Santa Clara sophomore Miki Ueoka has golfed with Tiger Woods and checks on Hawai'i pros Dean Wilson and Parker McLachlin to see how they're doing on the PGA Tour. But her favorite golfer is still her father, Richard Ueoka, who got her started in the sport.

Several years ago, I asked Miki a question I usually ask youngsters who have the same surname as athletes I've covered over the past 50 years: Is so-and-so your father? But knowing Ueoka, who was my University of Hawai'i classmate and a starting end on the 1955 Rainbow team that traveled to Nebraska and shocked the Cornhuskers and the college football world, I had asked Miki if Richard Ueoka was her grandfather!

My bad.

Not that you can blame me. After all, Kazu — I still call him that — and I are both well into our 70s. I didn't think he had a daughter who's a teenager.

Miki and I laughed about my generation gaffe then, and again when I called her earlier this week after she spent spring break at home, playing nine holes at Wailua with her dad.

Miki has heard all about her father's athletic exploits. He also was a track star at Kaua'i High and UH, when the Rainbows competed in men's track and field.

"I know he was a good athlete and held a lot of high school track records. And I heard about the Nebraska game," said Miki, valedictorian of Kaua'i High's 2007 class and now the one upholding the Ueoka family name in athletics.

The four-time Kaua'i Interscholastic Federation golf champion is enjoying a breakthrough year in collegiate golf at Santa Clara. She recently won her third individual title, leading the Broncos to a six-stroke victory in the Sacramento State Invitational. In February, Ueoka shot 68 and 69 — the two lowest rounds in Santa Clara women's golf history — before finishing with a par-72 the next day to win the Fresno State Lexus Classic.

"It was a really strong field and I knew in order to even place well, I had to shoot pretty well. To see my name on the leaderboard after a couple of holes definitely kept me motivated," said Ueoka, who was awarded West Coast Conference player of the month for that win.

"Golf has been fun and it's fun when you're playing well," said Ueoka, who says the biggest difference from her freshman year is that her mental game has improved.

She had every reason to lose focus last spring when her mother, Linda, passed away. "I know it was hard for her; no more mother. She was the one who went everywhere with Miki to the Mainland for junior golf tournaments," said Richard Ueoka.

"After what happened to my mom, it was pretty much of a struggle, but I've been trying to keep moving forward," said Ueoka, who's looking forward to the conference championships April 13-14 in Vallejo, Calif.

Ueoka hasn't had many problems adjusting to college life on the Mainland. Two of her Santa Clara teammates also are from Hawai'i — freshman Tammy Surtees (Hawai'i Prep Academy) and junior Jamie Nonaka (Punahou School).

"It's really cool, like (being) back home, although Tammy and I probably spend too much time together," Ueoka said. Especially while watching the movie, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." They saw it "probably like 50 times," she said.

But studies still come first for Ueoka, who is a bio-chemistry major with hopes of becoming a doctor. "That's why I chose to go Santa Clara. It had a good academic reputation, which is important to me," said Ueoka, who has a 3.6 GPA.

Golfwise, she isn't doing badly, either.

"Miki is by far the most talented Bronco we have ever had on the roster," said Polly Schulze, in her eighth year as women's golf coach at Santa Clara. "She has incredible talent and, like Tiger, she is able to will putts in the hole. And like Tiger, her mental game is just as strong, if not stronger, than her physical game."

Added Schulze, "She undoubtedly could go on to the next level if she desired. Right now her sights are set on medical school after Santa Clara but we'll see. She will succeed at whatever she does."

The comparison with Tiger is interesting because Ueoka got to play in a pro-am with Woods in the last PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Po'ipu Bay Resort in 2006.

"It was definitely a neat experience to play with someone so amazing and so intimidating with all that he has done," she said. "It was weird because I was excited but I wasn't nervous. I felt very comfortable and wasn't intimidated."

Ueoka says Schulze is "one of the nicest people I've ever met. She's very concerned about you and cares for you a lot. Not only golf but in school and in life. That's part of the theme at Santa Clara, I guess. They're really concerned about your whole experience for four years. They're not concerned only about you coming out with a degree or only winning national championships."

The last word, though, should belong to Miki's father: "I'm really proud of her that she's doing good. Not only golf. She's also an All-American scholar. Her grades must be good, not like her father."