Golf

New year, new faces at Mercedes tourney

14 newbies at Kapalua and some familiar names missing prove in golf, there are no guarantees.

KAPALUA, Hawaii - Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are absent by choice. So many others are not at the season-opening Mercedes Championships because they failed to meet the toughest criteria on the PGA Tour.

This is for winners only.

Golf offers no guarantees, and there is no better reminder than to scan last year's list at Kapalua to see who didn't make it back.

Ernie Els nearly won twice in Hawaii last year, but his season ended in July with surgery on his knee and no PGA Tour victories to his credit for the first time since 2001. Jonathan Kaye was on the verge of getting into a playoff at Kapalua until he muffed a chip on the final hole and finished second. He never came close to winning the rest of the year.

Mike Weir will have to wait two weeks to start his season. Zach Johnson, a promising rookie in 2004, went winless as a sophomore. Adam Scott won a tournament that didn't count. For all the fist pumps and theatrical moments for Chris DiMarco, none included posing with a trophy.

Of the 31 players in the field at Kapalua last year, only eight of them will be teeing it up Thursday on the Plantation course to start the new season. Throw in three guys who are taking this week off - Woods, Mickelson and Retief Goosen - and just more than one-third of the players were eligible.

"There were eight guys that played last year? That means 20 new guys? Wow," said Brad Faxon, who is one of those 20 having won the Buick Championship for his first PGA Tour victory in four years. "That just shows it's harder to win. And there are a few guys that aren't here that win a lot."

There are 48 chances to get into the Mercedes Championships. Woods and Mickelson combined to take away 10, including three majors. Vijay Singh won four times, and Justin Leonard, Padraig Harrington, Kenny Perry and Bart Bryant all won twice.

If the veterans look around, they will find 12 players at Kapalua here for the first time. That list includes Jason Gore, who went from nowhere to the final group of the U.S. Open and back to nowhere, until his meteoric rise to the big leagues.

Gore is new, but he gets it.

"I was a little worried when the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve, going into a new year," he said. "That's what makes golf a great game. You're only as good as the last shot you hit."

[Last modified January 5, 2006, 01:18:19]