Tadd Fujikawa is home for the holidays. For him, that means Christmas and New Year’s, sandwiched by his annual March of Dimes benefit tournament and the Sony Open in Hawaii.
The 2009 Moanalua graduate turns 22 Tuesday. It seems he has grown up before us on the lush grass of Waialae Country Club. Less than a year after becoming the youngest to ever qualify for the U.S. Open at 15 years, five months, he fist-pumped his way to golf fame with a pair of 66s at the 2007 Sony Open, becoming the youngest in 50 years to make a PGA Tour cut.
The 5-foot-3 amateur finished 20th that year and turned down $52,455. Six months later, he turned pro. There have been good and bad times since, but Sony has been fairly constant in golf’s quirky world.
In 2009, Fujikawa went into the final round two shots out of first following a 62 on Saturday. He missed the cut the next year, but made 12 of 14 on the eGolf Tour, where he was fourth on the money list and took the Tour Championship.
Frustration and injuries followed in 2011 and he failed to qualify for Sony in 2012, then received a late exemption and tied for 19th. Fujikawa collected $69,025, then had a horrible year on the mini-tours, feeling like he "hit a wall" with his swing.
"At the beginning, it was swing issues because of bad habits," Fujikawa said. "I think it got to where it started messing with my mind a little bit. It’s hard to not let it affect you mentally when you’re struggling and don’t know where you’re going to hit it."
In November, he left Todd Anderson, his coach and mentor of five years. It was a difficult decision for Fujikawa and his parents because "Todd taught me a lot about my golf and helped me become a better person." Anderson made it easier by encouraging him to "do what I needed to do to succeed."
Fujikawa will try to Mnday qualify for next week’s Sony with a new look from new coach Hank Smith. There are changes to his setup, swing and clubs and his family feels his confidence coming back. His goal is to "try and get the bad days up to decent to make everything more consistent — keep my game where there are no really bad days."
"I think once you start getting your confidence back, you’re not even worried about hitting a bad shot," Fujikawa said. "I’m back to what I started with and what I did as a younger kid."
Also back trying to qualify for Sony is 1996 Hawaii state high school champion Parker McLachlin, a PGA Tour winner in 2008 who has been searching for his swing and "grinding" along with Fujikawa the past few years. McLachlin hopes to get some exemptions this year and plans to focus on the Web.com Tour, now the road back to the PGA.
He might see Castle High graduate Dean Wilson out there intermittently. The 2006 International winner hopes to get into some PGA Tour events with his past champion status and could do some Monday qualifying on both tours.
Fujikawa will return to the eGolf Tour and try some more Monday qualifiers. He is also planning to go to the Canadian Tour Q-School and might make more appearances in Japan. But first, he hopes to be back at Waialae, his golf home full of remarkable memories.
"I’m excited about getting back into it and starting to play well again," he said. "I played well at Sony last year and that’s about it for 2012. It’s been a struggle. It’s been a little frustrating for me because I have been working hard at it and not getting any better, no positive results. Since I started with the new instructor, it’s a step in the right direction, I think. The past few weeks I feel a little more confident and mentally I’m feeling better, too. I’m looking forward to seeing how quickly I can feel 100 percent confident in this new swing."
