Hong Kong to qualify for the LPGA Tour.

”I’m feeling really excited,” Chan said. ”I just tried to play my best out there today.”

South Africa’s Paula Reto (71) was third at 9 under, and Australia’s Rebecca Artis (71) was another stroke back.

The last of the 20 full cards came down to a three-hole, aggregate stroke-play ..

You love your family…in a vacuum. A living, breathing embodiment of “simpler times” and lightly conditional love, they mean a lot to you* (*from 500 miles away), and there’s no better time to show them how much while simultaneously testing the structural integrity of your personal glass house in the cold, hard arena of reality than the holidays. When that nostalgia cocoon casket does inevitably crack, however—sometime between that third consecutive piece of pumpkin pie and the debut of grandma’s new “friend” on Christmas Eve—your options are limited. You can always move your flight up to approximately eight minutes after however long it will take you to get from your parents’ house to the airport if you snuck out the basement door right now and just started running, but there's also a better (cheaper) alternative:
Booze. Lots of it.
This isn’t just some rejected National Lampoon’s script, though. According to a new study conducted by alcohol.org, practically any non-fatal liquid l..

Sam GreenwoodJERSEY CITY, NJ – SEPTEMBER 30: Charlie Hoffman of the U.S. Team reacts after chipping in on the 17th hole during Saturday four-ball matches of the Presidents Cup at Liberty National Golf Club on September 30, 2017 in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)Local boys are always gallery favorites, a tag that certainly fits Charley Hoffman at the Shriners Hospital for Children Open held in Las Vegas. Although he grew up in California, Hoffman went to school at UNLV, helping the Rebels to an NCAA Championship in 1998, and now calls Vegas his residence.
But the crowds at TPC Summerlin have another rationale in pulling for the hometown Hoffman: earlier this week, the 40-year-old pledged 100 percent of his winnings to victims of the recent Las Vegas shooting.
“I’ve never done this, donating my check,” Hoffman told reporters this week. “It’s a funny feeling. I’ve never had a better desire to win than this week. That’s a great feeling. Maybe I should do this..

Paul Lakatos/Asian TourBANGKOK, THAILAND – MAY 20: Terry Pilkadaris of Australia during round three of the 2017 Thailand Open at the Thai Country Club on May 20, 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour/Asian Tour via Getty Images)When it comes to mistakes in golf, it's often the Indian, not the arrow. Nevertheless, as philosopher and PGA champion Jeff Sluman once remarked, “Sometimes a club just has to die.” A belief on full display at the Panasonic Open.
Terry Pilkadaris had just recorded consecutive bogeys in his first round of the Asian Tour event, but had a chance to get one back with a birdie try at Delhi Golf Club's par-3 17th. Unfortunately for the 44-year-old out of Australia, he failed to convert. A miss that lead Pilkadaris to decide it was time to part ways with his putter, literally and figuratively, chucking the flat stick into the woods. Luckily for us, the cameras were rolling, captured by the Golf Channel:
https://twitter.com/GolfChannel/s..

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) Joost Luiten, Haydn Porteous and Nicolas Colsaerts all shot 7-under 64s Thursday to tie for the lead after the first round of the Turkish Airlines Open.

Colsaerts was 8 under through 15 holes, including an eagle on the 12th, but bogeyed the 16th. Porteous brought himself into contention with five birdies on the back nine.

Padraig Harrington (65) was a shot off the lead with his lowest score of the year, tied for fourth with Andres Romero. Harrington said he was motivated by the prospect of increasing his chances of making next year’s Ryder Cup.

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”It would kind of be in your hands if you got a good start like that,” Harrington said. ”The last half dozen years I’ve been thinking it’s really tough to make this team, especially when you’re playing this mixed schedule here and over in the States.”

Ian Poulter (66) was tied for sixth, with Lee Westwood (67) a further stroke behind.

Race to Dubai leader Tommy Fleetwood shot 71. That l..

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) Joost Luiten, Haydn Porteous and Nicolas Colsaerts all shot 7-under 64s Thursday to tie for the lead after the first round of the Turkish Airlines Open.

Padraig Harrington (65) was a shot off the lead with his lowest score of the year, with Ian Poulter (66) and Lee Westwood (67) close behind.

Race to Dubai leader Tommy Fleetwood shot 71.

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The forgotten golf architect: Roger Packard 1947-2017

Meet Corey Bellemore. Corey is a professional runner and humble beer lover from the great nation of Canada. None of these things seem like they have much to do with each other, but they do.
You see, Corey just so happens to be the beer mile’s version of Usain Bolt.
If you’re new to the concept of a beer mile (i.e. didn’t go to state school), it’s pretty simple: Four quarter-mile track laps, each preceded by the chugging of a beer. The clock never stops and puking is met with a penalty lap. In case you’re new to the concept of competition, the fastest man (or woman) wins.
Corey Bellemore always wins.
https://twitter.com/CoreyBellemore/status/925079197134946304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fnationalpost.com%2Fnews%2Fcanada%2Fchug-fast-burp-and-breathe-canadian-hero-corey-bellemore-smashes-the-beer-mile-world-record-again
This past weekend at the Beer Mile World Classic, hosted during halftime at a semi-pro San Francisco soccer game because obviously, Corey smashed his own beer..

Andrew D. BernsteinCopyright 2014 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)Turns out, even NBA coaches are like us. At least when it comes to Tiger Woods and Augusta National.
Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, whose GHIN shows he's currently a 9.9 Handicap Index playing out of historic Bel-Air Country Club, talked about his love of golf on Wednesday, telling a story about trying to get ejected when Tiger was making a run at the Masters during his tenure with the Boston Celtics.
Rivers says he received a text message from his general manager Danny Ainge, another golf fanatic, telling Doc to get himself kicked out of the game so he could come watch Woods with him.
You need to hear Rivers tell the story to fully appreciate it:
https://twitter.com/LAClippers/status/925900145027252224
This isn't the first time we've gotten a glimpse into Rivers' passion for golf. The 56-year-old head coach, who also played in the league for 15 seasons, once desc..

If you're avid Jeopardy! viewers like us, you live for nights like Wednesday, when a strictly Golf category made an appearance in the game show's opening round. Sure, you may pull a few random answers out of your ass throughout the course of the week in the categories that require actual knowledge, but unless you're a nerd, chances are you'd be in red figures if you were a contestant on the show, and red figures aren't good on Jeopardy! Little golf humor for you.
RELATED: Watch a Naval officer win Jeopardy! with $1 (Yes, ONE DOLLAR)
Naturally, the contestants saved the well-beneath-them golf category for last on Wednesday, and Jenny, leading at the time with a cool $7,000, went for the top, $200 clue, and boy did things get really dark, really quickly:
https://twitter.com/Destaquito2/status/925863946791223296
Good lord, Trebek, how about a warning next time? We knew the Canadian host had a dark sense of humor, but not this dark.
To be fair though, if you haven&..