Dean Wilson looked at several local reporters waiting to ask him about his opening round yesterday in the Sony Open in Hawai'i.

"Why don't you guys just print what I said last year? Same story. Again, I couldn't get the putts in," said the Kane'ohe native who's beginning his sixth full year on the PGA Tour.

He sure hopes it ain't deja vu all over again.

Last year, he missed the cut by one stroke. This year, he's on the bubble again with a one-over-par 71, the best among the five local golfers in the field, but at least two shots above the projected cutline which figures to be under par after today's second round.

The thought of not playing on the weekend again in a tournament in his own backyard?

"I hate it. I want to play well here. I've been doing everything I can. I've been practicing and playing 36 holes a day, circling the course and trying to get a comfort level," the 38-year-old said.

"I just didn't get it as low as I want to. Maybe I can turn it around (today).

"Overall, I hit a couple of bad shots that got me in some trouble and didn't recover well enough," said Wilson, who made the turn at even par with a birdie at the par-5 ninth after bogeying the par-3 fourth.

"I had a good feel for the greens but it didn't show today. I didn't make any."

Well, he made one ? a 40-foot bomb at the par-3 11th. "That was nice. I had that on track and luckily, it fell in there," Wilson said.

"I had a couple of bad shots on the back and that cost me," added Wilson, referring to bogeys at 12, 14 and 17. He recovered with a two-putt birdie from 31 feet at the finishing par-5 hole.

There are 101 guys ahead of Wilson with K.J. Choi leading the pack with a 6-under 64.

If there's a sense of urgency for Wilson, it's even more so for Tadd Fujikawa, last year's Sony show-stopper, who came in with a 4-over 74 in his first pro event before hometown fans.

Less heralded, Punahou School senior Alex Ching, shook off nerves and a bogey at the first hole for a 72, which also bettered rounds by second-year tour pro Parker McLachlin (73) and Kevin Hayashi (81), the Aloha Section PGA player of the year.

"It was fun being inside the ropes with all these pros but I just want to make the cut out here," said Ching, the lone amateur in the 143-player field.

For one day at least he has upstaged Fujikawa playing the front nine at even par after getting his lone birdie of the day at the par-5 ninth.

He got into the event taking the same route as Fujikawa did last year, winning the lone amateur exemption after making the Governor's Cup team. Ching qualified by playing in a Waialae rough that was double the height than the 3 1/4 inches this week.

"But it's a little bit thicker today. I was fortunate most of my lies were kind of sitting up in the rough," Ching said.

McLachlin wasn't as fortunate.

"There's a premium on putting it in the fairway and I didn't do my best job of doing it today," said McLachlin, who put only three of his 14 drives on the short grass.

"I've got to do a better job. You can't score from the rough out here. it's much higher this year, much thicker," he said.

Asked to go over his round which started with back-to-back bogeys starting on the back nine, McLachlin said with a laugh, "Do we have to?"

He found himself 4-over after six holes with another pair of back-to-back bogeys at 14 and 15 and went to 5-over with another bogey at the par-3 fourth.

McLachlin finished on a high note, birdieing two of his final three holes. But like Wilson, Ching and Fujikawa, they have a lot of catching up to do.