WORLD Cup champions Jennifer Rosales and Dorothy Delasin head to Hawaii to compete in the $1.1-million SBS Open, which fires off on Valentine’s Day, Thursday, at the Arnold Palmer Course in Turtle Bay Resort.

Rosales, who left on Sunday after a brief vacation in Manila, is expected to arrive Tuesday in Hawaii. She will practice for the next two days. 

Rosales and Delasin will also be playing in the pro-am side event on Wednesday.

“The real hard work begins this week,” said Rosales.  “It will be a tedious task hereon since Dorothy and I will be joining in a lot of tournaments set by the Ladies Professional Golfers Association [LPGA].  But this time, it’s every girl for herself.”

The 29-year-old Rosales is seeking her second SBS Open title. She won the tournament’s inaugurals in 2005 with an eight-under 208. She earned $150,000. 

But that proved to be her last victory in the LPGA as she went on to a two-year slump.

But with the World Cup triumph in South Africa last month, Rosales hopes to get back into the winner’s circle and get a fresh exemption card in the LPGA for 2009 and 2010.

“Of course, I am buoyed by the triumph in the World Cup.  It was such a joyous feeling. I think one more success could just be what I need to flourish in the LPGA season,” said Rosales.

Rosales, though, knows that she will be in for a major competition, especially with defending champion American Paula Creamer in the field.

Creamer defeated Julieta Granada of Paraguay by just one stroke in 2007.

“She’s one big girl, a tough nut to crack,” Rosales said of Creamer.

The five-foot-nine Creamer maybe the champ, but she is also wary of the other players who could come up big this year.

“Every year golf gets better and people get stronger.  Creativity goes with that.  It’s going to be a good year.  We’re going to see who’s been working hard and who hasn’t been.  Overall, we have a great schedule with good weeks off at points around the majors.  I don’t think there will be any big, long stretches. Maintaining your stamina is big,” Creamer told lpga.com.

Wilder West

Remember the good old days when the West was merely Wild?

The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Western Conference passed Even Wilder, broke through Berserk and zoomed off the charts within seven days as the Los Angeles Lakers, who already looked great, got Pau Gasol from a weaker team in the West, and the Phoenix Suns, who already were great, got Shaquille O’Neal.

Hawaiian sojourn

WORLD Cup champions Jennifer Rosales and Dorothy Delasin head to Hawaii to compete in the $1.1-million SBS Open, which fires off on Valentine’s Day, Thursday, at the Arnold Palmer Course in Turtle Bay Resort.

UZBEKISTAN will take on the Philippines in the first-round relegation tie of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I from April 11 to 13.

The regulation tie will again be hosted by the Philippines.

There will be no Santo Tomas U (UST) sweep in men’s volleyball.

This, after Far Eastern U (FEU) put a stain on UST’s clean record in a shockingly short 25-19, 25-23, 25-20 win Sunday in Season 70 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines at the College of Human Kinetics Gym inside the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman campus.

THE Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) has linked up with a new partner in ABC-5, which will air the coming San Miguel Corp.-PSA Annual Awards Night at the SM Mall of Asia.

JAMES Yap is proving to be a lethal weapon, more so when he is a walking wounded.

Despite nursing knee and groin injuries, the former Most Valuable Player still stood out from the rest, prompting the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Press Corps to name him as its Smart-Accel Player of the Week for the period February 4 to 10.

YOU may not know it yet but the most expensive stallion that was bought by a local investor had been bought last November in Maryland.