T.J.'s Take: Season starts right with Mercedes-Benz Championship

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After a brief hibernation, the PGA TOUR returns this week for a new season at arguably the greatest spot in the world -- breathtakingly beautiful Maui and the Kapalua Resort for the season-opening winners-only Mercedes-Benz Championship.

T.J. Auclair

That got me thinking. Imagine if the greatest workweek of your year came in the year's first week. Bummer, right?

Having been to Maui to cover the Mercedes-Benz Championship four times in the past, I always left wondering, 'Why does this have to be the first tournament of the year? It just doesn't get any better than this.'

Go ahead, I'll wait a second. Grab a box of tissues while you shed tears for the lucky few who have to suffer through a week in Maui to start the New Year.

Never been to Maui? If you can, imagine lying on the whitest sand, surrounded by the bluest ocean, with volcanoes and breaching whales, sprinkled as the backdrop. Follow up all of that with eye-popping waves and mind-blowing sunsets that cover every shade of red, yellow, orange, pink and purple and you've got it.

There's nothing about Kapalua that isn't first class and it might be the only tournament I've ever attended on TOUR where there are spectators following the action with bare feet.

Being in Maui makes it so easy to just drift away. It's so laidback you sometimes don't think straight -- like the time I was one of those bare-footed spectators after I forgot to apply sunscreen to the tops of my feet before falling asleep for a five-hour nap on the beach.

Or, look at good ole Will MacKenzie. Willy Mack played in his first Mercedes-Benz Championship just last year and provided an unforgettable live television moment when he gave out his room number at the nearby Ritz-Carlton during an interview with GOLF CHANNEL.

That night, MacKenzie received a fair share of calls from well-wishers he had never met. Quite simply, it was a first-time winner's rookie mistake.

MacKenzie won't be there this week, but fret not, ladies and gentlemen. In the least surprising development since the sun rising, fun-loving Boo Weekley made himself the TOUR's first punch line of the 2008 season. Seems like he drifted away before he even sipped his first Mai Tai.

Boo Weekley (WIreImage)

Video: 2007 PGA TOUR First Time Winners

Turns out Boo probably could have paddled himself from Florida to Hawaii in a canoe faster than he got there flying -- and there would have been far less aggravation. In an "it could only happen to Boo" moment, Weekley was red-flagged by airport security on Friday morning after two bullets from his hunting rifle were found in his carry-on bag. He used the bag during an earlier hunting trip and didn't see the bullets while packing for Hawaii.

If you had told me that story and omitted the player's name then asked me which of the 125 fully-exempt TOUR players that happened to, I would have bet my life that it was Weekley and the first 124 guesses wouldn't have counted.

Boo got through the situation without being arrested, but he missed a connecting flight, got delayed and eventually landed in paradise two days later.

Talk about dodging a couple of bullets.

Whether it's the best or the worst place to start a new year at the office, one thing's for certain -- there's no place these guys would rather be than Maui.

It really gets rough after Maui too -- Honolulu, Palm Desert, San Diego, Phoenix, Pebble Beach, the list goes on.

A quick glance over the schedule and you immediately realize that while Maui might be the best spot, the rest of them aren't too shabby. Aside from a little bit of nasty weather during the West Coast Swing, a year on the PGA TOUR is a year spent chasing the sun.

In fact, it's basically a who's who of travel destinations.

It's the worst to have the best first, but it sure beats shoveling this snow in the frigid Northeast.