Golf dreams live and die this week and next as the PGA and LPGA tours play their final qualifying stages in Florida.

For Maui’s Shayna Miyajima, a little lost in the hype of those who followed, it is an opportunity of a lifetime and a chance to prove she wasn’t "born in the wrong generation."

The men teed off yesterday with a Hawaii-free field after Parker McLachlin, Tadd Fujikawa, Nick Mason and Samuel Cyr came up short in the second stage. Former Hawaiian Open champ Paul Stankowski is playing, along with names such as Jason Gore, Jonathan Kaye, Will MacKenzie and Billy Mayfair.

The LPGA’s final qualifying tournament starts next Wednesday at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla. The Hawaii quotient there is high.

Sacred Hearts graduate Ayaka Kaneko, 20, is back. The 2007 Rolex Junior All-American played the Futures Tour this year, making 12 cuts and winning $9,000 — about what her 45th-place finish at the 2008 Fields Open in Hawaii would have paid if she hadn’t been an amateur. Kaneko turned pro after an injury played a part in her leaving Pepperdine.

Hilo’s Kimberly Kim, 19, is also at the finals after turning pro at this year’s U.S. Women’s Open. In 2006, she became the youngest U.S. Women’s Amateur champion in history at 14.

Kim has three more USGA runner-up trophies and was a member of two victorious Curtis Cup teams. She spent her high school years in Arizona and played at Denver for a year before turning pro because she felt she was "falling behind."

Kim never won a major in Hawaii, but Miyajima has. The Baldwin graduate took the 1998 state high school championship and played at San Diego State, finishing fourth in the 2002 Mountain West Championship.

She got her degree in public administration and turned pro in 2005. Miyajima played the Futures Tour three years, and her best finish was a tie for 13th in 2007. She devoted this year to working on her game in San Diego, with some mini-tour starts.

She reached the final Q-School in 2006 and 2007, but didn’t make the 54-hole cut. The 28-year-old muses that she "might have been born in the wrong generation" to keep up with the likes of Kaneko, Kim, Michelle Wie and Stephanie Kono — all born within two years of each other — but her game is in a good place. So is her head, and that is important over a 90-hole grind that could basically change her life.

She has dreamed of being an LPGA player since she was little and inspired by her father Eric’s flat-out passion for the game. Junior golf, the state championship, college golf and, especially, the Futures Tour, convinced her the dream was worth pursuing.

"Now, I can’t really see myself doing anything else," Miyajima says. "I love the fact you get to travel and see the world. It’s just a great job. You are outside all day, every day, playing golf. I don’t want to work in an office. I don’t even really want to teach. I just want to play. That’s the passion. You’ve got to love it."

The game has provided more insight than anything else she can imagine. Miyajima has fought her own demons — "talk about a sport that brings out the ugly side" — and come to the realization she will never conquer golf.

She is OK with that. Her history, good and bad, will help because she knows now every learning experience can only be beneficial. She realizes the pressure of playing for her future will be suffocating and, even more than the physical and technical intricacies of the sport, she has been working on freeing herself to perform to her potential.

In the past nine months, she has found an unexpected ally. She met former NFL player Vencie Glenn, "a huge golfer," on a San Diego course, and he has become something of a sensei, guiding her in the ways of professional athletics.

"I’ve learned a lot from him about the mental toughness of a professional athlete," Miyajima says. "It’s cool to hang out with him. We play golf and talk a lot. I’ve learned a lot. … It’s nice to pick his brain. I feel like a sponge. I’m absorbing all his knowledge."

The LPGA field of 126 also includes Dorothy Delasin, Sydnee Michaels, Tiffany Joh and Kelli Kuehne. The top 20 qualifiers are exempt next year, with the next 20 alternating with players who finish between 81 and 100 on this year’s money list.