Jesper Parnevik overcame windy conditions and a pair of double bogeys on the back nine to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the season-opening Mercedes Championships.

Parnevik shot a four-under-par 69 for a one-shot lead over Duffy Waldorf in this event, which gathers only winners of 1999 PGA Tour events. Tiger Woods, the 1999 Player of the Year, and two-time US Open champion Ernie Els were two strokes back, while David Duval was among four players who carded one-under 72s.

The Swede birdied five of the first seven holes at the Plantation Course at Kapalua. He got to six under and moved three strokes clear of the field with a 30-foot birdie putt at the 164-yard 11th hole.

But Parnevik three-putted at the par-four 12th and made it consecutive double bogeys when he found a bunker at the 13th. He recovered with back-to-back birdies but missed an eight-foot par putt at the long par-four 17th before nearly eagling the 18th from more than 90 feet.

"On 18, I walked up, about to hit my putt, the crowd started screaming `Hey, if you knock it in the hole we don't care what colour pants you have,' " Parnevik said. "Halfway there, I was 100 per cent sure it was going to go in. It was looking so good all the way. It stopped like an inch short."

Waldorf, among the early finishers, had birdies and a bogey for the the second-best round of the day.

Lanny Wadkins is the last double champion at this event, winning with identical scores of eight-under 288 in 1982 and 1983. Others who have defended their titles here are Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gene Littler, who won each year from 1955-57.

This $2.9 million event is the first of two consecutive weekends for the PGA Tour in Hawaii. The Sony Open, the year's first full-field event, will be held in Honolulu.