Japan’s Hataoka wins LPGA Q-School

MIAMI: Japan’s Nasa Hataoka earned medallist honours as 20 players from 12 countries earned their 2018 US LPGA Tour cards in the final round of qualifying school.

“I’m really happy to be at the top of the leaderboard and winning the tournament,” Hataoka said after playing five rounds of Q-school in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 12-under.

“It’s really hard to be a professional golfer. LPGA is one of the best leagues, so I’m going to try to prepare as soon as possible,” added 18-year-old Hataoka, who won the 2016 Japan Women’s Open as an amateur.

Just behind Hataoka was Tiffany Chan at 11-under. Tiffany is the first player from Hong Kong to qualify for the LPGA Tour.

“I’m feeling really excited,” said Tiffany, who played three months on the developmental Symetra Tour this year.

“I’m pretty good friends with Nasa, we’ve played together before on Team Asia two years ago ... so I think I just tried to have fun today, but tried to win also,” she added.

South African Paula Reto ( nine- under) and Australian Rebecca Artis (eight-under) also secured their playing privileges for 2018, Artis on her fifth Q-school attempt.

The last card came down to a three-hole aggregate stroke-play playoff among Daniela Darquea of Ecuador, Mind Muangkhumsakul of Thailand and amateur Maria Torres.

Torres birdied the 10th, the second playoff hole, to become the first Puerto Rican to earn an LPGA card.

Twenty-nine players earned conditional status for the coming season.

It’s really hard to be a professional golfer ... so I’m going to try to prepare as soon as possible. Nasa Hataoka