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Tournament Stats:
Mercedes-Benz ChampionshipJanuary 3-8, 2008
Plantation Course at Kapalua
Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii
Par: 73 Yardage: 7,411
Purse: $5.5 million with $1,100,000 going to the winner plus the keys to a 2008 Mercedes CL550
Defending champion: Vijay Singh
List of Champions & Scores
Results and box score of 2007 Mercedes
Recap of Vijay's win last year and how he did it
Tournament facts:
Tournament Record: 261 (Ernie Els, 2003 Kapalua)54-Hole Record: 194 (Ernie Els, 2003 Kapalua)
36-Hole Record: 129 (Ernie Els, 2003 Kapalua)
18 hole Tournament Record: 62 (K.J. Choi, 2003 Kapalua)
Course information:
The Plantation course was designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and was opened in May of 1991. Between 1992 and 1997 the course was the venue of the Lincoln Mercury Kapalua Open, with the Mercedes Championships moving to the Plantation course in 1999. The average green size at Kapalua is 9,500 square feet, which means that it has some of the biggest greens on tour. This will place a premium on putting, especially on long putts. Course has 95 bunkers and no water hazards.For a more comprehensive look at the course, look at this Course Overview done by PGA Tour.Com
The Buzz:
One of the greatest perks on the PGA Tour for winning is getting to start the year off in Maui. For the average person, they would kill just to get to Hawaii, the winners of 2007 they not only get to come to Hawaii but they get a week at a Ritz Carlton on one of the most lovely beaches in the world. Food couldn't be any better, the scenery is the best for those that like water sports from surfing to snorkeling the Kapalua area is great. Yes this is really hard work and to think, there is no hustle or bustle this week, play bad and finish in last and you'll still make $50 grand. What a life.
So it's a bit funny that some would chose not to come. This year Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington, and Adam Scott chose not to come. Two ways to look at it, yes for Tiger and Phil any event is a grind and isn't considered a vacation like some use it. For Padraig Harrington, who never plays in January he has that one excuse plus on November 24th his wife delivered new son Ciaran so he does have sort of an excuse, even though three weeks later he went to Los Angeles to play in Tiger Woods event. Still it's 7,000 miles which takes a while to go over so that is understandable.
The one absentee that you have to wonder about is Adam Scott, who this weekend withdrew according to AP citing exhaustion. Now in dispute is another publication saying that Scott withdrew because of a heavy dose of international starts in January and February and won't play until the Northern Trust in late February, hey maybe that is a nice way of saying that he is going to be exhausted thinking of all that "appearance" money that he will be getting for playing in Abu Dhabi. No matter how it's printed, Scott isn't going to show up in Maui, what a shame. The last time Scott played was on December 9th in the Australian PGA and he isn't due to play again until Abu Dhabi at the end of the month. Making it even more sad is the fact that Scott was runner-up last year to Vijay Singh, plus he has finished two other times in the top-ten so he plays well at Kapalua. So in a way by not showing up he could be passing on a lot of money, but again money isn't what it use to be for the stars on the PGA Tour.
On another note, this is the start of the 2nd year of the FedEx Cup series. On the whole the series was a big success in the terms of giving us some late season drama, but I find it hard to believe that of the 31 players in the field this week they are all wondering how many FedEx Cup points are available. This week it's 25,000 and for those that need a more compreshensive look at the FedEx Cup, look at this FedEx Cup fan Guide put out by the PGA Tour.Com
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As for the Mercedes-Benz Championship, 35 players qualified but unfortunely four have opted not to play. This leaves a field of 31, with 12 of them making their rookie appearance in the Mercedes Championship. Since the Mercedes was first played at Kapalua in 1999 only one first timer, Sergio Garcia in 2002 won in his debate. Now of the 19 left that have played the Mercedes, one Paul Goydos is making his first start at Kapalua. The only other time he particapated was in 1997 when it was held at LaCosta, so this is his first Kapalua start in the Mercedes. So of the 17 that have played before at Kapalua, three have only made one Mercedes start at Kapalua so that means of the field of 31, only 15 have played at the Mercedes at Kapalua more than once. Here is the list of those that made the most starts at the Mercedes Championship:
11 starts Vijay Singh
10 starts Jim Furyk & Mark Calcavecchia
8 starts Justin Leonard
6 starts Fred Funk
5 starts Mike Weir
4 starts Scott Verplank
3 starts K.J. Choi, Rory Sabbatini & Chad Campbell
2 starts Stephen Ames, Woody Austin, Steve Flesch & Steve Stricker
1 start Paul Goydos, Charles Howell III& Zach Johnson
So in a way, the field isn't loaded with that much experience playing at Kapalua. One last thing on the field, only seven players (Vijay Singh-win, K.J. Choi -T8th, Stephen Ames-T11th, Rory Sabbatini-T13th, Jim Furyk-18th, Aaron Baddeley-27th and Chad Campbell-31st played last year.
Notes on the field:
The player coming into this week the best of them all is Vijay Singh, who comes into this event with some new vigor. Over the spring he has been perfecting a new swing. He also changed fitness trainers and feels that he is in great shape. So even though he will be 45 next month look for him to come out strong and as he said on Monday, "My expectations are pretty high."
In some other news, Brandt Snedeker, Chad Campbell, Joe Ogilvie, Rory Sabbatini, Steve Stricker and Scott Verplank came over early and were seen practicing on Saturday. In the case of Verplank Dave Shedloski reports that Verplank was hitting the ball great on Saturday, playing his first round of golf in a month. One thing to think about on Verplank's health, he had surgery on his right thumb just four weeks ago so he may not be 100% this week.
One other player that could have a problem is Brandt Snedeker, He played twice in December at Japan and then finished 2nd at the Australian Open but on Christmas day was suffering from the flu so he may not be 100% this week. Of course we have to like our good old boy Brandt Snedeker, Boo Weekley who had quite a journey coming from Florida. It took him 48 hours to find his way to Kapalua thanks in part for leaving two rifle bullets in his carry-on bags and they came up on the airport scanners. By the time he talked himself out of that mess, he missed his flight and as you know missing flights this time of year could ruin your day. So between that and flight delays it took two days to get to Maui, still he loves the place and will be ready to go.
Here are some things to look for this week:
- Kapalua is a very unpredictable place. The Plantation Course was built on the side of a mountain and is exposed to winds off the ocean, so if they get winds of 20 and 30 mph, which is common the scores will climb. Perfect example of this was in 1999 when benign conditions the first three rounds brought the scoring average down to 70.58. But in the final round, trade winds came and the scoring average was 2 and a half strokes higher at 73.00. In 2000 all four days were played in high winds with scoring average being 73.03, while in 2006 a combination 74.893 scoring average made it the fourth toughest course played on the PGA Tour in 2006. Last year conditions couldn't of been better and the scoring average went down to 72.895 making it the 34th hardest course on tour in 2007.
- If the conditions are dry with no wind the course will produce record scores like it did in 2003 when Ernie Els shot 31 under. In 2005 the course got a lot of rain before the start, but during the tournament the winds were down, thus a winning score of 22 under. In 2006 things changed, as new greens were firmer, the course played dry and stiff tradewind's brought high scores. 8-under was the winning score, the first time that the winner was in single digits since 1992 and the highest winning score since the tournament was played in Hawaii.
- To show how really tough 2006 was at Kapalua, only 27 rounds where shot under par. Before 2006 at the Mercedes in the previous seven years the least amount of rounds was 49 in 2000 and the most was 128 in 2003. For the week in 2005 there were 102 under par rounds. Taking it a step further, there were only 2 rounds in the 60s, Olin Browne's opening round 69 and Vijay Singh's closing round 66. Comparing that with previous years at the Mercedes the lowest was 19 in 2000 with the most being 81 in 2003. In 2005 the course gave up 50 rounds in the 60s.
- Last year with calm conditions 66 rounds where shot under par as Vijay Singh won with a 14 under par total as 16 players broke par.
- In 2006 Stuart Appleby shot 71-72-70-71. How rare is it to shot all four rounds in the 70s and still win? Very rare, before that going back to 1970 it had been done just 14 times, the last being back in 1992 with Tom Kite winning the U.S. Open. Oh for those wondering how many events of the 14 weren't majors, seven of them were non-majors and the last time someone shot four rounds in the 70s and won a non-major was Mark McCumber in the 1985 Doral Open.
- So looking at the weather, things were pretty dry last week but Maui did get 16 inches of rain the first part of December so things are very hush. Sunday and Monday it rain a total of an inch while on Tuesday it was dry but overcast which is suppose to be the forecast for the whole week. Winds are suppose to be light which is the big news for the field so look for good scoring.
- So what kind of a player will win this week? One that has ability to play well on Bermuda greens, hits the ball a long way and plays good in windy conditions. Over the years first-timers have one just once at Kapalua in 2002 with Sergio Garcia but on the whole they haven't fared too well. Still you have to wonder with a weekend field if a Angel Cabrera could sneak in and win like Garcia did. The reason that I like Cabrera is that all the winners except for Jim Furyk have something in common, they are hit the ball long. Jim Furyk is the only short hitter to win but in a way he has a bit of an advantage because he owns a vacation home right next to the 18th fairway at the Plantation Course. Still the player to beat this week is Vijay Singh, on paper he looks too good.
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