2 trips around Waialae can do a guy wonders

When Tadd Fujikawa was stirred from his sleep Tuesday morning and told he’d be playing in the Sony Open in Hawaii, he wondered out loud, “Am I dreaming?”

After Friday’s round, he had pinch-me-quick reason to believe the dream was continuing.

A 4-under-par 66 — punctuated with a final-hole eagle — put Fujikawa in a tie for 17th place at 135, after two rounds, assuring him tee times for the weekend and a whole lot more.

Mostly it signaled an end to the enduring nightmare that was 2011, when nagging injuries and poor play on the eTour and Hooters Tour caused Fujikawa’s spirits —and bank account — to plummet. “I didn’t play well at all and it was discouraging,” Fujikawa said of his lost season.

Nothing a return to the Waialae Country Club course after a year’s absence couldn’t cure, apparently. With one of his trademark just-happy-to-be-here smiles, Fujikawa skillfully set about rekindling some of the magic that made the Moanalua High graduate local golf’s favorite Menehune of Sonys past.

In 2007, as a 16-year-old amateur, he became the youngest player in 50 years to make a PGA Tour cut, finishing in a tie for 20th place. In ’09, he shot a 62 on the way to a tie for 32nd.

But after missing the cut in ’10 and not emerging from the qualifier in ’11, those seemed to be just scrapbook memories, reminders of triumphs growing more distant when he went to sleep Monday night in the family’s Salt Lake area home after falling one shot short of a playoff spot in Monday’s qualifier.

“When my grandmother answered the phone Tuesday morning she was telling me, ‘Tadd, get up!’ ” Fujikawa said. “’I said, ‘Why? Who’s calling me? I’ve got nothing to do today.’ ”

It was then, two days after his 21st birthday, that Fujikawa’s caddie, Shakil Ahmed, told him excitedly, “you’re in.” Fujikawa said he responded, “In what? What are you talking about? I’m not doing anything today.”

So completely had Fujikawa resigned himself to a Sony-less January that his cell phone had been set on silent. But when tournament officials were unable to reach him with word of a sponsor’s exemption, they got ahold of Ahmed, who got to deliver the news. Then, Ahmed drove out to pick him up, telling Fujikawa. “We’ve got to get to work,” Ahmed said.

Only for Fujikawa, it no longer seemed like labor. “I’m blessed to be here,” Fujikawa acknowledged, taking in the gallery’s well wishes that seemingly came with every step of his 7,044-yard journey. “It is amazing how fast things can change in golf, how your luck can change overnight.”

Indeed, Fujikawa’s week to date was summed up at the par-5 ninth hole, his final of the day, when he lined up for a putt 33 feet from the hole. “I wasn’t really trying to make it (an eagle) to be honest,” Fujikawa admitted. “I was just trying to lag it up there to make my birdie and walk out of there. But, it went in.”

Then, Fujikawa smiled at the remarkable turn of events, and shook his head. “It has been a great week so far and, hopefully, it will keep going.”

The dream, it seems, continues.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.