Start to 2009 will be harder for some of the '08 winless

text size

Getty Images

Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Hunter Mahan each came thisclose last season to earning a spot in the '09 Mercedes-Benz Championship field.

Paradise -- lost. In essence, that is the ultimate result of a year without a PGA TOUR tournament won.

The 2009 season begins with a tournament, the Mercedes-Benz Championship at Kapalua on the Hawaiian island of Maui, that is a poignant reminder of how the previous season ended.

With a victory. Or, painfully, without a victory.

Winners only. That's the Mercedes-Benz Championship at Kapalua.

You win on the PGA TOUR in '08, you're starting the season on Maui in '09. Jim Furyk isn't. And Steve Stricker isn't. And Hunter Mahan isn't. And, understandably, Luke Donald -- after months of rehabilitation after surgery on his right wrist -- isn't.

Even though each had been included in the past.

Kapalua's Plantation Course, where the sun shines, the trade winds blow and in January there's a postcard view from a hillside where pineapples once grew, offers an occasional humpback whale sighting, and across the channel, the vista of the serrated mountains of Molokai.

Kapalua, paradise -- a tournament without a cut and with numerous rewards other than the financial one. To paraphrase the lyrics, if you've made it there, you've made it everywhere.

But for only the second time since 1999, when the Mercedes-Benz Championship was moved to Kapalua and to the front of the TOUR schedule, Furyk didn't make it. It galled him, and not just because he won't be at Kapalua where he owns a home off the fourth fairway.

A second-place finish in the World Golf Championships-CA Championship, behind Geoff Ogilivy. A couple of thirds, But no victories, something that, since 1997, had occurred only once -- in 2004.

"Well,'' Furyk conceded a few days ago, "I'm disappointed I didn't win. I don't really look as not heading back to Kapalua -- everyone wants to be there -- as much as I had the one glaring bad spot or bad mark on my record. I didn't win.

"And you know I'm ultimately going to judge my season on how many golf tournaments I won and how I played in major championships. Other than being hurt in '04, I think the last eight, nine,10 years I've been out in Kapalua all but one year. Then I followed with the Sony (Open in Hawaii). This coming year my schedule will be different.''

So will Steve Stricker's, compared to 2008. Stricker went a long while, 2002 until 2008, seven years, without qualifying for Kapalua. "It's the one where you want to start your year,'' he said.

And last year he did exactly that, getting to the Mercedes-Benz Championship and coming in second, beaten in a playoff by Daniel Chopra. He wouldn't have a better finish in any subsequent event.

"Kapalua is such a beautiful place,'' Stricker acknowledged, "and there are not a lot of guys there. It's a good way to start the season as far as getting money and points. And when you're there, you realize you're a winner the year before, which means it was a good year.''

It wasn't a bad year for Stricker, with six top-10 finishes and more than $2.4 million in earnings. It just wasn't a winning year. It just wasn't a year that got him back to Maui.

"You've got to do a lot of good things to win,'' said Stricker, a presence the last three years after regaining his desire, "and sometimes even that isn't enough because there are so many good players. ... If I'd just beat Chopra in the playoff, I'd be back there again.''

But he didn't, and he's not.

Hunter Mahan has been there once, last year, after winning the 2007 Travelers Championship. Wistfully, he thinks of 2009 without tropic breezes and a jump start to the season.

"Yeah, I'd like to be there,'' said Mahan, who made another great run in his title defense in Hartford where he finished second to Stewart Cink, "but it wasn't under my control. I had my chances. I didn't do it.''

Mahan had a wonderful Ryder Cup as America finally ended the frustration, and that was encouraging. But there will be no Kapalua, no Mercedes-Benz Championship, no satisfaction of knowing he is among a special group.

"I know what I need to improve on,'' Mahan said without expression but with determination. "I didn't win (in '08) but I learned what will give me more opportunities.''

You've heard Tiger Woods say it. The more times you play well, the better your chances of getting a win. Furyk, Stricker and Mahan had those chances but couldn't quite take advantage, couldn't quite play their way back to the Mercedes-Benz Championship.

Indeed, they've been there, done that. And, after failing, they very much want to be there again.