The 63rd U.S. Women's Open Championship tees off this morning, and Hawai'i teens Cyd Okino, Michelle Wie and Kimberly Kim tee off with it. Kim, who moved from Hilo to Arizona when she started high school, will play with Wie, a Punahou graduate now at Stanford, the first two days. They tee off at Interlachen Country Club in Minnesota at 3:17 a.m. HST today and 8:47 a.m. tomorrow.

Okino, 14, tees off 45 minutes later each day. She is coached by Casey Nakama, who also guided Wie in her formative years, as she was making the incredible leap from 10-year-old golf prodigy to a worldwide personality that transcended sports. Nakama will give The Advertiser his thoughts on Okino's progress and the atmosphere surrounding the Open the next few days.

There's grandstands on about 12 greens and tees here so it's starting to get a lot of people. It's finally starting to hit that this is it. Cyd was a little nervous today already and it was only her third practice round.

It's a concern. The first couple holes were not her normal shots so we've just got to get her through the first few holes tomorrow. When they announce her name on the first tee and they all clap, she's got to step on the tee, take a deep breath and hope it all comes together.

The experience of being in this environment ... it's crazy now. People are everywhere. Watching her warm up; everywhere she goes there are people. When we were walking to every tee today people were asking for autographs. She's getting used to all that stuff, taking it all in.

Some of the girls here said that at regular tour events sometimes there's hardly anybody the first two rounds so they are all happy and excited. You can tell this is the Open. For Cyd to go from the U.S. Girls, which was her biggest tournament up to now, to this is kind of overwhelming. Between some holes she was signing autographs for about five minutes.

This course (at 6,789 yards) is the longest the women have ever played. There are a couple par-4s where, after the tee shot, you have a 200-yard approach. The first day we thought they were par-5s. She hit an approach up in front of the green and we realized it was a par-4 and Cyd said, "Oh, my God."

Michelle hit the ball a little farther than Cyd at this age, but accuracywise they are not much different. Cyd's short game is a lot better than Michelle's was. One guy from ABC asked me if I was the guy who had Michelle before, but then he just said, "At this point, it's Michelle Who." I didn't want to say anything then — it was ABC. We saw her at the players tent, with the parents. They are excited because she's been playing pretty good.

After Cyd qualified at home, as good as she played, I thought she could do really well here. But now that we got here and I see this golf course, even for me, I'm a little excited about all this. If we make the cut she played great. It's going to be a tough deal to make the cut.

I thought she was hitting the ball so well it could apply to all golf courses, but playing in this type of environment, you've got to get used to it. You can tell in just the practice rounds that she's uncomfortable. It was the same thing when we went to publinx the first time. She had the same feeling. At this tournament, she's in a little deeper here. But she has more maturity and a much better game than when she was 12, so hopefully her game can hold on.