Sunday normally means the final round and crowning a winner on the PGA Tour. The Hyundai Tournament of Champions in an effort to gain higher ratings chooses not to compete with NFL Playoff football and historically finishes on Monday, just prior to the NCAA Championship football game.

Not matter how you slice it the Tournament of Champions is up against some very heavy television competition. Golf Channel does an excellent job of bringing visions of dolphins jumping in the deep blue Pacific and palm trees swaying in the warm tropical breezes into our living rooms.

The lack of 2013 winners, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson are a disappointment, but the Tournament of Champions is still worth a look.

After three rounds of play, three golfers are tied at the top of the leaderboard.

Zach Johnson shot 67-66 to get to 13-under par through the first two rounds, but his third round one-over par 74 allowed him to be passed by some hard chargers.

Webb Simpson carded a five-under par 68 and Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson posted four-under par 69’s to tie for first place at 14-under par through 54 holes.

Kapalua is a resort course and offers wide forgiving fairways and drastic elevation changes. The course requires a quantity of wind to keep the professionals from tearing this golf course up.

Last year foul weather and gale force winds made the course nearly unplayable, but this year not so much. Sunny skies and warm ocean trade winds have made scoring a breeze.

Jimmy Walker, Patrick Reed and Gary Woodland shot the low rounds of the day on Sunday, with a trio of six-under par 67’s.

Woodland, Jason Dufner, Brandt Snedeker and Kevin Streelman are only three shots behind the leaders at 11-under par and a low round on Monday could earn one of them the $1 million first-place check.

Even though some of the big names choose to begin the 2014 year in other parts of the world, Hawaii still offers a great backdrop to host the first PGA Tour event of the calendar year.