With Tiger Woods missing, and Phil Mickelson another absentee, there is a sense that the US Tour's season-opening Mercedes Championship - starting in Kapalua on Thursday and which brings together all of the previous season's winners, giving them a chance to get a head-start on everyone else - is a little like a Hawaiian cocktail without the ingredient that provides its kick.
Woods, the world's number one, and who yesterday collected a fourth consecutive Player of the Year Award from his peers on the US Tour, is missing because he is recovering from knee surgery, while Mickelson, the world number two, has decided to miss the event for a second successive year because he believes the course does not set up well for a left-hander.
Yet, the absence of both Woods and Mickelson leaves the event - with a limited field of just 36 players chasing a top prize of $1 million - all the more open.
"It'd be wide open even if they were here," insisted Jerry Kelly, one of 18 players making their debut appearance in the championship.
"Having them here would just make winning that much more sweet."
There are just three European players in the field. Sergio Garcia, the defending champion, is joined by Jose Maria Olazabal and England's Luke Donald, who won the final regular tournament of 2002, the rain-shortened Southern Farm Bureau Classic.
Ernie Els, the British Open champion, has passed up the chance to compete in his native South African Open in order to play. Els is one of two major winners from last season - along with US PGA champion Rich Beem - who is competing and, having finished second in 2000 and third in 2001 over this same plantation course before missing last year's event, Els will probably start out as favourite.
The full field for the Mercedes Championship is: Rich Beem, Bob Burns, Jonathan Byrd, KJ Choi, Chris DiMarco, Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Bob Estes, Dan Forsman, Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Matt Gogel, Retief Goosen, JP Hayes, Charles Howell, Jerry Kelly, Matt Kuchar, Ian Leggatt, Justin Leonard, Shigeki Maruyama, Len Mattiace, Spike McRoy, Rocco Mediate, Jose Maria Olazabal, Craig Parry, Craig Perks, Nick Price, Chris Riley, Loren Roberts, John Rollins, Gene Sauers, Vijay Singh, Jeff Sluman, Chris Smith, Kevin Sutherland and Phil Tataurangi.
Meanwhile, Woods, Hale Irwin and Patrick Moore were named yesterday as the 2002 Players of the Year on the US Tour, Champions Tour (formerly Seniors Tour) and Nationwide Tour (formerly Buy.com Tour), respectively, in a vote of the membership.
For Woods, it was his fourth consecutive and fifth time in the last six years that he has taken home the Jack Nicklaus Trophy as the Tour's Player of the Year. He is the only player to have earned the honour more than twice.
He won five times during the year, including two major championships, and collected $6,912,625 to lead money list for the fourth consecutive year.
Woods also won his fourth consecutive Byron Nelson Award for leading the stroke average with a 68.56 mark.
"It's always special to have the votes of the other players. I'm especially proud to have won this award four consecutive times," said Woods.
"It's a great year when you win one major championship, so I was really pleased to win two in 2002 plus three other tour events."
The 57-year-old Irwin won his third Jack Nicklaus Trophy as the Champions Tour Player of the Year after winning four times in 2002.
He joins Lee Trevino as just the second player in Champions Tour history to be Player of the Year on three occasions.
Irwin became the first player in Senior history to top the $3 million mark in season earnings with $3,028,308 to win a record-tying third Arnold Palmer Award (Don January did it as well) and collected his fourth Byron Nelson Trophy as the Tour's leading scorer with a 68.93 average.
He also won the Charles Schwab Cup and becomes the oldest player in the history of the Tour to win any of those titles, much less all of them.
"The 2002 season was very gratifying for me and being named Player of the Year by my peers caps it off.
"It's especially rewarding as the competition on the Champions Tour gets tougher and tougher each year, which means it's harder to finish on top," said Irwin.
Patrick Moore, who began the 2002 season with conditional status on the secondary tour, won three times last year to earn a promotion to the full US Tour. He led the earnings with $381,965 and topped the stroke average.
Meanwhile, Justin Rose is set to make his US Masters debut this year after being named as one of 96 invited players to Augusta on April 10th to 13th.
The Hampshire-based golfer has received an invitation from Hootie Johnson, chairman of the Masters tournament and the Augusta National club, courtesy of finishing 39th in the 2002 world rankings.
Johnson said: "The international representation of players in this year's field is outstanding. We have the best players from the US and around the world competing."
