US Tour:In the absence of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els, Australia's Stuart Appleby has a golden opportunity to win a rare fourth successive title at this week's Mercedes-Benz Championship in Hawaii.
Appleby completed a record-equalling hat-trick of victories in the PGA Tour's season-opening event at the Kapalua Resort when he edged out Fijian Vijay Singh in a play-off last year.
That put him level with American Gene Littler, who claimed the title at Desert Inn Country Club in Las Vegas from 1955 to 1957 when the event was named the Tournament of Champions.
Although Appleby knows Kapalua's undulating, par-73 Plantation Course as well as anyone in the 34-strong field, he is taking nothing for granted.
"I don't feel like this is my home course or anything," said the 35-year-old. I think everyone knows how to play the course. "
Should the Australian succeed this week, he would become the first player since Woods (at the 2003 Bay Hill Invitational) to win a PGA Tour event four years in a row.
World number one Woods, champion at Kapalua in 2000, decided last week to skip the event, which brings together title-holders from the previous PGA Tour season.
"I considered playing but I just haven't been able to prepare," said Woods. "I usually spend at least one week working on my game before a tournament, and have been unable to do that this year."
Left-hander Mickelson, champion at Kapalua in 1994 and 1998, has not played in the elite-field event since 2001. Els, winner in 2003, did not qualify for this year after failing to win during the 2006 PGA Tour campaign.
Although the Mercedes-Benz Championship will launch the "new era" for the world's biggest and most lucrative tour, only eight of the game's leading 20 players are actually playing this week.
Other absentees include the twice US Open champion Retief Goosen, like fellow South African Els not eligible after failing to win last season, and the world number eight, Padraig Harrington.
Appleby will, however, face a strong challenge from players such as Singh, Australian world number four Adam Scott and second-ranked Jim Furyk, the 2001 champion.
Furyk, who has a holiday home on the course, is always delighted to be back on familiar terrain.
"I've played well here in the past with a couple of wins on this course," said the 36-year-old American with one of the game's most unorthodox swings.
"We're all trying, every one of us, to be in this event. But it's extra special. It's one of my favourite vacation spots. I enjoy the area, and I enjoy the golf course a lot."
An extra motivation for the players is that this week's event will launch the inaugural FedExCup, a season-long points competition culminating in a four-event playoff series with $10 million to be won by the overall champion.
Thirteen players will make their Kapalua debuts when the tournament starts on Thursday, among them 2006 PGA Tour rookies Trevor Immelman of South Africa and Americans JB Holmes, Eric Axley and Troy Matteson.
The Mercedes-Benz Championship is the first of 47 events on the 2007 PGA Tour, with 36 tournaments making up the regular season before the four play-off events are held, ending with the September 13th-16th Tour Championship in Atlanta, Georgia, for the top 30 players.
Between late September and early November, an autumn series of seven tournaments will finalise the leading 125 players who automatically earn full exemption for the 2008 PGA Tour.
The Mercedes-Benz Championship will be followed next week by the year's first full-field tournament, the Sony Open in Honolulu.
The World Golf Championship (WGC) events, one rung down from the majors, will open with the Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson, Arizona, in February followed by the WGC-CA Championship in Miami, Florida, in March.
Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, will host the third stop of the lucrative series, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August.
The WGC-World Cup competition for two-man teams will be held from November 22nd to 25th at Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen, China, the first time a WGC event will take place in the world's most populous nation.
