Golf roundup

KAPALUA, Hawaii --- Geoff Ogilvy opened the PGA Tour season without making bogey on his way to 6-under-par 67 and a one-shot lead in the Mercedes-Benz Championship on Thursday, a score that surprised him only because of the location.

In his eight previous rounds on the Plantation course at Kapalua, he had never shot better than 72.

But the former U.S. Open champion was coming off a victory in the Australian PGA Championship and a tie for sixth in the Australian Open in December, and he was just as sharp in taking the first-round lead over Ernie Els, Kenny Perry and fast-closing Johnson Wagner.

"We only finished the Australian Open three week ago," Ogilvy said. "And three weeks isn't enough to get rusty."

Els arrived in Maui having played only once in the past six weeks, and that worked well for him. In his first time to Kapalua in four years, he made only one blunder -- a tee shot into the hazard on the par-5 15th -- to get his season off to a solid start.

Wagner, one of a dozen newcomers to the winners-only Mercedes with his victory in the Shell Houston Open, wasn't even in the picture until a birdie-birdie-eagle finish. Perry joined the group at 68 with a birdie on the last hole.

Davis Love III and Ryuji Imada were in the group at 69. Imada ran off seven birdies in a row starting at No. 6 -- one short of the PGA Tour record -- but followed that with consecutive bogeys.

Joburg Open: In Johannesburg, South Africa, Sweden's Steven Jeppesen and South Africa's Trevor Fisher Jr. shot 8-under-par 63s to share the first-round lead in the event sanctioned by the Euro-pean and Sunshine tours.

Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey shot 64. Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, Edoardo Molinari, Patrik Sjoland, Andrew McLardy, Rafael Cabrera Bello and David Drysdale had 65s.

Defending champion Richard Sterne had 71. The South African is trying to tie the European tour record of three consecutive victories set by Nick Faldo in 1983 and matched by Seve Ballesteros in 1986.

ROYAL TROPHY: Charlie Wi and the rest of the Asia team are confident they can overcome a lack of experience against Europe in the match-play event in Bang-kok, Thailand.

Europe has won both previous editions, and has five players on its eight-member team with experience in the Ryder Cup.

"Even the guys who weren't involved in those first two matches, which is the majority of us, are aware that Asia did not perform as well as we should have," Wi said, "and that is a big motivation for us."

The tournament begins today at Amata Springs Country Club in Thai-land's seaside Chonburi province.

Sweden's Niclas Fasth is one of the Europeans with Ryder Cup experience and said that could prove decisive during the foursomes today, four-ball on Saturday and singles on Sunday.

In one of today's matches, the all-English duo of Nick Dougherty and former Augusta State star and 2009 Masters Tournament invitee Oliver Wilson will square off against South Korea's S.K. Ho and Japan's Hideto Tanihara.

DROPPED FOR NOW: The Xerox Classic, based in Rochester, N.Y., has been left off the Nationwide Tour schedule for 2009 after the corporate sponsor decided not to sign a new deal.