Golf Notes

KAPALUA, Hawaii - At least one person could not have been more thrilled that Tiger Woods skipped the Mercedes Championships - his caddie.

Steve Williams, a race car driver in New Zealand when he's not toting the bag for the world's No. 1 player, won the New Zealand Super Saloon Championship this week with a dramatic rally that would have made his boss proud.

"It's the No. 1 event in racing in New Zealand," Williams said. "As I told Tiger, now I know how he feels when he wins the Masters."

Williams, who races stock cars on dirt tracks, had not been able to compete in the Super Saloon because it's the same week as the season-opening Mercedes Championships. But when Woods decided not to play at Kapalua because he wanted a long break, Williams was free to drive.

NOT AN EASY TASK: 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 the list of results at Kapalua last year 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 the rest of the year.

Mike Weir will have to wait two weeks to start his season. Zach Johnson 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 today on the Plantation course to start the new season.

Included among them is Augusta's Vaughn Taylor, who won the in Reno for the second consecutive year. Taylor finished tied for eighth at the Mercedes last year.

"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."

Among the 12 players at Kapalua for the first time are Sean O'Hair and Jason Gore.