Hataoka at top of leaderboard as Final Stage of LPGA Q-School tees off

   They took the first tentative steps, the first mile in a marathon run, as Stage III of the LPGA Qualifying School, the Final Stage, teed off Wednesday at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla.

   It is an international cast of LPGA veterans, Symetra Tour players, recent and current college standouts and Ladies European Tour (LET) players all with one goal in mind: Finish in the top 20 and earn full status on the LPGA Tour for 2018. If you finish between 21^st and 45^th, you earn conditional LPGA status for 2018.

   They began a 90-hole grind, at least for those who survive the 72-hole cut, Wednesday. It offers a unique kind of drama, really good players fighting for their professional lives.

   Of course, even surviving this week only offers an opportunity. Nothing is guaranteed. Just ask Nasa Hataoka, a Japanese teen-ager who finished tied for 14^th in Stage III a year ago when she was the youngest player in the field at 17.

   But she struggled, as you might suspect a teen professional would. Hataoka finished 140^th on the LPGA money list in her rookie season with earnings of just $37,852.

   I had watched her defeat former South Carolina star Katelyn Dambaugh, 2 and 1, in a wildly entertaining round-of-16 match at the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling Green Golf Club. Both played terrific golf the whole day.

   Hataoka got off to another great start Wednesday, firing a 4-under-par 68 over the 6,449-yard, par-72 Jones Course at LPGA International to share the lead four other players after the opening round.

   Nobody knows better than Hataoka how long the week at LPGA International can get. She led the field through three rounds a year ago at 14-under 202 only to back off with rounds of 75 and 78. It was good enough to get her an LPGA Tour card, but she was struggling at the end.

   “Playing five days, you get tired, so I try to keep focusing my mind,” Hataoka told the LPGA website after Wednesday’s opening round. “Every single day, I just have to focus on every single day.”

   Hataoka is one of 72 players in the field who held some LPGA status in 2017, but are back in Q-School trying to return to the big leagues of women’s professional golf in 2018.

   Joining Hataoka atop the leaderboard after Wednesday’s opening round are former Southern California standout Gabriella Then, a native of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong of Thailand, Hyemin Kim of South Korea and Anne Van Dam, an LET entry from the Netherlands.

   It looked like Then might have the lead to herself when she birdied the 10^th, 12^th, 13^th and 16^th holes to get it to 5-under at the 6,566-yard, par-72 Hills Course, but a bogey at the 17^th dropped her back into the five-way logjam at 4-under.

   Santiwiwatthanaphong and Kim also recorded their 68s at the Hills Course while Van Dam matched the 68 Hataoka carded at the Jones Course.

   Heading the threesome tied for sixth at 3-under 69 was South African Paula Reto, who played the Jones Course. When I was following the collegiate career of Delco’s own Aurora Kan at Purdue, Reto was one of her teammates. She has shown flashes on the LPGA Tour. It will be interesting to see how she fares this week. There has been little doubt that Reto has the talent to be a consistent performer on the LPGA Tour.

   Also in the group at 3-under is Lauren Kim, a native of Los Altos, Calif. who was a member of Stanford’s 2015 NCAA championship team, and Australian Rebecca Artis. Kim and Artis, like Reto, played the Jones Course Wednesday.

   An interesting name appears among the six players tied for ninth at 2-under 70 with all of those scores coming at the Hills Course, which seemed to play a little easier than the Jones Course in the opening round.

   That would be Samantha Wagner, a native of the Easton area who moved to Florida and was a junior phenom. Wagner was part of a really, really strong Florida team that won Southeast Conference and NCAA Columbus Regional titles last spring and reached match play in the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms before falling to eventual national champion Arizona State.

   Wagner, who played two years with the Gators, was the medalist in a U.S. Open qualifier last spring at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. and decided, pretty much that day, to turn pro and make her professional debut at the U.S. Women’s Open at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. She missed the cut with a 155 total.

   Another former Southern Cal standout, Tiffany Chan of Hong Kong, is also in the group at 2-under 70.

   Wagner and Chan were joined by Martina Edberg, a former Cal State-Fullerton standout from Sweden, Amber Wong, a former California-Davis standout from San Francisco, Leticia Ras-Anderica of Spain and American Sammi Stevens.

   There are 15 players tied for 15^th at 1-under 71, including Rachel Rohanna, the 2007 PIAA champion as a junior at Waynesburg. Rohanna, a collegiate standout at Ohio State, finished in the top 10 on the Symetra Tour a couple of years ago to earn her LPGA Tour card, but has been unable to maintain that status.

   There’s a pretty neat pre-tournament story by Bret Lasky on the LPGA website about Rohanna, who owns a working cattle farm in southwestern Pennsylvania with her husband.

   The low amateur in the field after round 1, Georgia junior Jillian Hollis of Rocky River, Ohio, is also in that group tied for 15^th at 1-under 71.

   In some pre-tournament notes, it certainly sounded like Hollis is planning to turn professional no matter how Stage III of Q-School turns out, although she still has the option of returning to Athens if she doesn’t have a high finish.

   It seems as though some top college program has a player turn pro between the fall and spring portions of the college season. Needless to say, Hollis would leave a big hole in the Bulldogs’ lineup if she does decide to pursue her professional ambition.