Now the Tadd Fujikawa Watch begins.

Good thing, too. It was getting to be close-your-eyes-time watching Michelle Wie. It has been too painful to watch.

Perhaps Fujikawa can now deflect some of the media glare away from Hawai'i's other teen golf professional, giving Wie time to regroup without too much scrutiny.

The decision by Fujikawa to turn pro at 16, just after his sophomore year at Moanalua High School, caught many by surprise, including yours truly.

But it shouldn't have, really. Kids in Hawai'i seem to mature a lot faster than their Mainland peers. Just ask some of the high school coaches who know.

A bit premature?

Don't talk about premature to Fujikawa, who literally embodies the word. Born three months premature and weighing only 1 pound, 15 ounces, Fujikawa has thrived, already becoming one of the best golfers locally at so tender an age.

The 5-foot-1 Fujikawa burst on the national scene last year by becoming the youngest ever to play in the 106-year history of the U.S. Open at 15.

He showed that it was no fluke by becoming the youngest in 50 years to make the cut in a PGA Tour event to be the talk of this year's Sony Open in Hawai'i. A month later, he won the Hawai'i Pearl Open, beating a field that included pros from here, Japan and the Mainland.

One of the amateurs Fujikawa beat in the Pearl Open was Casey Watabu, the 2006 U.S. Men's National Public Links champion, leading the Kaua'i native to say afterward, "He can play professional golf right now."

Fujikawa thought the same thing. It was his performances in the Sony Open and the Pearl Open that convinced him that his game was good enough to play with the pros, he said.

"It was always my dream to play professional golf," Fujikawa said. "At the Sony and the Pearl, I finally knew I could do this."

He talked it over with his family, "weighing the positives and the negatives." It took some doing, but he convinced his parents, Lori and Derrick Fujikawa, that he really wanted to turn pro.

His decision, mostly?

"For sure," Fujikawa said with his trademark smile, which will surely lead to an endorsement or two as his career develops.

So the Tadd Fujikawa Watch — as a professional — begins at the Reno-Tahoe Open two weeks from now. No matter how he does, you know it'll be a more successful pro debut than that of Wie, who DQ'd in the 2005 Samsung World Championship after turning pro, also at the age of 16.

No one was more pleased about Fujikawa turning pro than Jim Kline, Reno-Tahoe Open's tournament director.

"I'm kind of in awe," Kline said in a telephone interview. "I was thinking, OK, when I was 16, I didn't even know what I was going to do this weekend. Here's a kid, 16, making that kind of decision. You just have to admire someone like him."

With Fujikawa making his pro debut and Will McKenzie, who created a stir in the Mercedes-Benz Championship, returning to defend his title, the Reno-Tahoe Open will get some badly needed buzz, because it's the "other" tournament that week, opposite the World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational.

Kline said he started to think about giving Fujikawa one of the two unrestricted exemptions right after the Sony Open. Even then he had to convince his board members to take a chance on the youngster.

"I told the board, 'Here's somebody who is going to be a good player,' " Kline said.

Two guys Kline took a chance on when they were breaking in on the PGA Tour — Adam Scott and Luke Donald — are now among the top-ranked players in the world.

The two have moved beyond the Reno-Tahoe Open stage of their careers. And, who knows, Kline adds, "This might be the only chance we get to see a guy like him (Fujikawa)."

Fujikawa managed to get in a couple of practice rounds at the site of the tournament, the Montreux Golf & Country Club, two weeks ago.

"I really like it, I like the layout of the course," he said. "It's fairly long (7,472 yards) but the ball flies because of the elevation."

What does he expect in his second PGA Tour appearance?

"At the Sony, I really didn't know too much. Now, I know a little more and what to expect. I'm just going there and just try to hit the best shot I can every time," Fujikawa said.

So now the Tadd Watch begins.