Playing in Wie's shadow

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

As shadows began to cool the course late Tuesday afternoon, the 2004 British Open champion played alone on one end of Waialae Country Club while a few hundred fans followed the most famous 15-year-old golfer in the world at the other.

Hawai'i's Michelle Wie hones her game at Waialae Country Club, where she will tee off at 8:59 a.m. today. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I'd rather have it like that," Hamilton said, grateful for Michelle Wie's distant presence. "I'm not a big fan of interacting with people. I don't mind it, but I'm more comfortable without people around."

Another season like 2004, when Hamilton was PGA Tour Rookie of the Year at the tender age of 38, might end his anonymity forever. The man from Oquawki, Ill., won twice, including "The Open," as everyone outside America calls it.

Still, Hamilton will be tough to track at this week's Sony Open in Hawai'i.

Wie, taking a week off from school to try and make her own history, will tee off in the first round this morning at 8:59.

A trio of 2004 Players of the Year — Craig Stadler (Champions), Vijay Singh (PGA Tour), Jimmy Walker (Nationwide) — also illuminate the Sony field. And two-time defending Sony champion Ernie Els, the man Hamilton beat in a four-hole playoff to win at Troon last summer, is here.

He won the 1992 Order of Merit on the Asian Tour to launch a career on the Japan Golf Tour, where he won 11 times despite a language fluency he describes as "less than sukoshi (little)."

Four of those wins came in 2003, catapulting him past the preliminary rounds to the PGA Tour's final Qualifying School.

"What triggered it?" echoed Hamilton, who had not won the previous four years. "If I knew that, I'd be a rich man. Something just seemed to click. Even though I hadn't won in a while, I still remembered what it was like to win. I just had to get that feeling back."

Hawai'i's David Ishii, Dean Wilson and Greg Meyer used to play practice rounds with Hamilton in Japan. Ishii never saw a dramatic change.

"All of a sudden Todd just started playing well," Ishii said. "I don't know what he did differently. He just played better."

The roll continued at Q-School, where the eighth time was a charm for a guy who had contemplated quitting more than a decade earlier. After earning his way on to the world's best tour, Hamilton won his sixth start, birdieing the final two holes at the Honda Classic. Then, with "an eery calmness," he outlasted Els, Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen on the final day of the British Open to become the second straight rookie to win.

Perseverance paid off for Todd Hamilton, who won the British Open as a 38-year-old rookie. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

"People probably are talking about it (his Open win) as a fluke, to be honest," he admitted. "Maybe 'fluke' in small letters instead of 'fluke' in capital letters."

Hamilton relishes the challenge, a trait Ishii saw in Japan.

"He likes the adversity, the challenge," Ishii said. "He likes to be in the heat of the thing."

Hamilton is ready to take the heat — good and bad — after last year. He prefers to figure his future out on his own, without criticism and compliments. He doesn't even have a swing coach because he doesn't like people "telling me what to do." When you are 39 and finally where you had dreamed of playing since you were a child, you are at peace with your place in the world.

"I've always kept to myself," Hamilton says. "I hate to be told what to do ... I think I'm smart enough to figure things out on my own. It might take me longer to do something than others, but in the end I'm usually able to do it."

If all goes well for Hamilton this week, his game will warm up again — while everyone is watching Wie.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043.