I can still taste it: the Dom Perignon that Mark Rolfing and the Kapalua Resort gang, including Nancy Cross, shared with the local media after the first Mercedes-Benz Championship played at the Plantation Course 10 years ago.

They were toasting the success of the prestigious tournament of champions that starts the PGA Tour season, along with the Sony Open in Hawai'i, which also began in 1999 after United Airlines dropped sponsorship of the Hawaiian Open.

Mercedes and Sony — you couldn't ask for sponsors with better name-recognition. Those were heady times in local golf, even without the champagne. But will we be drinking a toast or drowning our sorrows in the years to come, considering the uncertain economic times ahead? TV contracts for the two events end in 2010 and you have to wonder if Mercedes and Sony feel they're getting enough bang for their bucks to re-up as sponsors.

This year's Mercedes took a real hit with the world's four top players — Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington — not in the qualified field of 2008 winners. Tiger, you can understand with his injured leg. Phil, what can you say that hasn't already been said. No, not by some caddie, but maybe that not breaking 70 at the Plantation Course led him to say, "no mas," after his second appearance there eight years ago. Sergio and Padraig? They're off, racing to Dubai.

But you really have to feel for the folks at Sony. Woods and Mickelson haven't shown up once despite all the millions of dollars that the Japanese entertainment giant poured into the PGA event at the Waialae Country Club.

"I'm not sure I'd call them problems, but there are issues," said Rolfing, now a TV golf analyst for NBC. "Issues with the dates, the quality of the field and the whole way this thing is positioned on the PGA Tour. We all need to look at the situation and figure out what to do. Whether we need to change the dates, change the format, I don't know. All I know is that it's not working."

Even with Woods playing, January is a tough sell for golf in terms of TV viewership because of football with the NFL playoffs and college bowl games. This week's Mercedes gets a triple whammy with NFL doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday, and today's Oklahoma-Florida game for the BCS championship. The Sony Open won't be able to stop the NFL blitz next week with the NFC and AFC championship games.

But something's got to be done about Mercedes and Sony, according to Rolfing, well aware of the need to package the two PGA events because of their symbiotic relationship. "We saw what happened to the Hawaiian Open. When it's a stand-alone event in February, it doesn't work."

Enough about the uncertain future.

Instead, let's list the most memorable moments in the event's first 10 years at the Kapalua Plantation Course after it moved to Maui in 1999, ending a 30-year run at La Costa CC in Carlsbad, Calif.:

WOODS-ELS EPIC BATTLE

It's nice to know that Rolfing agrees that the best Mercedes moment came in 2000 when Tiger Woods and Ernie Els staged a spectacular duel with Woods sinking a 40-foot birdie putt at the second playoff hole for the win. Both had eagled the 72nd hole to force the playoff and then birdied 18 to extend the playoff.

"It was the first (golf) event of the millennium and maybe the greatest finish this 100 years will ever see," said Rolfing, who regards the Woods-Els duel among his three best moments in golf as an announcer. The other two? Woods and Rocco Mediate in the U.S. Open and this year's Ryder Cup victory. Later that evening over a steak and beer, Els told Rolfing he couldn't get over it that he came to the last hole tied for the lead, made an eagle and lost.

Els said of Woods, who was 24 then: "I think he's a legend in the making, if he's not already. He's probably going to be bigger than Elvis when he gets into his 40s." Everyone in the interview room broke out in laughter.

THREE-PEAT FOR APPLEBY

Stuart Appleby establishes himself as the "King of Kapalua" by winning for the third straight year in 2006 in a playoff with Vijay Singh after they finished with 8-under 284s — the highest winning score for the event at the Plantation Course. Only six players bettered par 73 and no one had a bogey-free final round. Only two rounds in the 60s were posted all week. The windiest conditions there to date made it the most difficult of his three victories, according to Appleby, who said of his three-peat: "Winning it the first time was great. A second time awesome. The third time, more awesome."

ELS GOES DEEP IN 2003

Ernie Els shoots a mind-blowing 31-under-par 261 with rounds of 64-65-65-67 to win the 2003 title by eight strokes over K.J. Choi and Mediate. The 31-under is still the PGA Tour record for most strokes under par. "Obviously, I haven't done that before, nobody's done it," said Els, prompting laughs. "Shocking, phenomenal," said Mediate, who missed a six-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 63. "I almost shot 10-under," he told his caddie, who replied, "You did shoot 10-under." "Then I was mad," said Mediate, who missed the chance to tie the tournament record for low 18 set by Choi the day before.

DUVAL WAS THE FIRST

You never forget the first one. That's why David Duval's victory in that first Mercedes Championships in 1999 still sticks out. He, and not Woods, was king of the golf world then. Duval shot a 266 to win by nine strokes, still the biggest margin of victory since the event moved to Maui, and second only to Gene Littler's 13-stroke victory in 1955 at the tournament's first home, the Desert Inn CC in Las Vegas.

PERFECT FOR CHOPRA

Nor the last one when Daniel Chopra beat Steve Stricker in a four-hole playoff, the longest in tournament history. "It was no Tiger Woods and Ernie Els playoff, I can tell you that," said Stricker, referring to that unforgettable duel. Chopra became the seventh straight foreign-born Mercedes winner. The peripatetic Chopra — he was born in Sweden, grew up in India, lived in England and claimed to be the first to hit a golf ball off the Great Wall of China — said he played like the golf course was designed by him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SERGIO

Sergio Garcia wins the 2002 Mercedes Championship on his 25th birthday. It can't get any better than that. Garcia cards a final-round 64 to force a playoff with reigning PGA champion David Toms after each finished at 274.

LAST AMERICAN

Which happens to be Jim Furyk's winning score as well in 2001, the last time an American won the Mercedes title, paycheck and luxury car at Kapalua. Too bad Furyk's not here after five previous appearances. Or Tiger, now that he's over with his Buick obligation and can get to keep a Mercedes.

10TH TIME FOR SINGH

Vijay Singh's 2007 Mercedes victory is his 18th win since turning 40, enabling him to surpass Sam Snead's 17 for most victories by a player over age 40. Singh tees it up at the Plantation Course's breath-taking opening hole today for the 10th time in 11 years. He only missed in 2002.

WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE?

Singh won but the media's darling in 2007 was Will MacKenzie, who finished tied for fourth. The surfer dude is back after a year's absence, thanks to his second tour victory in the Viking Classic, and everyone's hoping he'll regale the media again with more memorable sound bites. MacKenzie, who once slept in a van, in a cave in Alaska and on one of the hammocks he sold, is putting on the Ritz (Carlton) again. He almost spent as much time on the golf course as he did at Maui's surfing spots during his week at Kapalua. He especially deserves a spot on the list of memorable Mercedes moments for giving out his room number at the Ritz-Carlton during a Golf Channel interview. Yes, he got plenty of calls and had to turn off his phone to get some sleep.

Here's hoping this year's most memorable moment will involve local boy, Parker McLachlin.

I'll definitely drink to that.