Tadd Fujikawa was up to his ankles in grassy rough and up to the 5-foot-1 tip of the head he was scratching in trouble.

Just two shots — and a couple of disheartening caroms — into 2009, Fujikawa was already well on his way to a double bogey and who knew what else on the first hole of the Sony Open in Hawai'i yesterday.

If he was out to reestablish himself as the Can-Do Kid, this hardly seemed the way to go about it.

Or, was it?

The gumption with which the 18-year-old Moanalua High senior rallied back — shooting 1-under par the final wind-whipped 17 holes — for an overall 1-over 71 yesterday made for a powerful year-opening statement.

It said, for instance, that he is very much in the running to make the cut again, tied for 51st (top 70 and ties make the 36-hole cut), which would reprise the remarkable feat that introduced him to the golf world in 2007 as the youngest player to finish a PGA tournament in 50 years.

Fujikawa was an amateur then and walked away from $54,000 in prize money for finishing in a tie for 20th.

As a debuting pro last year, the magic — or was it beginner's luck? — that carried him to history in 2007 was absent as he missed the cut. So, too, it seemed, was the beyond-his-tender-years resilience that we had come to marvel at a year earlier.

But yesterday about the first thing that could go wrong did, his opening shot sailing wide right into the rough. Then, his struggle deepened when the second shot ricocheted off a coconut tree and rock wall — and very nearly a photographer — almost sailing into someone's back yard. With that rapid-fire Whap! Whap! Whap! still ringing in his ears, Fujikawa found a focus and, with it, an elasticity to save the day.

Two things we didn't see from him in trying times last year when he seemed to try too hard. When he let setbacks drag him from the unsinkable demeanor that had put him front and center here in 2007.

"Sometimes, when things didn't go well, I'd try overly hard and it would backfire on me," Fujikawa acknowledged. "It is better when I go out there and just be myself."

Yesterday, the youngster who had bound onto the first tee with a trademark smile and "Hi, I'm Tadd, nice to meet you" introductions, did just that. Settling down, he held on to his composure — and game — regaining the spring in his step with a birdie on the fourth hole.

Then, he proceeded, for the most part, to protect par on a day when gusts of up to 30 mph and, at times, rain, made it quite an accomplishment.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.