What Tadd Fujikawa did for the Sony Open in Hawai'i, Big Island native Kimberly Kim hopes to do for the two LPGA tournaments here opening the 2007 season.

"He's my idol now," said Kim in a telephone interview from Arizona. "I just want to be like Tadd. I hope I can perform like him."

Fujikawa became the youngest player in 50 years to make the cut in a PGA Tour event and upstaged Hawai'i's most famous golf phenom Michelle Wie, who didn't make it to the weekend at Waialae Country Club.

"It was all about Michelle the first two days. After that it was all about Tadd," said Kim, who congratulated Fujikawa after the tournament. "We were talking and I told him, 'I guess we're the stars now.' "

Now, it is the 15-year-old Kim's turn to be like Tadd as the focus shifts to women's golf.

She will play in the SBS Open at Turtle Bay Feb. 15 to 17 and the Fields Open in Hawai'i the following week at Ko Olina, after receiving the first two LPGA exemptions of her young career as winner of the U.S. Women's Amateur last summer.

She also got invited to play in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the LPGA's first major of the year, in March along with Wie.

"I didn't expect to get invited," Kim said.

Meanwhile, SBS Open and Fields Open tournament officials received e-mails from Wie's agent saying that she would not be playing in the events. She has until Feb. 11 to change her mind for the SBS Open.

"It would be nice to see her play," Kim said. "(But) I don't think it matters. To me, she's just another competitor."

Kim apparently already has her game face on as she returns to the Islands for the first time since last spring.

After spending a day in Hilo, she will check into the Turtle Bay Resort on Friday with the idea of practicing at the Palmer Course every day until it's time to tee it up for the SBS Open.

It's at her father's insistence.

Soo Young Kim, a Big Island orchid grower, also has made arrangements so that his daughter will have the same caddie when she became the youngest champion in the 106-year history of the U.S. Women's Amateur.

Frank Nau, a student at Oregon State, will carry the bag for Kim in both events here and in the Kraft Nabisco. He played an important part in her victory at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Oregon last August, according to Kim.

"I liked the way we worked together. He handled all my attitude problems," she said.

And you remember the huge trophy she held up while doing the shaka sign?

Well, it's already on display at the Turtle Bay Resort's golf pro shop, where it surely will get the attention of the LPGA pros.

The USGA had shipped the trophy to Kim at her home in Arizona.

"It came in a huge case," she said. "I opened it but I didn't unpack it."

Instead, she sent it to the Hapuna Golf Course for display with the idea of it later going to Turtle Bay.

"Ever since I was a kid, and I wasn't very good, Hapuna would let us practice there. We'd pick weeds and they'd let us play."

It was at Hapuna where Matt Hall, now director of golf at Turtle Bay, was her golf coach. Now her allegiance has switched to the resort on O'ahu's North Shore since Hall moved there.

Kim says her game has greatly improved with a new swing coach, Kent Chase, who runs a golf academy in the Phoenix area.

"I made a lot of changes. I'm swinging better, more consistent. I don't think I got longer, but I'm straighter. I'm happy with the results," she said.

Kim played and made the cut in the U.S. Women's Open in Newport, R.I., but it was sponsored by the USGA. So the upcoming two events will be her first two LPGA tournaments. She will accept as many exemptions as she's allowed, she said.

"Having won (the U.S. Women's Amateur) opened a lot of doors of opportunity for me," said Kim, who's continuing her high school education on-line.

She still has plans of going to college, at least for one year.

"Education is important. I want to find a way to finish college and play golf," she said.

In that way, she can be like Michelle, too.