In a vivid picture of golf's incredibly fickle nature, played out on a remarkable afternoon at Waialae Country Club, Hawai'i's newest golf prodigy awed all onlookers while its proud "old" prodigy was putting the finishing touches on another Sony Open in Hawai'i disappointment.

Tadd Fujikawa, who turned 16 on Monday, took uppercuts at golf history with everything in his 5-foot-1, 145-pound body yesterday, becoming the youngest to make a PGA Tour cut in 50 years. The Moanalua High sophomore did it with game to spare in Sony's second round, eagling his final hole to shoot a 4-under-par 66 and make the cut by three shots.

Fujikawa is the second-youngest ever to make a tour cut. Ty Tryon was the last teenager to make a cut, at age 16 in the 2001 Honda Classic.

Meanwhile Michelle Wie, suddenly struggling at the tender age of 17, closed the toughest of her four Sony Opens with a 76. Her two-day total of 154 was 14 off the cut line and her worst score here by five shots.

Before all the fireworks provided by two kids who have helped put Hawai'i's junior program on the Mainland's map, Luke Donald and Paul Goydos continued to carve up Waialae. Donald, who opened with a 7-under 63 on Thursday, followed up with a 66, playing the last four holes in 3-under. Goydos flip-flopped Donald's excellence, complementing Thursday's 66 with a 63 highlighted by five consecutive birdies.

They go into today's third round tied for the lead at 11-under 129. Chad Campbell (65), who finished second last year, is two back and Charles Howell III (63) three back. Jim Furyk, Jerry Kelly and Paul Azinger, who have all won here, are in the top 10.

But yesterday Fujikawa, a head taller than his driver, stole all the professionals' thunder.

He started at 1-over par, with a gallery of 300 and the scoreboard showing 76 players at even-par or better. He got to that number with a 49-foot "pitch-and-check" shot from the right of the greenside bunker at No. 6 that "checked" into the hole on one bounce.

Fujikawa crouched by the bunker and ripped an uppercut. Minutes later, he chased a 24-foot birdie putt downhill, throwing three uppercuts along the way as it died into the hole. He got to 2-under with an approach shot to 2 feet at No. 12, but dropped back to even — and living on the bubble — when he bogeyed the 14th and 15th.

Fujikawa slammed in an 18-foot birdie on the next hole and dropped his fist like a hammer. "I just told myself, 'Commit to my line,' " he said of the birdie putt. "The couple of holes before that I was kind of guiding my putts and putting the death grip on my putter."

When he dropped the 15-foot eagle putt on the 18th the huge crowd howled. He raised both hands high, ripped a final uppercut and, moments later, pinched his cheeks. His burgeoning fan base would have loved to do the same.

"I can't even breathe right now, I'm so excited," Fujikawa told the TV audience when it ended. "It's just great. Making the cut is an awesome thing for me right now and having all these people watch and support me is the greatest feeling in the world. I wish everyone could feel what I feel right now."

What he did not feel was nervous, after a year in which he became the youngest to ever play in the U.S. Open, earned Rolex Junior All-America honors and won the Oahu Country Club Men's Invitational. He also qualified as Sony's lone amateur by firing a 67 here last month, beating every pro by four.

"I wasn't nervous, not at all," Fujikawa said. "I just told myself at the beginning of the round, 'Just go out there, hit the shots.' And I knew I had the shots in my bag. I just needed to execute."

He was the only one of the seven Hawai'i golfers to make the cut. He shares 25th with John Daly and Kenny Parry, among others. He is one-up on defending champion David Toms and Vijay Singh, who won last week's Mercedes-Benz Championship. Stuart Appleby missed the cut, as did Shigeki Maruyama, Fred Funk and Corey Pavin.

On a day when the tradewinds gusted to 20 mph and Waialae turned trickier according to the leaders — though the average score dropped — those who found the fairway and ruled the greens rocked.

Goydos needed just 22 putts and called his bogey-free round "one of my top-5 on tour." This from a guy who needed a runner-up finish in the final 2006 event to keep his playing privileges — for the 15th straight year.

"It was windy and tough and the key generally to playing well in these conditions is making putts. I didn't have a lot of problem today doing that," he said. "It tends to make up for the wind blowing the ball all over the place."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.