The season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship brought a confrontation between Steve Stricker, who managed to match the best score of the tournament, and Daniel Chopra, 34, who won last year’s Ginn sur Mer Classic in South Florida. Chopra and Stricker were in close confrontation at 18-under-par 274 at the end of the regulation time. Chopra won the 2008 event's playoff  after he birdied the par-5 ninth hole and Striker missed the 14-foot birdie shot.

It was a $1.1 million victory for the Sweden-born golf player, who made a great debut in the beginning of the game, with four birdies in seven holes, while Stricker had to ‘settle’ for the $650,000 second prize, after previously winning for the second consecutive year the PGA Tour’s Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2007.

Both players wanted the award badly enough to force a playoff for the second time in three years at Kapalua, Hawaii, but Chopra handled the game much better than Stricker did: “I felt very comfortable out there. The golf course was designed by me, I’m guessing. There’s not a golf course out there that suits me more. I just loved it from the moment I saw it,” said Chopra.

It may have not been just Chopra’s good game that made him winner, but perhaps a certain degree of luck, since four of the top 10 players in the world did not attend the event, especially Tiger Woods, the most promising player of this year’s season.

Chopra seems to agree: “I guess there might have been a few more better players in this field, and it’s deemed a prestigious event. But every win is special. I felt like I worked just as hard in this one. My first-ever play-off win, as well. It has a few bonus points to it.”

As for the other players, Stephen Ames came third, at 17-under par, close to the playoff, followed by the third-round leader Mike Weir, and Jim Furyk, Hunter Mahan and Nick Watney, all finishing at 14-under par. Next week is Oahu Island’s turn, where the $5.3 million Sony Open is expected to begin.