Did you know?

• The first "Tournament of Champions" was played in 1953 at the Desert Inn C.C. in Las Vegas, Nevada. The total purse for the tournament was $35,000 and the winner got $10,000 in silver dollars. Al Besselink won that tournament, and the $10,000 he won was about the same amount of money that Ben Hogan won that year for winning The Masters, U.S. Open and the British Open.

• Since 1986 the Mercedes Championships have been the first tournament of the year. Does winning the first tournament of the year bring on good tiding for the rest of the year? You be the judge of it with this chart.

Winner of Mercedes	Ranking	Wins 
1999	David Duval	2nd	4
1998	Phil Mickelson	6th	2
1997	Tiger Woods	1st	4
1996	Mark O'Meara	5th	2
1995	Steve Elkington	5th	2
1994	Phil Mickelson	15th	1
1993	Davis Love III	12th	2
1992	Steve Elkington	12th	1
1991	Tom Kite	39th	1
1990	Paul Azinger	4th	1
1989	Steve Jones	8th	3
1988	Steve Pate	12th	2
1987	Mac O'Grady	35th	1
1986	Calvin Peete	12th	1

NOTES: Ranking is final ranking for the year on the PGA Tour money list.
Wins are total wins for the year.

Also not qualified for this year's Mercedes is Davis Love III, who in his last seven Mercedes starts has six top-8 finishes. He also will miss not only the tournament but the fact that he has one of the best records of any player at Kapaula. He has won $884,450 at Kapaula, more than anybody else with victories in the 1992 and 1997 Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua International. He was also runner-up in that event in 1986, '90 & '91. Also missing from this year's field will be Fred Couples, who won the Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua International in 1993 & '94 and has won $620,568 at Kapalua.

• Talk about turnover, only eight golfers that played in the Mercedes Championships last year qualified for this year's event. They are defending champion David Duval, Stuart Appleby, Steve Elkington, Jim Furyk, Jesper Parnevik, Vijay Singh, Jeff Sluman, and Tiger Woods

• Since the Mercedes Championships is for winners only, its impossible for a player to make it his only tournament win. However, Bobby Mitchell and Mac O'Grady have made the Mercedes Championships their second and final career wins.

• Five players have successfully defended titles in the Mercedes: Gene Littler (1955, '56 & '57), Jack Nicklaus (1963 & '64), Arnold Palmer (1965 & '66), Tom Watson (1979 & '80) and Lanny Wadkins (1982 & '83)

• Eight Mercedes Championships have been decided in playoffs. In the last eight years, four of the tournaments have been won in playoffs. In 1992 Steve Elkington beat Brad Faxon, in 1994 Phil Mickelson beat Fred Couples, and in 1995 Elkington again won the tournament by beating Bruce Lietzke on the 3rd hole of a playoff. The last playoff was in 1997 when Tiger Woods beat Tom Lehman on the first hole of the playoff.

• This year's Mercedes Championships has a added touch over past years. Tiger Woods will be going after his fifth consecutvie victory on the PGA Tour. Only Byron Nelson, with 11 in a row in 1945, and Ben Hogan, with six straight in 1948, have won more than four consecutive starts on the PGA Tour.

• In 1996 Mark O'Meara cruised to a three-shot victory with a 17-under-par total. For his effort, he won $180,000 and a $80,000 Mercedes car. 38 strokes behind him was John Daly, whose 11-over total was in last place. For Daly's effort he won $14,650 or $4,650 more than than Al Besselink won in the first T of C 43 years earlier. For the record, Daly's total wasn't the biggest margin between first and last. In 1981 Phil Hancock's 25-over-par total was 40 strokes worse than winner Lee Trevino's 15-under-par total.

• In this day and age, winning $522,000 is not what it used to be. Not to fret for the winner of this week's Mercedes Championships, who along with the first-place check for that amount, will be given a 2000 Mercedes Benz 500 SL Roadster, an added perk of just under $90,000.