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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, August 25, 2007

Fujikawa misses cut by 3 in Canadian Tour event

 • Special report: Tadd Fujikawa
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 •  The Honolulu Advertiser's Golf page

By Steve Buffery
Special to The Advertiser

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — Honolulu's Tadd Fujikawa missed the cut at the Canadian Tour's Jane Rogers Championship yesterday, with a slow start Thursday and a late double-bogey sealing his fate.

Fujikawa, playing in his second tournament since turning professional in July, shot a 1-over-par 71 at Lakeview Golf Course for a two-day total of 145. The cut came at 142 with Fujikawa, 16, tied for 95th. Canada's Wes Heffernan (64-133) is the leader.

If not for a double bogey at the fifth hole and a bogey on the second yesterday, he would have had a chance to tee-off today.

Instead, the Moanalua High School junior will return home for a couple of weeks to get his school work in order, before heading out to Sea Island, Ga., to work with his coaches.

Fujikawa's agent, Kevin Bell, is pursuing sponsor exemptions for the final seven PGA Tour events of the year, and tournaments on the Nationwide, Asian and Japan tours.

The personable Fujikawa said he had no regrets coming all the way to the Toronto area to play in a Canadian Tour event on a quirky, rolling course in windy, hot and humid conditions.

"Absolutely not," he said. "I'm learning a lot more than I would be playing amateur or junior golf. I'm having a lot of fun. I'm not doing as well as I wanted to so far, but I'll get there sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.

"My scores aren't that good, but honestly my game feels a lot better than when I played the Sony," added Fujikawa, who, at this year's Sony Open in Hawai'i, became the youngest player in 50 years to make the cut at a PGA Tour event. "My game just feels a lot more consistent. I'm hitting the ball really well. I'm just making some really stupid mistakes out there that I shouldn't be making and it's costing me a lot of strokes."

A few of those came on the par-5 fifth, when he hit his tee shot behind a tree and punched his second through the fairway and into the rough. He "hacked" the ball out to the fairway, but hit his approach over the green and three-putted for double bogey.

Fujikawa started on the 10th hole, a par-3, and nearly had a hole-in-one, sinking a three-footer for birdie. He played his first 10 holes in 1-under, bogeyed his 11th (No. 2) and birdied his 13th (No. 4) before the double bogey buried his chances of making the first cut of his two-tournament professional career.

"I putted a lot better, the stroke felt a lot better today," Fujikawa said. "I was hitting the ball decent. That could have been better, but everything was actually pretty good. I just made a few mistakes that cost me a few strokes and I really couldn't afford it being that I was so close to making the cut."

Fujikawa again chastised himself for compounding his mistakes, and letting the first day get away. "I need to learn to be able to control my adrenaline a little bit," he said. "For some reason, the first day I get too excited or something. I'm just not there. I shoot myself out of the tournament basically. I can't afford to do that.

"I don't feel too much pressure. I'm out there having fun. I really enjoyed myself out there. I don't know why, but the first day I just can't do well, plain and simple."

Experience, said Bell, was the main reason they decided to play this event. Bell said it was important for his young client to play a round of golf where he is "out of his element."

"We wanted to put him in a situation where he is not in Hawai'i, in a situation where he doesn't know his way from one place to another without a map, dealing with a little jet leg, all of that," Bell said.