Australia's Stuart Appleby struggled early but regrouped to shoot a seven-under-par 66 and take a one-stroke lead over Britain's Darren Clarke after the opening round of the Mercedes Championships on Thursday.
Kirk Triplett, Scott Hoch, Justin Leonard and last year's leading money winner Vijay Singh share third place on five-under-par 68 in the first PGA Tour event of the season.
Bunched at four-under-par 69 in the 30-man field are Japan's Shigeki Maruyama, John Huston, Australia's Adam Scott, Fred Couples and Davis Love III.
World number one Tiger Woods eagled the last hole to finish on two-under 71 while defending champion Ernie Els of South Africa shot an even-par 73.
Els set a PGA Tour scoring record of 31-under-par in winning this event last year.
Appleby's third visit to the Plantation Course started slowly, as he incurred a stroke penalty on the first hole when his drive went left into the long grass.
After salvaging a bogey, Appleby recovered to make two birdies for a one-under-par 35 at the turn.
Having never had a score in the 60s in eight rounds at this event, Appleby lit up the back nine with six birdies, including three in a row at the 10th, 11th and 12th.
A successful 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th gave Appleby the lead in a tournament for the first time since his win at the Las Vegas Invitational last year.
"After the bogey on the first, I played solid all day," Appleby said.
"I liked the way I swung it and rolled it. It was a little tricky trying to read the greens but I did make my share of putts."
With little time off, Appleby came into this week as just a continuation of last year.
After winning at Las Vegas in October, Appleby maintained a full schedule, including the Presidents Cup and the Australian Open before coming to Hawaii.
"I really wasn't thinking about this tournament at all because it's only just a few days after last year," Appleby said.
Clarke came to Hawaii for the first time with no real expectations and with no real form to speak off after a poor ending to last year.
The Ulsterman said his workout routine impaired his hand-eye coordination and his game was out of sync.
"I think the way I played towards the end of November, start of December, you couldn't really describe that as playing," he said.
Clarke decided at the end of last year that he needed to lose weight and has dropped almost 20kg.
He needed to get stronger and has been working diligently with the help of a trainer and the encouragement of fitness fanatic Woods.
And for the final sacrifice, he has given up alcohol and smoking.
"Today walking up and down the hills, I was fine," Clarke said of the hilly course.
"It was my first-ever competitive round, I think, without having any nicotine in my body.
"No beer, no nicotine. Don't know what's going on really," Clarke said.
His next step will be to build on his seven-birdie, and one-bogey round and stay in the hunt in this event for all the PGA Tour winners from last year.
RSS