Mercedes Championship round one: Finchem the biggest absentee of all

So where was PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem when his small but perfectly-formed band of professionals needed him at Maui? Considering the special ceremony they held to inaugurate the 2008 season, you’d have thought he might have made at least a flying visit. Yes, I know it’s a long way to go to make a speech, but it’s not exactly Devil’s Island.

He obviously agrees with Vijay Singh about the season starting too early. Heck, if the head honcho can’t be bothered to turn up, why should anyone else?

Course, you could always make me commissioner instead. I assure you I’d have absolutely no problem going to Hawaii for New Year. And I’d have that FedEx Cup shipshape in no time.

Finchem’s absence wasn’t the only sour note on day one of the season, what with the wind and periodically horizontal rain. Not a bogey-free round to be had.

Most miserable of all was Scott Verplank, still hoping officials will overrule the one-stroke penalty he was given on the 13th after his ball moved an inch. It was the wind and rain what dunnit, cried Verplank; it was your grounded club, replied the rules official. This could only happen in honest-to-God golf, of course, because the only person who actually spotted the ball had moved in the first place was Verplank.

The stats of leaders Nick Watney and Daniel Chopra suggest a solid flash of the irons was the key to success - they share the lead for finding greens. But both were pretty flashy with their putters too, much more so than favourites Singh and Jim Furyk, who both lie six shots off the pace. In Singh’s case at least that’s not an insurmountable gap. Even so, followers who backed him down to 5 in-play can’t be too happy to see his price now double that.

Singh might well benefit from the improved conditions the weathermen are promising over the next three days. The brisk winds should lessen slightly while a lot less rain is forecast. I fear, though, that’ll be far too late for K J Choi. His 6 over suggests someone who had too good a Christmas.