Anybody seen my club?

On the seventh tee, Tadd Fujikawa and caddie Shakil Ahmed were suddenly stunned by the knowledge that he was a club short in the bag — the 6-iron. It turned out it had been left at the sixth hole, causing Ahmed to dash back to retrieve it. When he returned holding the club, fans clapped and Fujikawa chuckled.

Fujikawa and other golfers gave Ahmed, owner of a Honolulu internet technology company, high marks for his work with the young golfer this week.

The Moanalua High senior isn't sure where he will play next, but chances are there are more sponsor's exemptions on the way.

"I had probably 30-something text messages (Saturday) and tons of phone calls," Fujikawa said. "My mom's phone was ringing off the hook. It was unbelievable. It didn't stop ringing."

Agent Kevin Bell told the family he hadn't slept in two days. "I feel bad for him," Fujikawa said, "but at the same time, it is a good thing."

Fujikawa's smiling presence at the Sony Open this weekend gave attendance a huge bump. No numbers were available for yesterday, but Saturday's crowd was up 44 percent from last year (12,900 to 8,900).

Maybe Sony should have bought him dinner, but Fujikawa said it was on him last night.

"I'm going to treat friends and family out to dinner for sure," he said. "Although my paycheck ($29,237.14) wasn't as big as I would like it to be and I didn't get the trophy, I still got a lot of support."

CHAMPIONS TAKE STAGE

The Champions Tour officially opens this week with the $1.8 million Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai on the Big Island. Fred Funk won last year, but a knee injury will not allow him to defend his title starting Friday. The elite field of 34 is made up winners from the past two years and major champions from the past five.

This is the first of 26 senior events in 2009. The tour is playing for $51.4 million in its 30th year. It started in 1980 with four events, worth $475,000. This is Mitsubishi's first year as title sponsor.

Tom Watson, who had hip replacement surgery in October, is making his first tournament start since August. Jerry Pate, who won the final Turtle Bay Championship last year, is also making a comeback after having shoulder and knee surgery in the summer.

Among those making a debut in the elite field are Jeff Sluman, Andy North and Bruce Vaughan, who all won for the first time on the Champions Tour last year. There are four former champions in the field — Hale Irwin (1997, 2007), Gil Morgan (1998), Tom Kite (2002) and Loren Roberts (2006).

Sluman and Roberts missed the cut at the Sony Open in Hawai'i Friday.

Hualalai Golf Course has ranked as the easiest course on the tour the last six years, with an average score of less than 70, including 67.981 in 2006 — lowest in tournament history.

The tournament will be shown live on the Golf Channel Friday, from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., and over the weekend from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

ENOUGH OF HOLLYWOOD

Adam Scott was probably relieved that his surge onto the leaderboard with a 64 — the lowest round of the final day, shared with Tim Clark and Bart Bryant — inspired golf questions yesterday. For the last two weeks he has been hounded about the presence of actress Kate Hudson at his side on Maui.

The most offbeat questions yesterday concerned his trip to Qatar, to defend the title he won at the Qatar Masters last year. Scott was scheduled to leave last night and arrive in Qatar at midnight tomorrow — "So I'll be fresh for my Pro Am partners Wednesday," he joked.

Scott goes from here to San Francisco, where he has a 9-hour layover. Then he goes directly to Dubai and on to Qatar.

"It's a killer," he said.

The Australian is an avid surfer, but when given a choice of shooting his 64 or dropping in on the huge waves earlier this week, he chose golf.

"I'd take a round like today, because I know I'd survive today's round," Scott said. "I went up and looked at the waves on Wednesday, and I saw some 15- and 20-foot sets, and I was pretty sure I'd be happy to paddle out in that before I saw them up close. We were right on the point at Waimea Bay at somebody's house. I'd have to rethink the 20-foot set."

NOTES