Who cares about the so-called "no shows" at the Mercedes Championship, the traditional opener to the US Tour season? Stuart Appleby, for one, couldn't care who turns up; or whether stayaways like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, or Retief Goosen watch (or not) from many miles away on television.
For the third year in a row, the Australian captured the Mercedes Championship, confined to last season's tournament winners on the US Tour - beating Vijay Singh in a play-off and becoming just the 14th player on the American tour to achieve the feat of winning the same event for three successive seasons - to move up nine places to 21st in the latest official world rankings.
That early upward momentum in the world rankings has become a customary one for Appleby in recent years.
His problem has been maintaining it. This time, though, Appleby is convinced his seventh US Tour title will spur him on to greater heights.
"This (win) obviously is great food for thought," he said. "It gives me a lot of good feelings, vibes, whatever you want to call them.
"And that's really what I've got to take to every tournament: think the same way, act the same way, same thought pattern, recreate. That's really what you do when you play well, and when you play well again, it's because you're recreating. I guess the same juices are flowing."
Appleby, who birdied the final hole for a 71 and 284 total, eight-under-par, to equal Singh through 72 holes, drew upon all of his accumulated knowledge of the Plantation Course and how he attained his victories here in 2004 and 2005, both one-stroke triumphs.
"I just thought, 'I've played well here before, I know what I'm doing here'," said Appleby after his latest tour win, worth $1.08 million.
"I thought, keep playing, keep thinking like you almost had before, 12 rounds linked up together. It was like there was no break, just put myself in the moment of the previous two years."
Jim Furyk was third, Michael Campbell joint fourth with Vaughn Taylor after slumping to an inward 41, and Sergio Garcia dropped to seventh with a 75.
"I played well all week, I just made a few mistakes each day," Singh said. "I went out there to be a little more aggressive, take on the golf course and hit it like I can."
Now, Appleby has set himself a target of securing a place in the world's top-10. The previous two years he wasn't able to add a second title to his Mercedes crown. Will it be different this season?
"If I can start throwing in a tournament every four or six like this, the way I'm feeling and playing I'll have a great year," said Appleby, who believed his impetus was changed by the arrival of his first child this time last year. "There was a definite back-off," he remarked.
With his wife due to give birth to their second child shortly, Appleby doesn't believe it will impact on this occasion. "I'm not going to back off," he said.
