Tadd Fujikawa has faced long odds from the moment he was born, 3 1/2 months premature and so tiny his parents could hold him in one hand. He might be one of the few who can put the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament into perspective.

The 18-year-old Moanalua High School graduate tees off in the First Stage this morning (3:47 a.m. HST) at St. Johns Golf & Country Club in St. Augustine, Fla. Over the next two weeks, nearly 1,000 golfers will play at 13 First-Stage sites around the country.

About 20 from each site advance to six Second-Stage sites next month, where they will be joined by PGA Tour members who finished outside the top 150 on the money list, among others.

The first two stages are 72-hole stroke play events. The survivors advance to the final stage, which grinds on for 108 holes. The low 25 and ties still standing are exempt on the PGA Tour next year. The next number of players nearest to 50 are fully exempt on Nationwide Tour. The remaining players have conditional Nationwide status.

Fujikawa has simplified this mind-numbing process.

"I'm going to go out to win the golf tournament," he said by phone from Florida. "If I do that, everything should take care of itself."

That might sound preposterous, if Fujikawa hadn't been in contention at two of the last three Sony Opens.

At 16, he became the youngest in 50 years to make a tour cut and bolted into fourth place Saturday before finishing 20th. Then he beat a bunch of Hawai'i, Japan and Mainland pros to capture the Hawai'i Pearl Open. He turned pro five months later.

Fujikawa didn't make a cut until winning last year's Mid-Pacific Open, but he has made nine since and won $119,000. Most notably, he defended at Mid-Pac — winning by nine shots — and torched Waialae Country Club with an 8-under-par 62. Fujikawa went into the final round of this year's Sony two shots out of the lead, and tied for 32nd.

He has been working his okole off since, making two more PGA Tour cuts in March and contending on the Nationwide Tour in July. He, mother Lori and Waialae, his 3-pound Maltese-Chihuahua, have lived in a little cottage in Sea Island, Ga., the last three weeks so he can train with his coaches.

They plunked down the $4,500 entry fee for First Stage (second is $4,000 and final is $3,500) and picked a site. It was not St. Johns, which was his eighth choice. By now, Fujikawa knows how to roll with the punches.

"It may be a blessing in disguise," Fujikawa said. "It's close to Sea Island, only 2 hours away. We drove here. The weather is similar, the grass is the same. It's nice to be comfortable with where I am and with the golf course and stuff."

He is one of many compelling Q-School stories. Along with Fujikawa's feel-good presence, the Port St. Lucie field includes Jack Nicklaus's son, Gary, Arnold Palmer's grandson, Sam Saunders, and heart-transplant survivor Erik Compton.

The focus is to beat them all and the 66 others, with a game that has been tweaked and transformed at Sea Island. The golf club is home to four of Golf Digest's "Top 50 Instructors." That includes Todd Anderson, who works with Fujikawa and a few other guys such as Charles Howell III and Davis Love III.

The swing changes took hold at Sony and Fujikawa feels he has more shots and consistency now.

"My coaches are very happy with the way my game is coming around," Fujikawa said. "Not only just the swing and putting, but physically how my body is changing. It's getting there. Now the focus is First Stage and if I get through that we will have accomplished our goal for this month. Then I hope to get through the second (stage) and final too."

Fujikawa is not the only golfer with Hawai'i ties in the First Stage. Former Rainbows Pierre-Henri Soero and Matt Kodama and former Hawai'i State Open champion Chad Saladin also tee off today in Florida, Alabama and Nevada, respectively. Kamehameha graduate Keoke Cotner, a regular on the Nationwide Tour, and two-time state high school champion and former Rainbow Jarett Hamamoto, from Hilo, begin Oct. 27 in Lakeland, Fla. That same day, Maui's Samuel Cyr tees off in Santee, Calif., and Tony Finau, who represents Turtle Bay, is in Lantana, Texas.