Friends of Hawai'i Charities Inc., distributed $1,006,000 in charitable grants to more than 150 Hawai'i not-for-profit organizations yesterday at the Bishop Museum.

The money was raised at the 2010 Sony Open in Hawai'i, and matched by The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Inc. The total was also supplemented by contributions from The Friends Club.

The number of recipients was a record. Grants are directed to organizations that serve "Hawai'i children, women, elderly and the impoverished."

Recipients included Aloha Harvest and Aloha Medical Mission, Chaminade's Service-Learning Department, First Book-Moloka'i, MADD Hawai'i, Kalihi YMCA, HUGS, Palama Settlement, Peanut Butter Ministry and Surfers Church.

Friends of Hawai'i initiated the annual grants program in 1999, distributing $256,000 to 43 charities. This is the sixth straight year more than $1 million was given out.

The 2011 Sony Open in Hawai'i is Jan. 13 to 16 at Waialae Country Club. Ryan Palmer won this year.

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP

CHING TO PLAY FOR SECOND YEAR IN ROW

Punahou graduate Alex Ching will play in the NCAA Championship for the second time in as many years after the University of San Diego finished third last weekend in the NCAA West Regional at Bremerton, Wash.

Ching, a USD sophomore, fired a 2-under-par 70 in the final round Saturday to lead the Toreros to a 288 team score. They finished at 874 on the Olympic Course at Gold Mountain, 30 shots behind Washington and one back of USC.

Ching was 13th individually at 216.

The Toreros will be one of 30 teams competing in the NCAA Championship, which starts Tuesday at the Honors Course in Ooltewah, just north of Chattanooga, Tenn. Last year USD finished 13th.

U.S. OPEN QUALIFIER

NEUMANN, CORPUZ INTERESTING PAIRING

One player will advance from Hawai'i's U.S. Open qualifier Sunday at Hoakalei Country Club. The 36-hole qualifier starts at 7 a.m., with golfers beginning their second round at noon.

The first twosome will be a study in contrasts. Liselotte Neumann, from Sweden, was Alison Nicholas' assistant captain for last year's Solheim Cup matches. Neumann has 27 victories worldwide, including the 1994 Weetabix Women's British Open and the 1988 U.S. Women's Open.

She will play with Punahou sixth-grader Allisen Corpuz, who was born in 1998. Corpuz, 12, just finished second in the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational, for the second straight year.

She became the youngest Hawai'i Women's State Match Play champion last year.

The 19-woman field also includes state high school champion Cassy Isagawa and former state high school champions Anna Jang, who just finished her first year at Princeton, and Kristina Merkle, who just returned from her first year at Tulsa. Merkle recently won her fourth Jennie K. in the past five years.

Meredith Swanson, who just finished her first year at South Carolina, is also trying to qualify along with Japan pro Sakurako Mori and Japan amateur Yukari Nishiyama.