From early in yesterday's second round of the Sony Open in Hawai'i it was clear everyone would be chasing K.J. Choi. "Everyone" will not include anyone from Hawai'i this weekend except Parker McLachlin, who birdied his final hole to make the cut in the first full-field event of the year.

McLachlin, who used to work at Waialae Country Club cleaning bathrooms and clearing trash, rallied with a 4-under-par 66 yesterday to climb to 1-under 139. He will play on the weekend at Sony for the second time in three years. McLachlin made a run here with a third-round 65 two years ago, ultimately grabbing a share of 59th.

Dean Wilson (71), amateur Alex Ching (72), Kevin Hayashi (71) and Tadd Fujikawa (70) all missed the cut to leave McLachlin the lone Hawai'i ranger today. He will tee off second with Mark Calcavecchia, at 8:43 a.m.

A year ago Fujikawa, who turned 17 Tuesday, became the second-youngest in history to make a PGA Tour cut. After opening with a 74, he was 2-under for the day and three off the cut line after six holes yesterday.

A double bogey on his 15th hole (No. 6) ended his chances and a remarkably loyal crowd, nearly three times the size of Thursday's gallery, finally began to disperse. He has missed the cut in all nine tournaments since turning pro last July.

Fujikawa's fans can now follow McLachlin and Choi, who has always enjoyed a warm relationship with Sony crowds. He seized first with a 64 Thursday and piled on with a 5-under-par 65 yesterday to take a two-shot advantage into the third round.

Kevin Na, who turned pro seven years ago at age 17, is alone in second after a 64 that included just 22 putts. Steve Marino (67) is another shot back and Jimmy Williams (68) and Fred Funk (64) share fourth.

Funk, 51, played the final 10 holes in 6-under, eagling the last to jump into the top five. He is nearly halfway through what will be a lucrative and unique "Hawaiian Slam." Funk won $72,000 at last week's PGA Tour winners-only Mercedes-Benz Championship; he will play in next week's Champions Tour winners-only MasterCard Championship at Hualalai, then defend his title at the Turtle Bay Championship.

Today, he will be chasing Choi with everyone else that made the cut ? except the 18 players who finished at even-par yesterday and fell victim to the tour's new rule, instituted to help pace of play. The cut after 36 holes is still the low 70 and ties, unless it results in a weekend field size of more than 78 pros.

That happened yesterday, with 69 golfers finishing at 1-under or better, and 18 at even-par. Those 18 win prize money and are unlucky enough to be the first described as MDF ? made cut did not finish. They will not tee off today. The tour will not know until this morning how much they make.

Among those idled are former Hawaiian Open champion John Huston, U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera, Charles Howell III and John Daly, who called the new rule "crazy" on TV after his round and insisted "more than three-quarters of the players didn't know about it."

Choi, No. 9 in the World Golf Ranking, had no such stress. This is the fifth time he has led after 36 holes. The first four are among his six tour wins ? most ever by an Asian golfer.

That Choi leads here, where he has played 19 of his 24 rounds at par or better, is not surprising. He has finished in the top 13 three of the last four times he's teed it up on O'ahu, including a fourth last year.

What is surprising is Choi's charge into the weekend after he was third-to-last at Mercedes-Benz Sunday on Maui. He was just one of four that did not break par, but found a rhythm the final round that he packed over to Waialae, one of his favorite places.

"My putting was getting better and I was actually motivated," Choi said. "I knew that I was going to play better than last week, but I didn't really think about being in the lead."

After the morning wave he led by three, birdieing four of his final five holes. With the wind picking up, it stayed like that until Na birdied his final hole, getting up and down from a bunker for his 14th one-putt of the day; six were from 8 to 40 feet.

"I hit a lot of fringe. Stats can be misleading," Na said. "But I did putt very well."

Na, 24, had three top 10s last year, just enough to keep his card at 122nd on the money list. He was born in Seoul and moved to California at age 7, quitting high school after his junior year in 2001 to turn pro. Na won the next year on the Asian Tour, moved on to the European Tour and became the PGA Tour's youngest member in 2004, earning $900,000 as a rookie. He has two second-place finishes on this tour. A broken hand kept him from competing fulltime the last two years.

DOUBLE BOGEYS PROVED COSTLY FOR FUJIKAWA

Tadd Fujikawa's hopes for a sequel to all the sweetness of the 2007 Sony Open in Hawai'i realistically ended on his second hole Thursday. It didn't stop a few hundred from following every little footstep yesterday.

Fujikawa missed the cut at Waialae Country Club a year after his remarkable run to 20th place as a 16-year-old Moanalua High School sophomore. He remains the youngest in 50 years to make a PGA Tour cut, but after yesterday's even-par 70 ? and especially after Thursday's 74 ? he couldn't follow up as a 17-year-old pro.

"I pretty much knew it was gone when I doubled 6 (on his 15th hole)," said Fujikawa, who was 2-under for the day and 2-over for the tournament ? three off the cut line ? when his second double bogey in two days came. "That was a careless mistake. I was trying to hit too close on my second shot and kind of pushed it way, way, way to the right and had a bad lie in the rough, then hit it in the bunker and hit a bad bunker shot.

"Things like that come with experience and the two double bogeys I made this week were because of two mental errors. If I didn't have those two errors, I would have had a good chance to make the cut and I think my momentum would have been a little better."

The first double came on his second hole Thursday, and took much of the air out of a crowd of about 100 and Fujikawa, who said it "kind of ruined my round." But his crowd ? so warm and loud last year as he closed the second round with his fists held high after an eagle ? was still dramatically larger yesterday, trying to will him to the weekend.

Fujikawa's fans stayed with him until the bitter end and were treated to the return of the fist pump after a 21-foot birdie putt fell on his third hole (No. 12). He followed up with an approach to 6 feet on the next, but missed the putt. He kept coming back, birdieing the next to a loud roar, erasing a bogey at No. 1 with a 13-footer for birdie at No. 2, and salvaging par from 6 feet at No. 4.

"It was pretty amazing," he said of the crowd. "It was really nice to see how many people supported me. You know, I really had a lot of fun. I had a few good shots today, had a few good cheers, and I really enjoyed myself."

But even Fujikawa couldn't cope with a second double.

"The front nine kind of kills me for some reason," he said. "I need to work on that. I'm not sure why, but I just can't shoot a good score on the front nine."

His next stop will be the $6 million AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am next month. Kevin Na, second going into today's round and something of a pioneer when he turned pro at 17 in 2001, encouraged Fujikawa to play his 5-foot-1 okole off.

"He's a great kid, great player," Na said. "He just needs to play a lot of tournaments. Whether that's Nationwide, PGA Tour, any tournament he can play anywhere. He's popular so he can get a lot of sponsor exemptions overseas. I think that's a great place to go, overseas, because you get to see the different parts of the world as a young person, and I think that really opens up your mind. I did it and I think it was the greatest thing I ever did, just traveling. I just think he needs to play a lot of golf tournaments and he's going to be a great player."

SHORT PUTTS

A Fred Funk win tomorrow would make the 51-year-old the third-oldest champion in the history of the tour, behind Sam Snead and Art Wall. ... D.J. Gregory, a 29-year-old with cerebral palsy, is attempting to walk the tournament course every round of the 2008 FedEx Cup, following and talking with a a specific player each week. Gregory will blog about the experience at pga tour.com, with another monthly blog at Southwest.com. He hopes to write a book. ... Defending champion Paul Goydos missed the cut as did 1999 champion Jeff Sluman. ... Frank Lickliter withdrew after shooting a 70 Thursday and flew home to Florida, where his long-time fiance, Diane, delivered twin boys a month before the due date. ... All but one of the 25 Nationwide Tour graduates are playing the Sony. The exception is No. 1 Richard Johnson of Wales.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.