Michelle Wie won't be there but there's still a compelling story line involving yet another teenage phenom from Hawai'i in the 106th U.S. Open at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y.

Wie would have made golf history. But how Tadd Fujikawa — at 15, the youngest to qualify since 1941 when Tyrell Garth qualified at age 14, made it to Winged Foot is as remarkable a story.

A miracle, really.

Not because he beat nine others in the local sectional qualifier Monday at the Po'ipu Bay Golf Course on Kaua'i for an opportunity to play in golf's national championship. The reality of that accomplishment "is just starting to sink in now," said Fujikawa, who just finished his freshman year at Moanalua High School.

It's because of how he overcame everything to get there.

That's where the miracle comes in. His mom, Lori, is still amazed that her son is not only playing golf at a level to qualify for the U.S. Open but that he's playing at golf at all. No, more than that. That he's alive.

Fujikawa weighed only 31 ounces when he was born 3 1/2 months prematurely. Doctors gave him only a 50 percent chance to live. Six months and five operations later, he weighed all of 10 pounds.

"He has always been a fighter; he just doesn't give up," Lori says.

She and her husband Derrick got an inkling of their only son's strong will when he took up judo and became a national champion at age 8, weighing all of 62 pounds.

It was also at that time that he started playing with the Oahu Junior Golf Association. Fujikawa soon learned that golf, like judo, required discipline and technique. Size doesn't matter in either sport.

It was something that he could relate to.

"When I do things, I always want to be the best," says Fujikawa, who isn't intimidated by anyone or anything after all that he has been through.

He's 5 feet 1, and probably won't grow much taller, and a muscular 135 pounds. But as he once was in judo, Fujikawa's now a giant-killer in golf.

What he gives away in height, he makes up in length off the tee, averaging 285 yards on his drives. But Fujikawa thinks his strength, beside a strong mental game, is his putting.

"Putting is really the key in scoring," he says.

Tell Michelle Wie about it.

Fujikawa is well aware that he got the opportunity to play for the lone Hawai'i sectional spot to the U.S. Open because Wie, the medalist in the O'ahu local qualifying in which he finished third, went to the New Jersey sectional instead of Po'ipu Bay.

He's thankful for that, but adds, "I'm doing what I have to do and she's doing what she has to do. I don't let anyone affect my own game."

Fujikawa says that playing in the U.S. Open or the Masters had been among his "wildest dreams." Little did he realize that day would come sooner than he expected. Like next week.

Now he's really excited as he leaves tomorrow with an entourage that will include his parents, his grandfather and judo sensei Danny Fujikawa, two grandmothers, a couple of aunties and his golf instructor, Kevin Ralbovsky, who will caddy for him.

They're excited. He's excited.

Fujikawa is focusing on doing well in the U.S. Open even though he will attract some media attention as "that other teen phenom" from Hawai'i. And wait till they learn about his medical history.

"I hope I can make the cut. That's definitely my main goal," Fujikawa said.

Just making it there is prize enough. But he got a few added bonuses. Fujikawa learned that by playing in the U.S. Open he's exempt from qualifying for the USGA men's amateur public links championship, the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Junior Amateur.

His summer golf schedule had called for going to those qualifiers. Not any more.

After Winged Foot, Fujikawa will head to the Rolex Tournament of Champions, a huge American Junior Golf Association event, in Evergreen, Colo., July 5 to 9.

It might be an AJGA biggie, but after playing in the U.S. Open, it's got to be a little bit of a letdown.