The first great story of 2007: Tadd Fujikawa

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, January 16th, 2007
Categories: PGA Tour

The Sony Open last week gave us the first great story of the 2007 PGA Tour (or golf for that matter) season: Tadd Fujikawa. Fujikawa is a 16 year old amateur who was the youngest player in 50 years to make the cut on the PGA Tour.

Fujikawa was born 3.5 months premature and weighed roughly one pound. He didn’t have much of a chance of survival but he made it. He practiced martial arts with the coaching of his father at a high level but then took to the game of golf and was hooked.

Forget female golfers who miss cuts in men’s tournaments seemingly more often than they play in tournaments on the LPGA, this is a real story. At barely over five feet tall, this small framed young man not only competed with the big boys, he had a chance to beat them. He made the cut on Friday at the Sony Open in Hawaii and sat in 3rd place on the leaderboard. By the time the tournament was over, a 72 on the final day left him tied for 20th. T-20 is terrific showing for a person of his stature and age.

Tadd’s scores of 71, 66, 66 and 72 against the big boys proved that he has the game to play on tour.