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SONY OPEN IN HAWAIIJanuary 13, 2007Tadd FujikawaHONOLULU, HAWAII TODD BUDNICK: We welcome Tadd Fujikawa, your second consecutive round of 66. Another very nice day for you today. It looked like right from the first tee you were calm with yourself. TADD FUJIKAWA: Yeah, I think today I was a lot more comfortable than yesterday, and I think that's probably because I don't have anything to lose right now. And I already made the cut so I don't have to worry about anything like that. And I just want to go out there, have fun, do the best that I can and hopefully I can do good and shoot some low numbers. TODD BUDNICK: Let's talk about your play today. You bogeyed No. 2, but bounced right back with a birdie and then three more on the front nine. Just talk about what was playing well for you today. TADD FUJIKAWA: I think just the momentum. Everything was just kind of flowing. You know, having this many people out here watching and you supporting you, it really hypes you up and really gets you going. So I think that really played a big part in all of my birdies today. TODD BUDNICK: When you bogeyed No. 2, did you think, oh, no, you know, maybe here, or it looks like you just stuck to your game. TADD FUJIKAWA: Yeah, I just thought to myself, I hit a couple of good shots, a couple bad shots on that hole. Just stick to my game plan, I have a lot more holes to go. Just really stay focused and stay in the moment. Q. Talk about your crowd, how much bigger was it today? TADD FUJIKAWA: I'm not sure how many people were out there, but I'm sure this is the biggest crowd I've ever seen in my life (laughter). Q. Do you think after your performance these past few days, people will stop calling you Todd or Chad? TADD FUJIKAWA: Probably not. Q. Do you mind it? TADD FUJIKAWA: No, I don't mind it. It's just -- I don't really care. I don't know why people call me Todd or Chad or whatever. I guess Tadd is not a very common name, so not a lot of people will remember it. Q. Do you feel any pressure as the only Hawaii golfer still in the running right now? TADD FUJIKAWA: Absolutely not. I'm not playing for money. This isn't my job. I'm just out here having fun, just soaking up all of the moments and just -- I'm just out there doing my best. And if it works out, then great. Q. If someone had told you you would make the cut to begin with and then be 7-under on the third day, and they told you this before the tournament started, what would you have said? Would you have believed that? TADD FUJIKAWA: It would be possible but I think at this tournament, at any PGA tournament, that's really not likely -- well, for me anyway. But it's always possible. You know, I'm just out there doing my best, like I said, and anything's possible. Q. When was the first time you saw your fame on those archaic leaderboards? TADD FUJIKAWA: I don't know. I didn't even see my name. Q. Not once? TADD FUJIKAWA: No. I wasn't paying attention to it. Q. You don't look at the leaderboards? TADD FUJIKAWA: I do, but I wasn't looking at the right moment I guess. Q. Your loss. It's out there. TADD FUJIKAWA: Really? Q. Really. TADD FUJIKAWA: That's pretty good. Q. Your mom says you're going to have a lot of homework to catch up on. Do you think anything is going to change when you go back to school? TADD FUJIKAWA: I hope my teachers are nice to me. I hope they are not mad. But yeah, a lot of my teachers are fairly nice and they support me. I don't know how much work I'm going to have to get caught up on but I'm sure it's quite a bit. Q. Do you want to do this for a living? TADD FUJIKAWA: Definitely. Q. At what point in your life did you start thinking, "I want to be a PGA TOUR player?" TADD FUJIKAWA: I would say about two years ago, I really thought, what do I need to do to improve my game and what's my priorities. And right now, golf is definitely my priority. Golf and school are the two things that I really enjoy and really want to do well in. So, yeah, I'd say I love this job. It's the greatest thing in the world for a job. You know, something you really enjoy doing and you can become a millionaire in one week. Q. The par putt you missed on 2, did that upset you; give you a little kick? TADD FUJIKAWA: All of the putts that I missed kind of upset me, always. I may not show it. It didn't really affect me that much. I just kind of took it as a grain of salt. I hit a good putt. I just hit it a little too firm so it didn't break as much. I just said, you know -- like I said, there's a lot more holes to go. I know I can make birdies on this golf course. It's possible. I know I can go low on this golf course. You know, these past two days has been great. I've hit the ball very well. I was surprised yesterday to see myself tied for first in greens in regulation. That's something pretty good at this level. It's something very well accomplished. Q. Can you talk about the ruling on 18? TADD FUJIKAWA: What happened was where my ball stopped, I would have had to hit over the tents. So what they did was they gave me line of sight and I got to drop my ball all the way on the other side -- all the way on the other side of the fairway where the tents would not be in the way. So I guess Hawaii was kind of behind me on that one, kind of lucky. Q. What happened on your drive? TADD FUJIKAWA: I just tried to cut it too close. I was getting too greedy. I knew I could get it down there at a good range where I could easily make eagle if I hit two decent shots. I just, you know, took it too close, cut it too close to the tree. I didn't make a very good swing, so it hit the tree. Q. You were tied for fourth at one point as you were playing the back nine, did you have any inclination that you were doing that well? TADD FUJIKAWA: No. You know, I'm just out there having fun and doing the best that I can. Like I said, I didn't see myself on the leaderboard as tied for fourth or anything like that. So I'm just trying to do my best and just take one shot at a time and stay in the moment. Q. Is there a golfer that you model yourself after, someone you particularly enjoy watching? TADD FUJIKAWA: I enjoy watching golf, period. I like it. I don't know why. But a lot of people think it's boring, but to me, you learn a lot from watching PGA TOUR pros practise, hit shots, make decisions. You know, everything they do, you learn from it. I think that's why I enjoy watching it and that's why I enjoy playing golf is because I really want to improve my game. You can never stop getting better and that's just my feeling about golf and the way I take everything. Q. Is there any one particular golfer that you keep an eye on? TADD FUJIKAWA: No. I just watch everybody and you know, take bits and pieces of everybody's game and just try it, and if it doesn't work then give it up and that sort of thing. Q. You're supposed to say Dean Wilson there, by the way. TADD FUJIKAWA: (Laughing). Q. You talked about you didn't look at the leaderboard at all today. Since this is obviously one of your few times you've played on the PGA TOUR, will you look at it tomorrow? A lot of times if you're playing well -- because a lot of times players have made errors and didn't look and had an opportunity. Would you look tomorrow? TADD FUJIKAWA: You know, today I looked at the leaderboard. I just didn't see my name up there. You know, I'm a person who likes to know what I need to do. That's just the kind of person I am where if I have a goal, I will do anything to get there. If I have something to shoot for where, you know, I'm one back or two back of the leader and I know I need to make birdies, then I'm going to do my best to do that. Q. Has your goal changed any from yesterday to today after your play today? TADD FUJIKAWA: Not really. Like I said I'm out here just to have fun and just to do my best and hit the best shot that I can at every moment. I think today I did pretty well. I don't have a particular goal in mind where, you know, 10-under or Top-10 or anything like that. But Top-10 would be great. I think for any 16-year-old at a PGA TOUR event, the Top-10 is unbelievable. Q. Who did you play practise rounds with this week? TADD FUJIKAWA: I played with, actually, I only played with Steve Stricker in the Pro-Am. That's the only person I played with. I think that was on Monday. And on Tuesday I played by many I receive. Q. He putts pretty good doesn't he? TADD FUJIKAWA: Yeah, I'd say so. Q. Was there any particular shot today that you were proud of, maybe not the closest one to the flag but one that you just thought, wow, this was a really good shot. TADD FUJIKAWA: I think my putt on No. 3, you know, got me back on track. That really started everything from there on. Also, No. 12, my second shot, that was pretty good. I think that was the shot of the day for me. Q. What about the trees, what did you have to do with those? TADD FUJIKAWA: I had a tree right in front of me that kind of split, palm trees, and I could have gone in the middle of them and tried to cut it into the wind, but you know, it kind of didn't feel comfortable for me. So I took the other route and went around them and tried to hit a little draw up there. Luckily it came out perfect. Q. What club was that? TADD FUJIKAWA: That was a 9-iron. TODD BUDNICK: Tadd, if we can just go through the bogeys and birdies you had, if you can walk us through those particular holes, starting with the bogey. TADD FUJIKAWA: No. 2, I hit my tee shot to the right in the rough, and my lie wasn't very good. So I just tried to kind of hit an 8-iron up there and just kind of run it up on the front. It kind of squirted left on me, went in the bunker. I hit a pretty good bunker shot but missed the putt. Third hole, I made birdie. I hit 3-wood off the tee. I think I hit a gap wedge to about 12 feet maybe and I made the putt. And No. 5, I hit my driver down the middle and I hit a pitching wedge to I'd say three, four feet, made the putt. No. 6, I hit my drive to the left in the rough. My life was really good, so I hit an 8-iron and I hit it towards the right side of the green. Then I think it was like 20 feet maybe, it was pretty long and I made it. On No. 9, I hit my drive left to the fairway bunker and I hit a 6-iron out into the fairway about I think 85 yards or so. Then I hit it to about eight feet and then I made the putt. On 11 I hit my tee shot to the right side of the green. Pin was way on the left, and I don't know how far that putt was, but it was pretty far and I made it. No. 12, I hit my tee shot to the right into the trees and I hit my second shot just on the edge of the green, maybe about ten feet, 12 feet maybe, made the putt. And then on 16, I hit my tee shot left and got kind of lucky, rolled through all the trees and had a pretty open shot into the green. I hit it to about 20 feet. The putt was a little quicker than I expected, and it was kind of going up the hill and a little down the hill at the end, and I just hit it so hard and was like, uh-oh, this is going way past. I think it went four feet past, four or five feet and I missed it coming back. Q. How would you describe that fist pump on 11? TADD FUJIKAWA: That was just a lucky kind of fist pump I guess. You know, you really don't expect to make that kind of put. I knew that it was makeable. I knew the line, I knew the speed, but that sort of length putt is not one that you would really try to make. I was just trying to get it up there close where I could have a tap-in. Q. When you saw Michelle Wie playing in this tournament at a very young age, was that any sort of inspiration for you? TADD FUJIKAWA: Yeah, it was. You know, when she first started playing this tournament, she was doing really well. You know, at age 14, she almost made the cut. I think she missed it but one shot, was it. I think that really gave the Hawaii juniors a really big, I think it gave them something to strive for. I think it kind of told them, you know, you can do to, too. If she can do it, then you can do it, and gave them kind of an inspiration to do better. And I think that's why Hawaii golf nowadays is improving and there's a lot more great players coming out of Hawaii, you know, like Dean Wilson, Parker, Michelle, Kimberly Kim. I think it's just great for golf, period. TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Tadd. Good luck tomorrow. End of FastScripts |
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