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Fujii has best day WAIKOLOA, Hawaii >> There were several of them, their eager faces reddened by a relentless sun, and they stayed there for nearly a half-hour. They crowded around, chattering and nodding, scribbling furiously. They wanted to know everything. They were chronicling a fairy tale.
of career at Takefuji
The Japanese pro shoots a 61
to move into the lead
heading into the final roundBy Kalani Simpson
ksimpson@starbulletin.comThe Japanese media contingent didn't want to let Kasumi Fujii go. But she didn't seem to mind a bit. She didn't want to let go, either. And so she laughed and talked and answered every question, retelling the story, reliving the moment, describing again and again how she had played the round of her life yesterday at the LPGA Takefuji Classic.
Fujii shot a 9-under 61 during the second round to take the top spot in the $900,000 season-opening event. She ended her afternoon with a 13-under 127. She gave herself the lead going into today's final round.
"I'm trying to set a face to that name," said defending champion Lorie Kane, the first day's leader, who closed her round two strokes off the pace at 11-under 129. "I think I know who she is."
Fujii received a sponsorship exemption and has won only once on the Japan Tour, finishing fourth on the money list in 2001. Her previous best round was a 65.
"I'm sure Takefuji's happy," Kane said. "And they should be."
They had to be. Fujii was burning up the course. She made 10 birdies yesterday, each move on the leader board bringing another round of audible excitement. Fujii? Who was this? And how low would she go? Her score was dropping faster than Enron stock.
And she knew it. She'd sneak peeks at her card and marvel at the birdies piling up. She looked at the board whenever she could find one, looked at it and, wow, she just couldn't believe it. It felt good. It felt great. It felt like it feels in those rare moments when you know everything is within reach.
On 18, when it was over, after settling for a short putt for par, Fujii unleashed her smile, tossing the ball to a lucky fan behind the ropes, walking off to cheers and shouts from newly won followers.
"(Bleeping) unreal," said a caddie who had seen the whole thing up close, as he came off the course and set down his bag.
"I thought she played better yesterday," a second caddie said.
"She did play better yesterday," said the first. "She just made every single putt today."
That's how it happened, she and her powerful putter. And then she was engulfed by autograph seekers before being whisked away as the media hurried to meet her at the interview tent.
It seemed like it was all out of a dream.
She was so tired, so very tired when she woke up in the morning, her body felt like it didn't want to move. But then came the first birdies ("Things that did not go in yesterday," she was interpreted as saying, "went in for me today"), and then she found energy on the course, found it taking over her body in bursts. Between holes heading for the No. 9 tee box, "I was treading so gingerly," she said, almost exhausted. But then another surge hit her and she was flying again.
She was carried by a feel, an aura, an energy. Everything just felt so positive. In Japan, the crowd cinches up when things are going wrong for golfers, it seizes up, it worries, it tightens and catches its breath. You can feel it, she said, and then you feel it, and then your golf game feels it, too.
But this was different, so different, because here the crowd was loose, and the atmosphere was relaxed, and Fujii could feel that, too. And the energy kept her going, kept her feeling it all the way through.
"Everyone is so positive out there, and they are all looking for good things," she said. And so she went with it, and gave them what they wanted.
But Kane was only two strokes back at the end of the day, and Kane is the defending champion and Kane wants to win. "There is another day," the champion said. And Annika Sorenstam, the future hall of famer, is just three strokes back, without hitting the ball that well.
She, too, could easily break out with a handful of birdies of her own. Ten of Sorenstam's 31 tournament wins have been comebacks on the final day.
"Everything depends on the weather and the wind," Sorenstam said.
But there is more at play than simply playing conditions. Now we're talking about extra energy and a magic putter and an underdog from nowhere. Now we're talking about a possible fairy-tale ending.
Surrounded there by her excited countrymen, Fujii continued to relive the round of her life. She spoke only Japanese. But the look on her face said everything.