Compared to the amazing performance of Tadd Fujikawa, another befuddling MC by Michelle Wie was simply old news

	Fujikawa, 16, led the field in greens hit in regulation. Fred Vuich/SI

By Michael Bamberger

Many of the Sony Open spectators came to follow one Hawaiian teenage golf prodigy, Michelle Wie, and ended up mesmerized by another, Tadd Fujikawa. The kid was almost a freak show: barely 16, a ball marker over five feet, sporting a game filled with swagger and a delightful, polite off-course manner. The amateur golfer marched down the fairways with his toes out, and his fist pumps brought to mind not Tiger Woods, always looking to bury the competition, but Seve Ballesteros circa 1979, when Seve oozed joy.

Master Tadd -- a barrel-chested judo brown belt, a Hawaiian of Japanese descent born almost three months premature, a sophomore at public Moanalua High in Honolulu -- is a known talent. Last year, at 15, he became the youngest golfer to play in a U.S. Open. He made it into the Sony in a local qualifier in which 12 amateurs played for a single spot. (Wie, who has an endorsement deal with Sony, played on a sponsor's exemption.) Last Friday, Fujikawa became the youngest golfer to make a cut in a PGA Tour event in 50 years. On Saturday at windblown Waialae, he shot a 66, a score that Vijay Singh, Davis Love III, David Toms, John Daly and almost every other pro in the field would have paid money for. The Taddster (his nickname) knew he had one thing going for him that the 72 pros playing on the weekend did not: "I'm playing each shot as if I have nothing to lose," he said. He played loose, bombing driver on holes where the pros chose more prudent lines. His rounds of 71, 66, 66 and 72, five under par, left him in 20th place, nine shots behind Paul Goydos. Tadd would have earned about $50,000 had he been playing for money.

At the other end of the results sheet sat "poor Michelle Wie." A handful of veteran pros were using that phrase, in different ways and for different reasons. She's 17, a senior at the prestigious, private Punahou School with an acceptance letter to Stanford and endorsement deals worth millions. She played last week wearing a watch by Omega (one of her sponsors) and her ears tucked into a schoolboy hat from Nike (another sponsor). A handler from the William Morris Agency toweled off the teenager's sweat before her TV interviews. She was a pro in the press tent and with the public, and on the course she never gave up. But over her ball she looked lost.

Wie shot rounds of 78 and 76 and missed the cut by 14 shots. As a 14-year-old amateur -- playing on the same kind of local-hero high Fujikawa did last week -- she missed the Sony cut by a shot. She was the Big Wiesy then. Now her swing looks short and out of synch, hindered to an unknown degree by a strained right wrist. She doesn't know which event she'll play next or what's wrong with her game, and her father, B.J., didn't pretend to have the answers, either. She's someplace she's never been. "I worry a little bit for Michelle," said Luke Donald, who tied for second. "All she's [experiencing] now is missing cuts and not dealing with a lot of success."

The two teenage Hawaiian golfers met last week for the first time, only because a newspaper photographer got them together. The 6'1" Wie towered over Fujikawa. Then the tournament began, and each took another step to wherever it is he or she is going.

Issue date: January 22, 2007