ASSOCIATED PRESS Tiger Woods has been among the golf pros to complain about the greens at Kapalua's Plantation Course.

Faster greens are in
the Mercedes Champion-
ships’ future

KAPALUA, Maui » If you want to play the Plantation Course, you'd best get your reservations in by April. After taking some heavy criticism the past few years, the powers that be at the Mercedes Championships are changing the greens.

Bermuda will still be the grass of choice, but instead of TIF dwarf it will be TIF eagle. What does that mean, exactly? Well, let's ask golf analyst Mark Rolfing for some of the details.

"The blades of grass are a little thinner and it allows you to cut it closer," Rolfing said. "It also means they will be a little faster and not as grainy. It's a good move and should make the golfers a little more comfortable when they play here."

Tournament director Gary Planos said the project will likely take most of the summer and should be completed by August. Many of the golfers were upset with the grain and lack of speed this week, including Tiger Woods.

"It was a very frustrating week on these greens," Woods said. "I don't like to hit them that hard and you have to, especially uphill into the grain. The faster the greens, the better I like them. I don't remember the greens ever being this slow."

Officials are hopeful the new greens will lure Phil Mickelson back to the Mercedes. He was the only golfer in the top five missing from the scene. He also skipped a couple of years ago when his wife was having a baby. Rolfing believes it must have been difficult for him to stay at home while the rest of the world came to play in the $5.3 million event.

"It would be good if Phil were here," Rolfing said. "I'm sure he saw all these guys bombing away on these wide fairways, having a good time. He needs to be here."

Attendance was good: Mercedes official Kim Carpenter estimated that between 28,000 and 30,000 people attended this week's first event on the PGA Tour.

"Even with the rain and wind today, we feel like we had a record week," Carpenter said. "Having Tiger in the field certainly makes a difference. The year he missed, we only had 18,000 people come here. The people of Maui have really embraced this tournament."

Mercedes is negotiating with the PGA Tour to renew its contract, which enters its final year in 2006. Carpenter said most sponsors are waiting for the new television deal to be announced before deciding whether to stay on board.

"We feel like we'll have a contract in place through 2010 and are hopeful the sponsor will be Mercedes," Carpenter said. "Everyone is happy with how the tournament has grown. We'll know tomorrow what the ratings number was for ESPN. We're hopeful it will be near the 3.5 rating we had in 2000 when Tiger and Ernie (Els) were involved in that playoff."

By the numbers: Woods was not only the lone player to shoot four rounds in the 60s, he also took the lead in driving distance with an average of 298.6 yards. He also hit 71.7 percent of his fairways, a marked improvement over last year, when he finished 182nd on tour at 56.1 percent.

Winner Stuart Appleby and Adam Scott were the only players without a bogey yesterday. Consequently, they shot the top two final rounds. There were 18 bogey-free rounds this week. Els closed with a 71 to keep his bogey-free rounds in place here. It was the 27th consecutive round he has shot par or better at the Mercedes, including 20 here at the Plantation Course.

Wind changes everything: With a strong Kona wind in the face of the players, the opening hole wound up being the most difficult for the week. Often called the signature hole, the par-4 473-yarder yielded a scoring average of 4.073. There were 12 birdies and 21 bogeys for the week.

The easiest hole was the par-5 fifth, with a scoring average of 4.532. There were two eagles, 67 birdies, nine bogeys and two double bogeys for the week.