Travis Toyama won last year's Hawai'i State Amateur Stroke Play Championship by an eye-catching eight shots. The two-time Manoa Cup champion turned pro this year so his title is up for grabs when the tournament begins today at 11 a.m. at Pearl Country Club.

The field will be cut to 40 after tomorrow's second round, which tees off at 6:50 a.m. The tournament concludes Sunday. Weekend rounds also tee off from 11 a.m.

Toyama's score of 1-over-par 289 last year easily outdistanced runners-up Neal Takara and Chris Igawa, but was 10 shots higher than Chan Kim's winning score a year earlier. Gusty winds sent scores soaring and Toyama's final-round 69 was one of only four sub-par scores the final three days — the only one below 70. The final day's 76.98 scoring average (calculated by http://www.808golf.com) was low for the week.

Takara also finished second a decade earlier, when Brandan Kop beat him by 10 shots. "It seems that when somebody wins by large margins," Takara said last year, "I finish second."

Igawa is back for another shot. Also playing are former Manoa Cup champions Kop, Kellen-Floyd Asao, Jonathan Ota and Ryan Perez. Asao plays with 'Iolani freshman Lorens Chan the first two rounds. Chan is not the youngest entrant, with Kamehameha sixth-grader Donny Hopoi entered.

The State Stroke Play started in 1928 and was played predominantly at Waialae Country Club, which opened in 1927. It moved to Pearl in 1987. The 72-hole tournament record at Pearl is 9-under 279, shot by Kim in 2007 and four-time winner Damien Jamila in 1998.

PGA

FUJIKAWA PLAYING SECOND WEEK IN ROW

Moanalua High School senior Tadd Fujikawa will tee it up on the PGA Tour for the second straight week when he plays the $3.5 million Puerto Rico Open, starting today at Trump International Golf Club in Rio Grande.

He finished 52nd at last week's Honda Classic, making his first cut on the Mainland.

Fujikawa tees off at 6:45 a.m. HST in the first round, which will be broadcast at 12:30 p.m. HST on The Golf Channel. Tomorrow's second-round coverage begins at 5:30 a.m., with Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

"I didn't play two weeks in a row last year," said Fujikawa, who turned pro at 16. "It's tough, it really is. It's tough to play one week, and you find something in your game that feels good, then you take a two-week break and lose it. It's a really bad feeling. It's nice getting to play a tournament where you find something, learn about yourself and get to play the next week."

Fujikawa has been invited to return to The Crowns tournament on the Japan Golf Tour Organization tour, next month at Nagoya Golf Club. Fujikawa made his first tour cut as a pro there last year, finishing 48th to earn $3,000. He missed the cut as an amateur in 2007

NOTES

Money raised by Mililani Golf Club's "Super Shot for the Superferry" promotion was donated to the Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association. Golfers paid $1 to participate and try to qualify for four roundtrip tickets on Hawai'i Superferry by making a hole-in-one on any hole. So far this year, two golfers have aced holes to qualify. The contest is ongoing.