KAPALUA, Hawaii, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- The first round of the American golf season will be played Thursday without Tiger Woods and three of the four major championship winners from 2010.
Arjan Atwal, who won his first and only PGA Tour event last August in North Carolina, will hit the first ball of the season on the island of Maui's Kapalua Resort Plantation Course.
Atwal is one of 34 scheduled to participate in the Tournament of Champions, which will kick off a season in a sport that has seen huge changes in the past 12 months.
Woods, 35, failed to win during the previous year as he tried to put his personal life back together after revelations of his sexual affairs that led to his divorce, and thus did not qualify for the circuit's opener. Two of the major titles were won by players who are not members of the tour -- Martin Kaymer (PGA Championship) and Louis Oosthuizen (British Open).
Of those eligible to compete this week, defending Masters champion Phil Mickelson is the only one who did not make the trip to Hawaii. That leaves Graeme McDowell (U.S. Open) as the only current major champion present.
The top five money winners from last year will also be on hand. Matt Kuchar led the way with $4.9 million, followed by FedEx Cup winner Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, Dustin Johnson and Steve Stricker.
As the golf season begins, the tour finds itself less than two years away from the expiration of its lucrative television contracts, which helped bring its players an average of $1,027,475 in 2010.
