KAPALUA, Maui — There was Dean Wilson near the first tee of the Plantation Course, talking story with his entourage of around 25 family members and well-wishers, including a very close friend, Holly Purcell.

He didn't look like someone who just shot a 7-over-par 80 that put him 11 strokes behind five players sharing the opening-round lead of the Mercedes-Benz Championship.

Wilson wasn't happy with his round, of course. Especially with a balky putter that led to five three-putts on a wind-swept day.

Still, just being in the Mercedes field is something special, said Wilson, the first Hawai'i golfer to play in the event since it moved here in 1998.

"The good thing is that I'm here. The great thing is that I won a tournament and that I'm representing Hawai'i. It's exciting. I just have to play better," said the Kane'ohe native, who qualified to be here by winning The International for his first PGA Tour victory.

Another positive is that even though Wilson is next to last in the 34-player field going into today's second round, there's no cut, meaning a paycheck of no worse than $50,000.

But Wilson hopes to move up the leaderboard before Sunday's finish of the PGA Tour's 2007 season opener.

Any upward mobility, though, will depend on his putting, especially if the windy conditions continue.

As Davis Love III put it after a game of survival golf, "I don't think if we were here on vacation we would have played today."

Wilson will second the emotion.

"I struggled with the putter. It's tough with the wind judging everything. The greens that I struggled on, I was trying to judge grain, the slope and the wind. Also the line and the speed," Wilson said.

"Hopefully, I can do a better job (today)."

Officially, Wilson had four three-putts yesterday. But he counted a fifth on himself when he bogeyed the par-3 11th hole from inches off the green.

The putter didn't have anything to do with a double-bogey 6 at the third hole. "I pulled the drive there and took an unplayable," he said.

Wilson also double-bogeyed the par-5 15th, compounding a bad third shot with a three-putt. His last three-putt came at 17, but he birdied the final hole to nudge ahead of Ben Curtis, who closed with an 81.

Wilson and Curtis will be the first twosome off the tee for today's second round.

"Overall, the round was poor, very poor. Hopefully, I can figure it out and work on my putting," said Wilson, whose 80 included 40 strokes with his putter.

Still, he enjoyed playing with Corey Pavin, exchanging barbs throughout the round.

"He's a good guy. He likes to joke around a lot," said Pavin, a 15-time tour winner, including back-to-back Hawaiian Open titles in 1986-87.

"We had a good time out there," said Wilson, who remembers being in the gallery both times when Pavin won at the Waialae Country Club.