EWA BEACH, Hawaii — Malia Nam still has some work to do.

The LPGA Tour rookie from Kailua was hoping to go low at the Lotte Championship at Hoakalei Country Club last weekend, in the second-to-last standard event of the 2024 season. In that, Nam came up a bit short as she posted a 4-over 292, good for 63rd place.

The Lotte, in its new LPGA calendar slot in November, was huge for players pushing for an end-of-season top-100 Race to CME Globe ranking for the purposes of maintaining a Tour card for the following year. That included Nam, who would be on the outside looking in if the season ended today.

Thankfully for her, it doesn’t. The Kaiser High alumna has one more opportunity this week at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla., starting Thursday.

Nam enters The Annika in 120^th place in the Race to CME Globe.

“I would really like to have a good week to keep my card and keep playing for next year,” Nam told Spectrum News at the Hoakalei clubhouse on Saturday after shooting a 3-over 75 in challenging conditions. “But if not, you know, you just got to go back to the process again, reevaluate, see what you need to work on.”

Nam tees off her first round at 3:28 a.m. Hawaii time with Maria Fassi of Mexico and Yue Ren of China.

At this time last year, the recent USC graduate was battling her way through Q-School. She advanced from Stage 1 to Stage 2 and finally made it to Stage 3; last December she clinched her 2024 LPGA card at an event in Mobile, Ala.

Steadily, she said, she learned the distinction between being a college golfer and a pro.

Her first full-fledged Tour event, the LPGA Drive On Championship in Bradenton, Fla., in January, was a true eye-opener before she even teed off for her first round. At the driving range, she encountered Tour stars Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson and Lydia Ko, and got wide-eyed.

“I feel like I've grown a lot this year,” the 25-year-old Nam said. “It's just really different playing out on a professional level than college. And I think for the first couple months of this year, I was adjusting and learning, and I'm still learning, but yeah, it's business out here.”

The opportunity to play in the Lotte was the realization of a childhood dream; Nam used to watch the likes of Michelle Wie in the event’s years at Ko Olina Golf Club. Now she was the one with a gallery of several fans, friends and family members, plus her swing coach, Robert Respicio of Kapolei Golf Club.

“This is coming home for me, and I was looking forward to this tournament all year,” Nam said. “I knew the support I’d feel in Hawaii. People really support their own when they succeed.”

A Lim Kim of South Korea shot 18 under for the week to take the $450,000 winner's share of the $3 million Lotte purse.

Nam earned $7,282 in official money for the week, bringing her to $118,400 for the year. She has made nine of 16 cuts. Her best finish to date was at the Portland Classic, where she tied for 14th on Aug. 1.

She was the only competitor from Hawaii in the field as her former USC teammate Allisen Corpuz was not entered this year.

“I wish I could have played it better, but you have to move on and look on the bright side,” she said. “I've had a great week. I've got to eat all the (local) foods that I wanted to. Got to even go in the water, work on my tan a little bit. So, yeah, I mean leaving this week with a positive for sure.”

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.