Miyazato inspected the sandwich, pulling it apart, then gobbled it up in three bites.

“It’s peanut butter and jelly,” Futcher said. “You can’t mess it up.”

The Japanese dynamo had no trouble on the golf course, building a seven-shot lead after three rounds and expanding that to 12 shots going into the final day. Her only disappointment was a three-putt bogey on the 18th hole.

“I was trying to go for 20 under, but I guess I was overcome by the pressure,” she said.

Pressel wound up in a tie for sixth, and next plays at the Safeway International in March. Still to be determined is when the money she earns will count as official.

The tour has an age limit of 18 for LPGA membership, and it has ruled that Pressel cannot join until she turns 18 on May 23. She can play on sponsor’s exemptions until then, although whatever she earns won’t count on the money list until then. Pressel doesn’t plan to play more than four events, anyway, because she is a senior in high school.

“It’s a relief,” she said. “It’s been a long week. It was hard work.”

Pressel’s grandfather, Herb Krickstein, said he would ask the LPGA Tour to reconsider its decision.

“Everything they talk about to be an LPGA member, she has — except her 18th birthday,” he said. “I don’t think she’ll change when she turns 18.”

The drama at Q-school came in a three-hole playoff, with seven players competing for the final three spots. Brittany Lang, who tied for second with Pressel at the U.S. Women’s Open, played the 10th, 17th and 18th holes in 1 under to earn her card, along with Christi Cano and Seol-An Jeon.

They finished at 3-over 363. Among those who were eliminated in the playoff were Teresa Lu of Taiwan and Erica Blasberg, who squandered their chances of playing on tour next year.

Lu, who works with the same swing coach as Annika Sorenstam, hit her approach into the 18th over the green and into a hazard, making double bogey. Blasberg recovered from a 77-74 start in this event to go from 97th to a tie for eighth place, but closed with a 77.

Miyazato had so such worries.

She was tied with Pressel after opening with a 66, and pulled away from the field each day. Even though she finished with a bogey, some 40 photographers rushed the green to get pictures of Miyazato, and they moved with her en masse as she spoke with Japanese TV, Japanese reporters, then the U.S. media.

“And we’re over here,” Kate Golden said as she watched the photographers storm the green. “You should see her in Japan. The media loves her. You can only dream of that kind of attention.”