KAPALUA, Maui — Dean Wilson's final round looked a lot like his third round in his Mercedes-Benz Championship debut.

After flirting with last place the first two days at Kapalua's Plantation Course, Wilson — who grew up in Kane'ohe but had never played the course before this year — closed with consecutive rounds of 1-under-par 72 on the weekend. He finished 29th in the 33-player field and won $55,000.

"The first two rounds were very bad and the second two OK," Wilson said. "I'm glad I got four tournament rounds under my belt before Sony, which is different than every other year so I'm excited.

"It was a fantastic experience this week — being a tournament winner, being in this field, representing Hawai'i in Hawai'i, it's very exciting. I wish I could have played a little better ... maybe next year."

Wilson, who won his first PGA Tour event last year at The International, believes his time in Maui's extreme conditions will help him this week at Waialae Country Club. The wind should be easier to judge the second week, as will the grain of the Bermudagrass. His best finish at Sony came in his first appearance, a tie for 23rd in 2002.

After Sony, Wilson said he plans to play "just about everything" on the West Coast portion of the tour. He made 34 starts last year in his fourth full season, more than everyone but Todd Fischer (35) and Mark Brooks (36). "I don't have anything else to do," Wilson joked.

ON TO WAIALAE

David Toms will open defense of his Sony Open in Hawai'i title Thursday at Waialae Country Club. The PGA Tour's first full-field event of 2007 includes 16 of last year's Top 20 money winners and all but two (Kirk Triplett and Adam Scott) of the 2006 champions that played Mercedes-Benz.

Seven Hawai'i golfers are in the field — Dean Wilson, Michelle Wie, Parker McLachlin, Kevin Hayashi, Tadd Fujikawa, Abe Mariano and David Chin.

Today and tomorrow are free practice days at Waialae. The King Auto Group Pro-Junior Skills Challenge will debut tomorrow at 3 p.m. Pros will be Wilson, McLachlin, Wie, Davis Love III and 2002 Sony champ Jerry Kelly. They will partner with Hawai'i juniors Miki Ueoka, Elyse Okada, Sean Maekawa, Chan Kim and Alex Ching in a four-skill competition held on the 18th hole.

SKINS GAME ON MAUI

While Sony is going on at Waialae, Wailea Resort will be the site of the Wendy's Champions Skins Game this weekend at its Gold Course. Dana Quigley and Raymond Floyd collected $510,000 to win last year's team-format debut on Maui. They are back, along with runners-up Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer and Loren Roberts, and Gary Player and Jay Haas.

The pro-am is Friday beginning at 9 a.m. The first nine Skins holes will be played Saturday and the final nine Sunday, both beginning at 8 a.m.

The seniors skins is usually played Super Bowl weekend, but was moved this year because of TV, according to Ric Clarson, the PGA Tour's senior vice president of brand development. Clarson added that the date change was made to allow the event to continue. Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said the change would only happen this once in the next six years.

HTA, PGA EXTEND

The Hawai'i Tourism Authority and PGA Tour announced yesterday they had agreed on a four-year extension of their "official marketing partnership." The relationship started in 2001.

The tour season starts with the Mercedes-Benz Championship and Sony Open in Hawai'i. The Wendy's Champions Skins Game follows this year, then the MasterCard (Hualalai) and Turtle Bay Championships to open the senior season.

The LPGA's first two full-field events this year are the SBS Open at Turtle Bay and Fields Open in Hawai'i, at Ko Olina, both next month on O'ahu.

STARTING POINT

This was the first tournament of the year and first week of the tour's new FedExCup, a season-long points competition that closes with the tour's inaugural playoff series. Golfers accumulate points based on finish at the 33 regular-season events. Vijay Singh earned 4,500 yesterday.

The final four events of the year are the playoffs for the FedExCup, which will feature a progressive cut — 144 players at The Barclays, 120 in the Deutsche Bank Championship, 70 at the BMW Championship and 30 at The Tour Championship.

The FedExCup champion will get $10 million, the largest single bonus in pro sports. There is $35 million in total bonus money.

A new seven-event tour Fall Series follows to determine the rest of the 125 FedExCup qualifiers for the following season.

NOTES

Vijay Singh has played 18 tour events in Hawai'i, and finished Top 10 in all but six. He also won the 2005 Sony Open. He becomes the third player, after Jim Furyk and Ernie Els, to win both Hawai'i tour stops.

Stuart Appleby was denied a fourth consecutive Mercedes title when he finished tied for 13th, 10 shots behind Singh.

END QUOTE

Vijay Singh, 43, on the odds of success in the future:

"Fred Funk won a golf tournament when he was 48. I'm a lot bigger and stronger than Freddie Funk. If he can win at 48, what makes me think I'm not going to win when I'm 50?"

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.