Appleby to miss the start of 2008

Probably.

Given that Stuart Appleby has only been in the season opening Mercedes-Benz Championship in Hawaii as the defending champion for the last 2 years, his chance of being there next year is fairly slim. Appleby first won in Hawaii in 2004 following his win at the 2003 Las Vegas International. As his only other win on the US tour between 2003 and 2007 (excluding the Mercedes-Benz) has been the Shell Houston Open in 2006, it is fairly likely he won’t be at the season opener next year.

I would love to be wrong on that one though.

After a rather mediocre performance in Australia, Adam Scott decided to get serious about his five year plan to be number one, and worked on his game over the Christmas break. There were flashes of brilliance shown during periods of the third and fourth day, but just not enough consistence to pull of a win.

So the Australians at the Mercedes-Benz fared as follows: (winner at 14 under)

2. Adam Scott $630,000 -12
13. Stuart Appleby $120,000 -4
19. John Senden $71,333 +1
22. Rod Pampling $65,000 +2
27. Aaron Baddeley $57,000 +5