MAMARONECK, N.Y. — When 15-year-old U.S. Open qualifier Tadd Fujikawa of Honolulu was asked — almost as a joke — who the best teenage golfer in Hawai'i is these days, he didn't give an inch.

"Boys or girls?" was his response, referring to Michelle Wie, that "other" Hawai'i teenager with the perfect swing and the huge potential.

Fujikawa stands 5 feet 1 and tips the scales at 135 pounds. He has yet to sprout a whisker, so when he arrived at Winged Foot for his practice round this week, security guards thought he was trying to sneak onto the course. Better proof than his ID came when he more than doubled his weight with his distance off the tee, a whopping average of 285 yards.

"He will surprise a lot of people. You'll see," said his beaming coach and caddie, Kevin Ralbovsky. "It's an interesting thing to see someone of his size and stature play so well and react so poised. He looks like a polished player."

Lori Fujikawa, Tadd's mother, agrees.

"When they see my son, they won't believe him. No, no," said Lori, one of six family members and two friends who made the trip. "Michelle Wie has inspired a lot of Hawaiian golfers, made them believers. I think Tadd really believes that whatever he tries to do, he can really accomplish."

When they tee it up for the first round today at Winged Foot, Fujikawa will be the youngest player to compete in the U.S. Open.

"It's definitely exciting," said Tadd, who recently completed ninth grade at Moanalua High School. "Who wouldn't be excited? It's the Open. It doesn't matter what age you are — 15, 20, 50."

That enthusiasm, Ralbovsky said, will help Tadd.

"Tadd is very fun-loving, very positive," Ralbovsky said. "He's going to enjoy it, which is really the No. 1 reason for him to participate in the event.

"It will be a great experience for him regardless of how he plays. It's going to be real fun and be a real positive experience no matter what he scores."

Lori agreed.

"I'm definitely sure, he will enjoy every single moment," she said.

Despite Tadd's distance off the tee, he clearly doesn't unfurl the entire way. In fact, he barely appears to bring the club to parallel on the backswing, not beyond, the way the biggest hitters do.

"I'd spray it a little bit" if he swung harder, Tadd said. "So, I just try to keep it in the fairway."

His family doesn't play much golf. His grandfather, Danny, sheepishly admits he's "a 90-95" shooter, not good enough to play with the kid anymore.

"We're all hackers," said Lori, who often caddies for Tadd when he plays tournaments at home.

Tadd, who overcame being born 3 1/2 months premature, won several national titles in judo before taking up golf.

"When I first hit the golf ball, I fell in love with the game," he said. "It was cool."

Ralbovsky saw the potential immediately.

"Even though he was very small, you could tell by his demeanor. He was very calm and very able to focus. You don't see that with young boys too much. They're very antsy," he said. "Emotionally, they're all over the chart. Tadd is so stable. That probably is his greatest strength. He's able to stay calm and poised. Bad shots don't affect him. He's able to recover from them."

Asked to explain her son's amazing ability to strike a golf ball, Lori said simply, "he practices a lot. He eats and sleeps golf."

Now, he's doing it at the U.S. Open.

The Associated Press and New York Daily News contributed to this story.