Pursuits: From Putts to Pickleballs with Tadd Fujikawa

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

One thing is certain: Tadd Fujikawa is one of those gifted athletes whose story makes you go “geez” when you hear it. He started out with judo, and when he was 8, he took up golf mainly to build grip strength for the martial art. Eight years later (and this is where things get surreal), the feisty 16-year-old from Moanalua High School sank an eagle putt on the 18th hole to make the cut in the 2007 Sony Open. His Cinderella run made him an instant local celebrity, with huge crowds descending on the greens of Wai‘alae County Club to cheer him on and his Tiger Woods-esque fist pumps making headlines well beyond the Islands.

After that whirlwind run, Fujikawa went pro, basking in invites to golf events around the world. “When you’re that young and in the moment, you don’t realize the magnitude of everything that’s happening,” he says. “You’re there and enjoying the moment, but obviously, it was really cool to be in front of my home crowd and get to share that with my friends and family.”

Fujikawa played golf professionally for 15 years, not always on the PGA Tour. “I played most of the big tour events, then a lot of smaller professional tournaments, then I did qualifiers, trying to work my way up. Then I played on the Canadian tour for two years, then went back to mini tours.”

Fujikawa was living in Georgia and took up tennis for fun and, like with golf, had natural talent for the game—so much that he started teaching the game. During one lesson, a student urged him to try pickleball. “But I was a tennis snob, so I was like, ‘Nah, that’s OK. I’ll stick to tennis,’” Fujikawa recalls.

The student gave him pickleballs and said, “Just try it.”

Then in 2021, while on a visit home in Honolulu, he and his mom took a pickleball lesson from instructor Margie Katras.

“From the first ball he hit, I could tell he could play,” Katras says. “He was a tennis player, so he had a different swing. But having good hands for golf is a big part of it, and he knew when to hit hard, when to get soft. From the start, he had a good understanding of how to play the game.”

Fujikawa remembers that lesson well, saying he was “immediately hooked.”

“It was so fun, and I just couldn’t get enough of it,” he says. “So I basically quit tennis and started just playing pickleball.”

His love for pickleball only grew. After about seven or eight months, a resort in Georgia offered him a job as their pickleball pro. “I was still playing golf full time, and I knew the director of racket sports at the resort because I played tennis with him. He said, ‘Hey, we’re opening up these pickleball courts, and we’re looking for a pro.’ It was a random thing that I wasn’t planning, but it just happened.”

Fujikawa had by this time become a standout pickleball player, mastering as he puts it “soft touch and feel shots,” which he honed from golf. “The way my game is styled, it’s more placement than power.”

He started playing tournaments to keep his “competitive juices flowing,” and he loved being part of the fast-growing pickleball community. “You can go to a public court, see people playing, and they’ll invite you to play,” he says. “It’s very inclusive, and that was a big draw for me.”

Now 35 and having moved back to Hawai‘i, Fujikawa is a 5.0 rated player. According to USA Pickleball, a 5.0 rating indicates an expert-level, top-tier amateur player, and it’s the highest rating before reaching professional or senior professional status. He’s also co-tournament director of the upcoming Honolulu Open pickleball tournaments. Who’s the other director? Katras, of course.

What’s interesting though is that despite his lifetime of athletic accomplishments, Fujikawa believes his truest passion is not as a competitor. “I love teaching, and that’s what I’m maybe most gifted at,” he says. “When my students get excited about playing, that brings me so much joy.”

What makes Fujikawa a great pickleball instructor, Katras says, is his strong technical eye, which picks up details that he relays to students. “He knows how to break things down,” she says. “But the biggest thing is that he cares. He genuinely wants his students to get better, and that makes all the difference.”

@taddy808

2026 Honolulu Open

After last year’s successful debut, the Honolulu Open pickleball tournament returns to the Hawai‘i Convention Center Oct. 8–11, this time with $15,000 in total prize money to be shared by the winners of men’s open doubles, women’s open doubles and mixed open doubles. “It’s a pretty good payout locally,” says Margie Katras, co-tournament director. There will also be a collegiate invitational.

Katras expects up to 900 players to take part in the tournament (produced by HONOLULU’s parent company, aio), a testament to the growing popularity of the game.

“Pickleball has become so popular everywhere, but in Hawai‘i, it’s special,” says Tadd Fujikawa, the other tournament director. “More people want to play, and more people want to get better.”

honoluluopen.com, @espnhonoluluopen

Diane Seo is the editorial director of HONOLULU Magazine.