It’s that time again.

The PGA and European Tours swing back into action this week, with the American circuit returning to Hawaii for its now-traditional season-opening Mercedes Championship, while the Europeans continue their South African swing, still trying to explain how this can be the sixth event of the 2009 season despite the fact that we’re only entering the second week of January.

In America, the Mercedes continues as the modern incarnation of the old Tournament of Champions, a tropical reward for those players fortunate enough to win an official event in 2008. But while the Coore & Crenshaw-designed Plantation course at the Kapalua Resort remains one of the Tour’s best venues, a disappointing cadre of elite players will not be making the trip this year. Tiger Woods, of course, has a doctor’s note, but world top 5s Sergio Garcia (2), Phil Mickelson (3) and Padraig Harrington (4) will all “be spending time with their families.” Apparently Tim Finchem’s recent video message to players asking them to increase their support for a broader range of events hasn’t hit home just yet. A marquee event, a major sponsor and a top notch venue, and the world’s top four players, all eligible, are staying home.

So much for the Golf Channel’s hype about the adventure beginning here.

Meanwhile, the E Tour’s players continue to grapple with a South African swing which straddles the holidays, the reality being that while many British and Continental stars might be inclined to journey to the Cape once each winter (for the Alfred Dunhill and the South African Open), how many are likely to make a second trip back just for the third playing of the relatively new Joburg Open? We can hardly blame the Sunshine Tour for cobbling together their schedule to squeeze larger events into windows of relative inactivity in America, of course, but one wonders how much longer the E Tour – whose desire to co-sanction a third South African event seems laudable – will continue putting this awkward date on their official calendar. Of course, there is one major beneficiary of this sort of scheduling: homestanding Richard Sterne who, with wins at both the Dunhill and South African Open, now stands a greatly improved chance of becoming the first man since Seve Ballesteros in 1986 to win three consecutive events on the E Tour schedule.

And all without leaving his homeland.

Elsewhere, more bellicose words from the Asian Tour have certainly shelved the OneAsia concept for 2009, but what about beyond? In response to sponsor demand, the Japan Tour has recently indicated a desire to bring American or European events onto their shores should OneAsia not fly (or even if it does?) which may up the ante in subsequent regional discussions considerably. The Asian Tour, for its part, has indicated a willingness to participate in a series of WGC-like, annual Asian events bringing together players from throughout the region, but little more. The Australasian and (one assumes) Chinese circuits are simply clamoring for a larger piece of the regional pie. But in the end, potential Japanese overtures to Europe represent an interesting component in this ever-evolving mix because ultimately, it is surely the E Tour’s vested interests in there not being a OnaAsia circuit (which could ultimately represent serious competition) that gives the current Asian Tour the confidence to hold their ground in nixing the regional super tour concept.

Another party likely rooting against OneAsia: John Daly, now suspended a reported six months by the PGA Tour for general and ongoing buffoonery. Because with his playing status bordering on nonexistent on most inhabited continents, golf’s slowest moving train wreck might need the continued existence of places like the Omega China Tour simply to find somewhere to compete. Daly, after all, doesn’t quite seem the club professional type....