By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

KAHUKU — The footsteps are growing louder, ever more bolder now.

Jennifer Rosales heard the unmistakable thundering of Michelle Wie's men's size 9 1/2 adidas yesterday in the SBS Open at Turtle Bay and be assured she was not the only one.

Wie's second-place tie at 6-under-par 210 over 54 holes and two strokes behind Rosales, served notice the 15-year old is becoming a contending force on the LPGA Tour. Sooner rather than later, too.

With three birdies on the back nine — and four for the day — Wie closed what had, at one point, been a seven-stroke gap to two by round's end and was the only one among the 74 third-round finalists to play every round under par.

It added up to her best performance yet against the pros, bettering a fourth place at the Kraft Nabisco in Rancho Mirage, Calif., 11 months ago.

If that didn't serve notice of her emerging presence in the LPGA picture, then the maturity that would have brought a $78,787 runners-up check had Wie not been an amateur undoubtedly did.

"She is an amazing player, no doubt about it and she is gonna give us a lot of challenges and make us work harder," Rosales said.

Golf's precocious prodigy is showing signs of coming of championship age. Her impending date with history is something for the LPGA field to ponder while it moves on to Mexico City and she goes back to 10th grade next week. For they will be seeing each other both soon — March 17 at the Safeway International in Arizona — and often (six more times after that this year).

"She had a great tournament and she is a veteran at 15 — if she can be called that," said Cristie Kerr, who shared second place with Wie but got all the money. "She is gonna be really, really good for our tour; I just hope our tour is ready for her."

Wie could have gone quietly back to algebra class after a head-shaking bogey on the par-5 ninth hole, where greed got the better of her and she overshot the green and cart path. Standing there in the mud, hands on her hips, and fading to seven strokes back of Rosales, the wire-to-wire leader, nobody would have been surprised if the hole had become her exit as the sixth at Waialae Country Club had been seven weeks ago where her bid to make the Sony Open cut expired.

Instead Wie came out refocused and competitive beyond her years, yesterday, managing birdies on two of the next three holes. The one that got away — a 30-footer on the par-4 10th — was the result of a putt that just lipped out.

By the time Wie got to take a glance at the electronic scoreboard at 15, she had become a full-fledged challenger. Much to her apparent surprise. "I saw on 15 that I was in second place and thought, 'Wow! That feels pretty good,' " Wie said.

The reaction of the crowds, if not the numbers on the scoreboard themselves, told Rosales what was afoot in the threesome ahead of her. "I heard a lot of roars," Rosales said. And, nobody needed to tell her what that meant here, in Hawai'i.

Just as there is no mistaking what Wie's second-place finish yesterday means to the rest of the LPGA field now.

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