Clearly there is much more to winning the Sony Open in Hawai'i than a paycheck approaching seven figures. Why else would so many former champs return, over and over?

The 11th Sony Open tees off tomorrow with all its previous champions but 2005's Vijay Singh, who will miss just his second Sony after pulling out last week. Jeff Sluman, who won the inaugural Sony in 1999, has been in all 11 and so has Jerry Kelly, who has broken par in all but three of his last 25 rounds at Waialae Country Club. He made the 2002 Sony his first PGA Tour victory — in his 200th start.

Paul Azinger, at 49 still celebrating his team's Ryder Cup win last year, only missed it in 2002. His victory here in 2000 was his first since a successful battle with lymphoma in 1994, and remains his last. He flashed local fans the shaka that memorable day.

"I've got some friends here, you know?" Azinger said then. "People here have always been in my camp, so to speak. I've always felt that. I felt that the first time I ever had a chance (here) in 1986. ... It was very gratifying to do it here."

Defending champion K.J. Choi is making his eighth Sony start. He characterized Hawai'i as "a special place to me" after he won last year. He compared it to where he grew up on Wando Island in South Korea and admitted he feels "real at peace being here ... the Hawaiian people are so nice to me."

Brad Faxon (2001) and Paul Goydos (2007) will be making their seventh starts at Waialae. Faxon's decisive win was clinched on Waialae's lush greens, where one of the tour's greatest putters buried the field with a slew of 30-footers.

"That was nothing absurd," said Tom Lehman, Faxon's playing partner that final day with Ernie Els. "Not anything he doesn't normally do."

Els, making his sixth Sony start this week, would rally two years later. He took out Aaron Baddeley in a 2003 playoff, then did the same to Harrison Frazar the next year, becoming the only golfer to win back-to-back Sonys.

That was the year he called Sony "a little hidden gem ... a lot of good players never used to come here and now a lot come here, it's a great tournament."

It is at its greatest when you win and Els has come awfully close in his last three starts, finishing second, third and fifth. He is 66-under par at Waialae and couldn't wait to get back, although it took him 27 hours in the air to get to Maui last week from his home in South Africa.

"Sony ... just the course there, it feels a little different than normal tour stops," Els said. "I'm not sure if it's still kind of the holiday season. The vibe is a little different. It's a bit more relaxing, so I like that."