With some big names missing in action, the PGA Tour is pushing the debut of young guns Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, which opens the PGA Tour season next Thursday at Kapalua's Plantation Course.

Around here, there might be more interest in the debut of local boy Parker McLachlin and the return of two "old guns" with Hawai'i ties — Ernie Els and Davis Love III.

McLachlin, the 1996 state high school champion, qualified for Kapalua's tiny field — only 2008 champions are eligible and 33 players are expected — by becoming the fourth golfer from Hawai'i to win on tour. He captured the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open and finished his second season 84th on the money list.

Els is back on Maui after a three-year absence. He has four top-three finishes in seven starts at the Plantation, including a win in 2003. He also won the Sony Open in Hawai'i that year and will return to Waialae Country Club for this year's Sony, Jan. 15 to 18. Els has played at Waialae five times and won twice (2003 and '04). His worst finish is fifth.

This year, he also has another reason to be on O'ahu. Els designed the 7,400-yard Hoakalei Country Club course in 'Ewa Beach, scheduled to open this month. It is his second American course and features four sets of tees, an island green and a "double-split fairway."

Love's 20th tour victory put him in his 13th Mercedes-Benz Championship, after missing last year's. He won the 1993 event and has eight top-10 finishes. He has also played nine times at Waialae since 1986, with five top-10 finishes.

Kim and Villegas will be paired the first round, as a preview to the national championship football game that night between their colleges —Oklahoma (Kim) and Florida (Villegas). Also expected to play at Kapalua are defending champion Daniel Chopra, K.J. Choi, who will defend his Sony title the following week, Zach Johnson, Justin Leonard, Geoff Ogilvy, Kenny Perry, Adam Scott and Vijay Singh, also a former Sony and Mercedes champ.

Foreign-born players have won the last seven Mercedes-Benz Championships.

EX-CHAMPS AT SONY

All previous Sony Open in Hawai'i champions are tentatively set to play in the tour's first full-field event, Jan. 15 to 18 at Waialae Country Club.

K.J. Choi will defend, and Paul Goydos (2007), David Toms (2006), Vijay Singh (2005), Ernie Els (2003 and '04), Jerry Kelly (2002), Brad Faxon (2001), Paul Azinger (2000) and Jeff Sluman (1999) will join him. Early commitments also include former Hawaiian Open champs John Huston and Corey Pavin, seniors Fred Funk and Loren Roberts, and Hawai'i's Dean Wilson and Parker McLachlin.

Other notables include Shigeki Maruyama, Kenny Perry, Adam Scott, Stewart Cink, Ryuji Imada, Carl Pettersson and Boo Weekley. 'Iolani freshman Lorens Chan earned the amateur exemption Monday when he shot 5-under-par 67 at Waialae, then beat Alex Ching and Travis Toyama in a playoff.

Moanalua senior Tadd Fujikawa, who finished 20th at the Sony two years ago, will be among approximately 75 players expected at the Sony Open prequalifier Jan. 11 at Turtle Bay's Palmer Course. The top 50 and ties from that event, which is for non-tour members, advance to Open Qualifying the next day.

Some 100 players are expected at Turtle Bay Jan. 12 to play for the final four spots at Sony. Both qualifiers begin at 7:30 a.m.

The third annual King Auto Group Pro-Junior Skills Challenge will be back at Sony. The Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association benefit will be played Jan. 13 at 3 p.m. on the 18th green. The public is invited to watch the 90-minute exhibition from VIP skyboxes. There is no admission charge.

Juniors, selected based on qualifying points earned during the year, will be Cassy Isagawa (Baldwin High School), Kelli Oride (Kaua'i High), David Fink ('Iolani), Alika Bell (Kamehameha) and Justin Keiley (Baldwin). McLachlin, Wilson, Kelly and Love will be the pros, with one more to be named.

All team members compete in three skills — the Trick Shot, Bunker Shot and Long Putt.

The Champions Tour unofficially opens the same weekend as Sony with the 22nd Wendy's Champions Skins Game (Jan. 17 and 18) at Maui's Royal Ka'anapali Course. Teams in the alternate-shot format are defending champions Fuzzy Zoeller and Peter Jacobsen, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, Greg Norman and Jay Haas, and Bernhard Langer and Gary Player.

The senior tour officially opens Jan. 23 to 25 with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, on the Big Island. Fred Funk will defend.