KAPALUA, Maui — With a leaderboard lit up by big names, including a couple with heartfelt Hawai'i ties, yesterday's opening round of the Mercedes-Benz Championship looked serious about making golf fans forget those who forgot Kapalua.

Australian Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion, shot 6-under-par 67 on the Plantation Course to take the lead in the first event of the PGA Tour season. Ernie Els, who won here in 2003, shares second one shot back with Kenny Perry and Johnson Wagner — who played the last three holes in 4-under.

Wagner is one of a dozen golfers making their first appearance at Mercedes, open only to winners from the previous year.

Davis Love III, who won the unofficial Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua International twice here in the '90s, is another shot back. The 20-time tour winner is tied with three others at 69, including Japan's Ryuji Imada, who birdied seven straight. The tour record is eight and Jerry Kelly was the last of six to do that, in 2003.

Aside from Punahou graduate Parker McLachlin, who shot 77, Els and Love are about as local as it gets among the 33 golfers playing for $5.6 million this week.

This is Els' sixth appearance here, but first since 2005. He has collected four top-three finishes and more than $2 million on this former pineapple field he and his family have grown to adore. To have missed the last three — going nearly four years without a tour victory — pained him.

"I missed it, I must say," Els said. "The hotel we are staying is unbelievable, it's a limited field so it's really a perfect start to the year. I never used to like it when we played at La Costa. In the '90s I used to always miss that tournament because I just didn't have a good track record there. But they moved it and I love coming here."

Els, No. 9 in the World Golf Ranking, also won the Sony Open in Hawai'i in 2003 and 2004. He will be back at Waialae Country Club next week, after Monday's official opening of the private Hoakalei Country Club in 'Ewa Beach — the second U.S. golf course Els has designed.

He played the first 11 holes in 6-under yesterday, eagling the par-5 fifth to jump start his run and bring back memories of his record 31-under winning total six years ago. But he played the par-5s in 1-over on the back to allow Ogilvy to climb over him with one of only two bogey-free rounds; D.J. Trahan had the other and is tied for ninth at 70 with Boo Weekley, the gusty, sometimes rainy day's driving distance leader at 279 yards.

Ogilvy is ranked 11th in the world, another factor that helped ease the absence of the four top players in the world this week. While top-ranked Tiger Woods, who also hasn't played here since 2005, rehabs his surgically repaired knee, Sergio Garcia (2), Phil Mickelson (3) and Padraig Harrington (4) simply chose not to make the trip to Maui.

It is a choice Els, Ogilvy and Love cannot comprehend.

"Whether it was the old format in November or the Mercedes, the people here are why we come back É," said Love, who made more than $800,000 here before it became Mercedes, and $475,000 in four visits since. "It's just a great spot. I have great fans here because I've played here a long time. There are not a lot of them, but they really support the tournament. A lot of volunteers we have seen forever and ever. I love coming here and would hate to see it leave.

"The only reason I could see it leave would be to go to the Mainland somewhere where maybe you could pick up a player or two that they are looking for. É But you're not going to change your field by going to another course in Hawai'i. É This group of people around this tournament is going to give you some of the best hospitality on tour. It's definitely a reason why a lot of us love it so much."

Ogilvy has barged into the top 15 on the money list the past three years, capturing two World Golf Championships along the way. He didn't qualify for Mercedes last year, and missed it immensely, despite breaking par just twice in his first two visits.

"There's definitely a dimension here that allows you to relax," he said. "Maybe it's the short field and the wide fairways and the first week of the year and everybody makes a check. Whatever it is, just everything about it is chilled out."

Ogilvy also believes it gives him a lucrative and windy warmup to the Sony Open, where the fairways are much harder to hit — making it more difficult to "knock off the rust."

"Whenever I've gone to Sony after this I've done OK," he said. "But if I go to Sony without this, I miss the cut. It's easier after you've been here, for sure."

NOTES

Vijay Singh confirmed he would have surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee next week and has withdrawn from next week's Sony Open at Waialae Country Club. Singh, who won three times last year to capture the FedEx Cup, yanked his drive on yesterday's opening hole into the weeds and took double bogey. He ended up shooting even-par 73.

Singh won the 2007 Mercedes championship and 2005 Sony. This will be only the second Sony Open he has missed. He is fifth in the World Golf Ranking.

In a blog posted on pgatour.com, Singh wrote that he believes he tore the cartilage while "going up and down all those hills when I won Tiger's tournament." Singh, who spent Christmas day hitting balls, is having arthroscopic surgery and said he expects to miss three weeks of practice and hopes to be back for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (Feb. 12 to 15)

Defending champion Daniel Chopra shot a 79 that featured three double bogeys in four holes. Chopra birdied the last two to share last place with Marc Turnesa, who went out first and played alone.