RENO, Nev. — For Tadd Fujikawa, life as a golf professional was all good. Then the Reno-Tahoe Open started.

The 16-year-old's second shot in his professional debut zeroed in on the first hole yesterday and flew right by — over the green and into Montreux Golf & Country Club's gnarly rough. That led to double bogey and was a harbinger of frustrations to come as Fujikawa shot a 6-over-par 78 in the opening round.

He trails leader Steve Flesch, whose 9-under 63 was one off the course record, by 15. Worse, Fujikawa beat just three PGA Tour pros and is tied for 125th. The top 70 and ties after today's second round make the cut.

When the Fujikawas made the agonizing decision for Tadd to turn pro, worried that the expense of living in Hawai'i would hold him back, they committed to a long run and knew there would be days like yesterday. They characterized it simply as "a learning experience." Still, it was difficult to see the same little guy who charmed the masses at Sony Open in Hawai'i — becoming the youngest in 50 years to make a PGA Tour cut — struggle so in his pro debut.

"I'm finally finished," he said when his round ended five hours after it began. "I was out there doing the best I can. I didn't give up. I kept on going. Things were not going my way. I'd hit a good shot and fly the green. I did that five or six times today and I hardly got up and down. It cost me too many strokes."

Fujikawa did not hit the ball all that badly. He averaged 300 yards off the tee. The distance is somewhat inflated by the 5,000-foot-plus elevation, but Fujikawa was yard-for-yard with playing partner Kevin Stadler, who has 100 pounds and nearly a foot on him. The Moanalua High junior also putted well enough to score.

It was everything else in between that terrorized him, possibly including the altitude and especially Montreux's U.S. Open-like rough.

"I don't know that I've ever seen the rough like this — ever — in the RTO," said Montreux assistant pro Travis Hansen, who is caddying for Fujikawa.

"Honestly, it's thick out there," said Fujikawa, who became the youngest ever to qualify for the U.S. Open last year. "I didn't have one lie that was decent. Actually I did have one and I thought it was going to fly and it came out soft and that cost me a stroke, too. The more time I get out and play I'll get used to the rough and get better, the more experience I have."

Fujikawa and Hansen looked baffled by some of the distances.

"I've been out here for a really long time and today I could not get my club selection correct," Fujikawa said. "I was either short or long on every hole. It seems the more you try, the worse it gets. If you try harder, you hit it more in the rough. It's just terrible."

It got worse from the first hole on, after Fujikawa "pured" his first two shots but watched in stunned silence as his approach — a "nuked pitching wedge" — flew over the hole and into his first official look at Montreux's new macho rough. It would happen again and again.

There were no excuses, or real shows of frustration. Fujikawa kept his head up the entire long, hot afternoon, and never quit flashing that spectacular smile. But he could never dial in the brilliance that was so compelling at Waialae Country Club in January. Even after he hit his approach to a foot at No. 6, for the first of his two birdies, he couldn't get anything going.

"Usually I get really impatient when I hit good shots and it doesn't end up the way it looks," Fujikawa said. "You get really frustrated. Today I really wasn't frustrated at all. I was hitting good shots out there and I stayed really patient.

"I need to just get out here and play more. Everyone is going to be saying he's too young and all this stuff. I think it's experience. I'm not making excuses, but I didn't have experience."

He hit short on the seventh hole and knocked in a 6-footer for par — his longest par putt of the day — but couldn't salvage par out of the rough at No. 8. His only truly bad swing put him on the side of the hill on the par-5 ninth, which he also bogeyed.

At the 10th hole, his approach shot was short again, then he blasted from bunker to bunker for another double bogey.

As Fujikawa's mom walked down the 11th fairway, two strangers stopped her to thank her for bringing up a son so engaging and polite that he would acknowledge a small boy yelling for him in the middle of his rough round with a smile.

"He really made that kid's day," the man said. Lori thanked the couple, then said, "He's not smiling much now."

The crowd of about 100 — with two security guards — that walked Montreux's steep hills in 95-degree heat on the front nine melted into a small, quiet ohana of about 30 — with a sheriff on a bike — on the back. They watched in shock as Fujikawa whiffed his third shot on the par-5 11th.

"Terrible," Fujikawa recalled. "The rough was like super long and it (the ball) was sitting all the way at the bottom. It was like, 'No way I'm going to go under this ball because it's basically impossible.' So I opened up the face and hit down on it and just went right under it. I was like, 'OK, that wasn't too good.' I didn't expect that to happen. The ball was sitting all the way at the bottom and you usually don't go under it when it's on the bottom. Weird."

That stretch from Nos. 8 to 11 "just killed me," Fujikawa said. Even a 14-foot birdie putt on the 13th helped little.

"I couldn't get anything going out there," said Fujikawa, who practiced his putting deep into the night after Wednesday's Pro-Am. "Hopefully, tomorrow I'll get a few birdies and get my distances correct and shoot a pretty good score."

Hansen said he was surprised Fujikawa's number was so high. He also said he accepted the caddie job because Fujikawa "fascinates me with some of the shots he pulls off. He truly fascinates me."

That's what brought The Golf Channel and about 200 people to the first tee — including one camera man in a tree — to see Fujikawa off on his professional odyssey. They did not see what they had hoped, nor did the irrepressible Fujikawa, who is already learning on the job and close to committing to his second tournament. The family expects him to play in a Canadian Tour event this month.

First, he has to get through the Reno-Tahoe today.

NOTES

Jose Coceres is in second, a shot behind Steve Flesch, thanks to a hole-in-one on the seventh hole.

This being Nevada, there are odds on the Reno-Tahoe Open. Lucas Glover is the favorite, at 12 to 1. Defending champion Will MacKenzie, who opened with a 66, is a bit down the list at 25 to 1. Dean Wilson is the only Hawai'i golfer on the sheet, which goes 43 deep, at 60 to 1.

Wilson shot 71 yesterday, playing the front nine in 3-under. Parker McLachlin, the 1996 Hawai'i state high school champion who now represents Waikoloa, rallied for a 72 after playing the front nine in 3-over.

Crocs had invaded the golf course, even the gated community/private club of Montreux. Caddies Austin Na (for Kevin Na), Chad Antus (Chris Tidland) and Mark Loser (Paul Stankowski) are wearing the rubber sandals. The company now has a PGA Tour-branded pair.

Due to "extreme drought conditions" there is no smoking allowed at the tournament this year.

MAHAN IN THE HUNT ONCE AGAIN

AKRON, Ohio — Coming off four consecutive top 10s that included his first PGA Tour win, Hunter Mahan overcame a sloppy double bogey with a stretch of five birdies in seven holes for a 3-under 67, giving him a share of the lead with Paul Casey and Rory Sabbatini at the Bridgestone Invitational yesterday.

"It's just exciting to play this good, to feel like I'm finally reaching my potential and finally playing the way I can," Mahan, 25, said.

— Associated Press

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.