Nine birdies, one bogey, one missed four-footer on 16 (although I hate those assertions; more on this later) and Tadd Fujikawa is the current leader in the clubhouse of the SONY Open in Hawaii. A kid whose dad was arrested late last year for drug possession, a kid who gave up at least one more year of high school to turn pro and struggle a la Justin Rose last year, a kid far to the regrettable side of 5 feet 8 inches tall (Hogan’s height), is -8 for the tournament. My guess is he’ll end up top seven by day’s end, but who cares?

SONY Open is the site of the only PGA Tour victories (1966-Ted Makalena; 1990-David Ishii) by native Hawaiians. Seems like a fine place for young Tadd to cut his 2009 adult molars. A win here makes life a fantasy (automatic invite to 2010 Mercedes, The Masters and certain equipment and apparel contracts) while a top ten finish gets him in to next week’s event and definitely catches the attention of tournaments with sponsors exemptions to give.

Back to my parenthetical foreshadowing of the first paragraph. Mount Fuji missed a wee putt for birdie on the 16th. Who could ever know what that putt would have meant? Would he have birdied 17 and 18 had he made it? Don’t know. Could he be -9? Sure. Forget the hindsigt, look ahead to Sunday.

Permalink 4 comments