ASSOCIATED PRESS Two-time defending champion Stuart Appleby shot a 71 yesterday and trails by two at the Mercedes Championships.

Browne alone in Mercedes lead

He didn't play during the offseason, but finds the redone Kapalua course to his liking

KAPALUA, Maui » The Plantation Course won yesterday's first round of the $5.4 million Mercedes Championships.

After yielding ridiculous numbers the last few years of this winners-only event, the retooled par-73 course -- with a little help from its friends, the wind and the rain -- gained a measure of respect from the 28 golfers who played her.

First-round leader Olin Browne was the only man in the 60s and he barely managed that with a 4-under 69 that left him one shot clear of Vijay Singh and two shots in front of four others, including two-time defending champion Stuart Appleby.

Only nine golfers finished in the red by day's end, with Brad Faxon firing a 9-over 82 and Jason Gore turning in a 7-over 80 to hold down the bottom rungs of the ladder.

Browne was among the early starters and was surprised his lead held up through the late afternoon. Singh missed several short putts through the course of the day, before birdieing two of the final four holes to get himself in contention.

Appleby was his playing partner and threatened to catch Browne as well before an errant drive at the 17th cost him a shot coming in. Joining Appleby at 2-under 71 were Carl Pettersson, David Toms and Sergio Garcia.

Garcia spent most of the day at even par, before a pair of late birdies dropped him into red figures. Toms and Browne finished the front nine with 3-under 33s with Browne going all the way down to 5 under, before a bogey at the par-5 15th left him scratching his head.

"I snuck a few in there early, too," Browne said when someone mentioned the bogey 6 at the 15th. "That ball is round and that hole is, too. You get some that go and some that don't. I stole one on 13 and that putt I made on seven.

"It's obviously great to get off to a good start early in the year. I hid from golf clubs in the offseason because the end of the year was kind of hysterical. Came out here a couple of weeks ago, have kind of eased into the whole Hawaiian thing and I'm feeling pretty good right now."

Singh isn't feeling too bad himself, considering he needed a whopping 32 putts to finish his round. Too often, he looked like a marathoner hitting the wall, including his par at the 18th to finish a grueling up-and-down round.

"I didn't play bad at all," Singh said. "I just missed one or two putts early on. Kind of rattled me.

"The fairways are a lot softer. The greens are beautiful. They're faster than they played the last few times I was here."

For nearly seven months, the Plantation Course was closed to undergo some serious work. All the greens were replanted, bunkers were added hither and yon, leaving many of the golfers wondering what happened to the days of 31 under.

Even the two-time defending champion noted how the course has changed. Last year, he won with a 21-under 271. The year before, it was a 22-under 270.

Those scores are gone, thanks in part to the wind and rain that greeted the golfers yesterday morning.

"Certainly, I got a huge dose of respect you've got to throw at a lot of the putts downhill," Appleby said. "Even from 3, 4, 5 feet. Nothing you can hit aggressive. Very much like Augusta gets. The hard thing was with the wind."

The forecast calls for similar conditions all weekend. Even the starting time on Sunday will depend on the wind. If it's up, the golfers will go out a half-hour early to account for all the anticipated shots.

"You know, it wasn't an easy day to play," Browne said.

"There's plenty of trouble out there. It's a beautiful course, but it's playing long because it's so wet. I'm looking forward to tomorrow."