Much of the talk leading up to this year's Mercedes-Benz Championship has centered on who will not be at Kapalua's Plantation Course tomorrow when the PGA Tour opens its season. Since Stuart Appleby is here, the talk about Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson might be superfluous.

Appleby owns this tournament now, so much so that he recently bought property at Kapalua's Ho-nolua Ridge.

"Half my victories have come out of this section of the woods," Appleby said. "It was a no-brainer."

The Australian, whose start in golf included hitting balls paddock-to-paddock on the family dairy farm, carves up Kapalua like no other.

He has eight wins in his career, including the last three Mercedes titles here. His win at last year's Shell Houston Open was his only out-of-paradise victory experience since 2003. Appleby has won $3.3 million at this tournament, open only to the previous year's winners. Vijay Singh is next, $1.2 million back.

Four shots have separated them the last three years here. Appleby beat Singh by one in 2004, by three the following year when he played the last three rounds in 22-under par, then nearly holed a bunker shot to win a playoff a year ago.

Appleby doesn't think it is coincidence the two are always in contention the first week of the long — and getting longer and more lucrative — tour season.

"I look at myself and Vijay and we don't have much of an idea of how to take a longtime break," Appleby said. "The rest of the players do. Maybe they are a little bit rusty or cold, or I'm not sure what's going on. ...That could be just a made-up thought of mine, but there's something real to that."

Appleby also has interesting, if not quite as analytical, takes on why Woods is not here trying to win his seventh straight event, and why Punahou senior Michelle Wie should not be at the Sony Open in Hawai'i next week.

"Having won three times, I'd like to think I have some intimidation factor on Tiger, and he's just not interested in coming over here," said Appleby, never one to shy from a subject, or take it too seriously. "He was going for his seventh official win. Maybe he didn't want me to break his run. I don't know what I have on him. It must be some psychic power to keep him away."

Appleby would now advise Wie to stay away from Waialae Country Club, at least for a few years. Wie, who will tee off in her fourth Sony next Thursday, has yet to make a cut in six tries on the PGA Tour.

"A couple of times, it's nice, it's interesting, but now it's getting to the stage where she'll get criticized too much and she needs to pull the plug and come back when she's 20, 25," he said.

Appleby will come back to Kapalua as long as he can. He is 51-under par in his three wins. The only day he didn't break par came two years ago, when he opened with a 1-over 74 then scorched through the final three rounds.

The huge drives of the former Aussie Rules football player are helped by the Plantation's generous fairways, and the blustery winds don't bother him. But what has separated Appleby from Mercedes' elite fields, and Singh, has been his putting. He had the tournament's fewest putts in 2004 and '06, and tied for second in '05. The flatstick never fails him here. Appleby is always comfortable, even with the larger-than-life greens and drastic pulls of grain and slope.

"I can play well here," he said simply. "And usually I'm playing well when I come here."

Along with the prize money, Tiffany trophies and new mortgage, Appleby has collected his own line of Mercedes-Benz cars here, winning an SL500 in 2004, a CLS500 in '05 and then an S550.

"I drive one a little bit, go get in the other one, drive the other one, park that one, drive the other one," Appleby joked last year. "I've got to keep them all loose."

This year's winning ride is a GL450 SUV — ideal for a father of two with a house on Honolua Ridge and rare gift for Maui golf.

NOTES

Gene Littler was the only other golfer to three-peat in this event, winning from 1955 to '57 at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas.

Kane'ohe's Dean Wilson tees off at 7:50 a.m. in today's Pro-Am. Amateurs playing include Kelly Slater, Dennis Hopper, Alice Cooper, Patrick Duffy, Craig T. Nelson, Cheech Marin, Kyle MacLachlan, Samuel Jackson and Mark Wahlberg. Wilson tees off at 11:20 a.m. in tomorrow's first round, with Corey Pavin.

There are 13 players making their Mercedes-Benz debut here after winning for the first time last year — including Wilson. Pavin, a former Hawaiian Open champion, is making his 11th appearance, but first since the tournament moved to Maui.

Of the 34 in the field, only Kirk Triplett has not committed to next week's Sony Open in Hawai'i. The PGA Tour's first full-field event of the season has half the World Golf Ranking's Top 10, as does Mercedes.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.