KAPALUA, Maui — Geoff Ogilvy spent the front nine putting the drama back in the Mercedes-Benz Championship and the back nine draining it back out yesterday, ultimately winning the PGA Tour's season-opening event by the same six-shot advantage he took into the final round.

It was three shots off David Duval's gaping nine-shot win in Mercedes' first year on Maui (1999), but Ogilvy was just as dominant. His closing 5-under-par 68 gave him a tournament total of 24-under 268, seven shots back of Ernie Els' tournament record set in 2003.

It was not as if no one chased Ogilvy. When the thunder, lightning and rain stopped and golfers finally went out at 10:15 a.m. — 2 hours later than the adjusted time set Saturday — everybody began to beat up on Kapalua's Plantation Course as the good weather held up.

Except Ogilvy. With a scorecard anything but par for the Plantation, he launched a "horrible" drive off the first tee, missed the first two greens and bogeyed both holes. It was one more bogey than he had the first three days — combined.

The 31-year-old Australian bounced back with birdies at the fifth and sixth, but bogeyed the next two. Suddenly, that six-stroke lead he started the dreary morning with had shrunk to one over Anthony Kim, who was up ahead, birdieing the ninth hole.

"I enjoyed the last 2 1/2 hours more than I enjoyed the first two hours," Ogilvy understated. "Obviously, a very rough start. I had never had a six-shot lead before. That's quite an uncomfortable feeling really."

But Ogilvy, like the weather, began to blossom. He bumped his advantage back up with a 21-foot eagle putt on the par-5 ninth hole (521 yards), calling the two previous shots — 2-iron off the tee and 3-iron from 230 yards — his best of the week. He drained another 21-footer for birdie on the next hole and suddenly he was back in a world of his own.

"I wanted to make birdie (on No. 9)," Ogilvy said. "I was fairly frustrated walking off the eighth green. Not angry, just frustrated. ... I was two shots worse than I thought I should have been.

"So yeah, I wanted to birdie nine. To eagle was a big bonus. As soon as I hit my second shot at nine I felt completely comfortable and happy with everything. ... It's almost like going from a six-shot lead to a one-shot lead made me more comfortable."

His advantage was back to four and his final kick was just beginning. By the time Ogilvy was done with a breathtaking 7-under-in-7-holes streak — the last four birdie putts all were inside 10 feet — those chasing the $1.12 million first prize, and 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL550, had already figured out just how much the runner-up check could buy in this economy.

"I knew he was going to make birdies so I had to do the same," Kim said. "I just haven't been able to read the greens on the back nine this week. I grinded on every single putt and hit quite a few good putts that didn't go in. So I knew he was just teasing me for a little while there."

Kim nearly took second all for himself when he blasted a 3-wood 274 yards on the final hole to 7 inches of the cup. Double eagle would have given him second alone. Eagle "only" gave him a share of second with Davis Love III, who dropped a 10-foot birdie putt on the last hole to catch Kim and add to his formidable Kapalua resume.

Love, 44 and a 20-time tour winner, has been playing here more than two decades. He won the Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua International twice, and more than $800,000, when it was an unofficial tour event. He has now won almost $1.1 million since Mercedes made it a tour event in 1999, with four top-10 finishes in five tries. "Kapalua," Love said, "has always been good to me."

This was Kim's first appearance here. The 23-year-old won twice last year to qualify for Mercedes, collecting $4.6 million and bolting to 12th in the World Golf Ranking. He is precocious and confident.

"I was very motivated going into this year," Kim said. "I had very high expectations that I choose to keep to myself. I know if I work hard there's a lot out there for me. I just need to go get it. I'm not afraid to do it."

Sean O'Hair shot the day's best round, an 8-under-par 65 that pulled him from 11th to fourth. But this opening week was all about Ogilvy, who seized the lead with a 67 Thursday and refused to let go. He had just six pars yesterday and appeared vulnerable early. But, Ogilvy said, there was "no panic or, 'What am I doing?' ... "just 'Can I go somewhere else for a while because it's uncomfortable?' "

That somewhere was the back nine, where he was unstoppable.

In the last month Ogilvy has won the Australian PGA and Mercedes. It is a success foreign to him at this time of the year. "I've been a horrible starter generally," he says. He now has five wins on the PGA Tour, including two World Golf Championships, the 2006 U.S. Open and the season-opener with a select field of the previous year's champions.

Wife Juli and "my two little alarm clocks" — Phoebe, 3, and Jasper, who turned 1 Wednesday — were waiting when it was over on the 18th green. In reality, it had ended much earlier. Ogilvy, the eighth straight foreign-born champion here, had never shot in the 60s at Kapalua until this year and described himself as an "underachiever" before he captured the first tour event in 2005.

Now, he is ranked 11th in the world, with a Mercedes-Benz Championship bullet, and starting to believe he might be good enough to close in on "Tiger and Vijay, who have been on leaderboards for the last 10 years.

"I feel like I'm closer to that stage now, but there's probably still a gap there," Ogilvy said. "It's more of a consistency thing because if I played like this every week, I'd be all right. Obviously, I have to work out how to do it a bit more often. I think it's coming. Golf's a weird game."

NOTES

Parker pockets $64,000: Punahou graduate Parker McLachlin collected $64,000 in his first appearance at Mercedes, closing with a 71 to finish with a share of 24th — just ahead of defending champion Daniel Chopra. McLachlin was 6-over after the first 14 holes of this tournament and played the final 58 holes in 12-under.

With the split-tee start yesterday, he started on the back and birdied the 18th for the fourth straight day to make the turn in 3-under. A double-bogey on the first hole followed, but McLachlin had two more birdies on the front sandwiched around a bogey.

Sony tees off Thursday: All but seven of the 33 golfers at Kapalua will play in this week's $5.4 million Sony Open in Hawai'i. The PGA Tour's first full-field event tees off Thursday at Wai-alae Country Club, with K.J. Choi as defending champion.

Those who played at Mercedes but are missing Sony include 2005 champ Vijay Singh, who is having knee surgery, Justin Leonard, Trevor Immelman, Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas.

The rest of the former Sony Open champions will be at Waialae — Paul Goydos (2007), David Toms (2006), Ernie Els (2003 and '04), Jerry Kelly (2002), Brad Faxon (2001), Paul Azinger (2000) and Jeff Sluman (1999).

Kelly, Davis Love III and Steve Stricker will join Hawai'i's Dean Wilson and Parker McLachlin in tomorrow's King Auto Group Pro-Jr. Skills Challenge. That starts at 3 p.m. at the 18th hole and is free for spectators.

Wilson, McLachlin, Aloha Section PGA Player of the Year John Lynch and 'Iolani freshman Lorens Chan are all in the 144-man tournament field.

Shaving grace: The stubble on Geoff Ogilvy's face the beginning of the week is basically a full beard now. Ogilvy did not exactly plan it.

"To be brutally honest, it's a poor excuse, but I use an electric shaver and it plugs into an Australian plug at home," he said. "I have one in Arizona that plugs into an American plug but that one is there. I could go out and buy a razor, but I figured I would grow a beard for a couple weeks. And, if you have a good first round, you're not going to shave."

He won more than $1 million on Maui, which means he can really afford a razor now, or will never shave again.

"I could shave tomorrow, maybe. We'll see," Ogilvy said. "I probably should. It's getting a little unruly."

Skins on Maui: The Wendy's Champions Skins Game is Saturday and Sunday at Royal Ka'anapali on Maui, with Peter Jacobsen and Fuzzy Zoeller defending their title. The Champions Tour officially opens Jan. 23 to 25 with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.