Tied for third at 68 are 2000 Mercedes champion Tiger Woods, 2002 champion Sergio Garcia, Stewart Cink and Jonathan Kaye.

Even for this elite reunion of last year's champions, the leaderboard is imposing. And, with all but six golfers — including defending champion Stuart Appleby — under par, no one shot himself out of this tournament yesterday.

The scores could have been lower. Woods believes they should have been.

"Being here before and playing on these greens at a different pace for a number of years, you kind of get a feel for how they are going to play," he said, after missing just two fairways but making no putts outside 4 feet. "It's so different. I've never seen them like this before, where they are this slow and this grainy.

Tiger Woods reacts to his shot from the 18th fairway during the Mercedes Championships. Woods shot 5-under 68 to trail by two. Matt York • Associated Press

Still, after making the most — and $5 million — out of a swing under reconstruction last year, Woods remained encouraged about the changes that have finally sunk in.

"It's nice not to have to work so hard to shoot a low number," he admitted. "If I putt the way I normally do, that's three or four shots right there."

It might not be enough to catch Singh, who sizzled through a nine-win, $10 million season last year and showed no sign of cooling off yesterday. Like everyone, he finds "a lot more grass on the greens" on the Plantation this year, but Singh still found a way to blast the ball to the hole.

He drilled in birdie putts from 15 and 20 feet on the front nine, then played the back in 5 under by knocking down a bunch of flags. All five birdie putts were within 8 feet. He led the field in driving average (323 yards) and missed hitting just one green in regulation.

A frustrated Woods insisted the grainy greens prevented scores from going lower on a basically wind-less course with invitingly soft greens. Singh admitted "everybody must have missed a lot of putts out there," but he let it rip on the greens and so did Parry.

After the year Singh had, why not? He has been focused on first for a few years and his 2004 performance only brought him confidence that nothing is impossible. He has been there and done that nearly everywhere but in Hawai'i. A year ago, he came up a shot short of Appleby here.

"This is a huge tournament and you know the field is very good," Singh said. "All of the winners are here, so it's a good one to win. I haven't done it yet and that's my intention — to go out there, play solid and see if I can win."

Parry can't quite relate to the world's No. 1 golfer. In 12 years on tour, he has won twice. But, in contrast to Woods, Parry found peace with the Plantation greens after struggling here two years ago. That only inspired him to spend extra practice time putting uphill, against the grain.

Parry dunked six birdie putts in the first 10 holes, most from the 15-foot range. He also salvaged bogey on the 12th with an astonishing blast out of the weeds. His three-putt for par on the 15th was clearly an aberration, and followed lip-outs for birdie on the two previous holes.

NOTES

Pro-Am results: Joey Sindelar's team of Ed Laur, John Joyce, Jim Hill and Sandy Gillespie won Wednesday's Pro-Am with a 54. Stewart Cink's team of Keith May, Samuel Jackson, Ken Schnitzer and Buddy Marucci came in second with the same score, losing the tiebreaker. Both pros won $1,800.

Play by the numbers: Vijay Singh has played the Plantation at par or better his past 15 rounds. Ernie Els, the 2003 Mercedes champion who is tied for seventh at 69, does not have an over-par score in this tournament. He has 23 consecutive rounds at par or better, including 17 at Plantation.

Overseas: Jim Furyk was the last American to win the Mercedes Championships, in 2001. Sergio Garcia (Spain) won it the following year and Els (South Africa) set a tour scoring record, at 31 under, in 2003. Stuart Appleby (Australia) is defending champion. There are 13 international players in this year's field.

Happy distraction: Stuart Appleby's wife Ashley is back in Australia expecting the couple's first child soon.

Timeout: The Plantation Course will be closed in April, May, June and July to upgrade the grass on all the greens.

Score shorts: The average score yesterday was nearly 3 under (70.387). The par-5 fifth hole played the easiest (.774 under par) and the par-4 12th and 17th were the toughest (.129 over par).

Worth the wait: Bart Bryant has been to six Q-Schools and won his first tournament last year, in his 187th tour start. He said when his colleagues congratulated him, "at least half the guys, the first thing out of their mouth was, 'You're going to Kapalua.' So that tells you how it ranks with guys on the tour ...and now I understand why. These people here treat you so good. We do not deserve how they treat us. It is really awesome."

Wie up for Challenge: Michelle Wie is looking forward to playing with her "pro" — actor Adam Sandler — in Tuesday's First Hawaiian Bank Pro-Junior Golf Challenge. "(There's) no pressure," Wie said. "I'm just going to have fun. I don't really think we have a chance to win."