As the snow starts to drop here in St. Louis, I have mixed emotions of watching the SBS Championship as it's about 80 degrees with gentle tradewinds making me wonder why I am not in Maui.

The one thing about this event was how great the field was. This year the 28 playing are a bit dodgy in marquee value but honestly it's still some of the greatest players in the world so we have to appreciate it for what it is.

We can't ever make much of first round leads, last year 66 players led after the first round on the PGA Tour and only nine went on to win.  So of the 45 stroke play events last year, 20% of the first round leaders won, not bad. In looking at the SBS Championship, since 1970, 60 players have had the first round lead with 13 of them winning bringing the percent up to 32.5%.

Lets get down to the meat and potatoes of this, if you look at just the events played at Kapalua, 19 players have had a piece of the first round lead with 4 players (Ernie Els-'03, Stuart Appleby-'04, Vijay Singh-'07 and Geoff Ogilvy-'09) winning. So what happened to the other 15 players that found paradise in the first round but weren't able to make it to the finish line in first place? Here is some of the highlights:

In 1999 Billy Mayfair shot an opening round of 66 to along with Fred Funk, Steve Pate and Joe Durant lead the first time that the SBS was played at Kapalua. For Mayfair he didn't have a bad week, shot 69-69-71 to finish 17 under and tied for 2nd with Mark O'Meara. Only problem, while Mayfair and O'Meara seemed to play well, David Duval just fell in love with Kapalua shooting 67-63-68-68 to finish 26 under, winning by nine shots. Oh, for the other first round leaders, Funk finished T5th, Pate finished 15th and Durant finished T18th.

Talking about the poor finish of Durant, it wasn't the worst experience for a first round leader. That honor went to Brett Wetterich who opened up with a 69 in tough conditions to co-lead with Vijay Singh, Will MacKenzie, K.J. Choi and Stephen Ames. Wetterich must of gotten into the Mai-Tais that night because things were very ugly in round two. He started par-bogey-bogey-par-double and it didn't get any better as he couldn't make a single birdie for the day, shot 40 on the front and had two more bogeys on the back to finish up with 79. Wetterich finished with a pair of 73s to place T22nd which won him $65,000 but goes into the Kapalua history books as the worst finish by a first round leader. In the history of the SBS since 1970, Bill Rogers had the worst finish by a player that had a share of the first round lead as he shot 69-76-71-81 to finish the week T26th. Oh Rogers goes down in the records of horrors as his 81 was the highest score by a first round leader.

Another player that goes into the records of horrors is Mike Weir, who opened the 2002 event with a 63, a flawless round of ten birdies and eight pars. Weir probably wished that he quit after 10 holes as he was eight under par and did finish great with two more birdies. But again he would of loved to call it quits because he played his next 54 holes in 2 over, as he only was able to make one eagle and nine birdies over the course of three rounds. Weir finished T14th making $83,500 for his efforts. Talking about players that wish they could of quit after the first round, in 2006 Olin Browne was the only player to shot under 70 in the first round with a 69. Browne made five birdies in his first 13 holes but after that it was pure horror. He played his next 59 holes in 14 over par with just seven birdies, 19 bogeys and one double bogey. Browne finished up with rounds of 76-76-80, placing T17th as he has never returned to Kapalua.

Now for the four players that had the lead after the first round and won the events, Ernie Els in 2003 will be remembered as having the greatest week in Kapalua history. Els shot 64-65-65-67 for a 31 under total and a 8 shot victory. His week was remarkable when you consider that over 72 holes he made two double bogeys but offset it with four eagles and 28 birdies and just one bogey.

Last year Geoff Ogilvy shot 67 to lead after the first round by one and adding rounds of 68-65-68 he led after every round and won by six over Davis Love III. Hard to believe that Ogilvy is the only past champion in the field this year and along with Stephen Ames, who co-led in 2007 and finished T11th they are the only first round leaders of the 60 since 1970 that are in the field this year.