Team USA unbeaten in volleyball

Team USA, with Hawaii’s Lindsey Berg and Tamari Miyashiro and UH alum Heather Bown, remained unbeaten at the FIVB World Cup on Tuesday with a 25-16, 25-13, 25-21 victory over African champion Kenya in Toyama, Japan.

The U.S., ranked second in the world, is 4-0 and leads the Cup standings with 12 points. World Cup uses a round-robin format with 11 matches over 15 days. The three teams reaching the medal podium Nov. 18 earn berths in the 2012 Olympics.

The U.S. used six new starters against Kenya and never missed a beat.

“First, I want to congratulate Kenya for coming out in the fourth match and always competing, and showing great energy, which shows a lot for the sport,” said Berg, the U.S. captain, on usavolleyball.org. “Also, today was a big day for USA — we got us our fourth win, and in this tournament every win is important. And we got to rest some players because this is a very long tournament and some players got to play that we’re going to need down the road.”

Ota’s bunker beauty wins team golf title

Jonathan Ota holed out from the bunker on the last hole Tuesday to help him and Lance Taketa defend their Bridgestone Pro-Scratch championship at Pearl Country Club.

Ota, the “scratch” amateur on the team and 2006 Manoa Cup champ, and Taketa, a pro at Hilo Muni, fired a 7-under-par 65 in the second day’s best-ball format. They shot 62 in Monday’s scramble format and entered the final day in a four-way tie for first.

At 17-under 127, they finished two shots better than the teams of Joe Phengsavath and Matt Ma (66—129), from Oahu, and Brandon Stengel and Brian Jorge (67—129), from Maui. Oahu Country Club head pro Andrew Feldmann took fourth with Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer Brandan Kop, at 68—130.

Kaymer completes Hyundai invite list

With his victory at the HSBC Champions, Germany’s Martin Kaymer became the 39th and final player to qualify for the 2012 Hyundai Tournament of Champions, the PGA Tour’s kickoff event scheduled for Jan. 6-9 at The Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort.

The list includes major champions Charl Schwartzel (The Masters), Rory McIlroy (U.S. Open), Darren Clarke (British Open) and Keegan Bradley (PGA Championship), Hyundai Tournament of Champions winner Jonathan

The players have until Dec. 30 to officially commit to play in the event.

Tickets for competition rounds are on sale now at www.pgatour.com/Hyundai. Limited spots are available in the tournament’s pro-am on Jan. 5.