NEWS

Champions Tour: At the Turn
 
Jun. 19, 2007
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PGA TOUR Staff

With half of the official season completed, here are some interesting notes about the year so far on the Champions Tour:

  • Jay Haas leads Denis Watson by 335 points in the Charles Schwab Cup race at the halfway point in the season. Last year at the halfway point, Haas led Loren Roberts by 252 points and went on to win his first Charles Schwab Cup by just 20 points, the closest margin ever. In the previous six season-long races, the leader at the halfway point has gone on to win the Charles Schwab Cup three times.

  • After 14 events, there are 12 different names among the top-30 money leaders from this time last year. However, the top-3 players remain the same (Jay Haas/Loren Roberts/Brad Bryant). Two of the 12 new faces among the top-30 are from the Class of 2007 -- Mark O'Meara (#15) and Nick Price (#28).

  • Jay Haas, last year's Charles Schwab Cup winner, has won three events (Toshiba Classic, Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, Principal Charity Classic), the same number of titles he claimed a year ago at the halfway mark. However, in 2007, Haas is the Champions Tour's only multiple winner. Last year, both Loren Roberts and Brad Bryant had also claimed multiple titles at the halfway point in the season. The Champions Tour went from 2001-2005 without having a three-time winner at the midpoint of the season.

  • So far this year, eight of 14 events have been won by the leader/co-leaders heading into the final round. Last year, seven of 13 Saturday leaders/co-leaders went on to win events (Bank of America Championship was cancelled due to weather).

  • Fred Funk romped to an 11-stroke victory at the Turtle Bay Championship, an all-time record on the Champions Tour for largest winning margin in a 54-hole event. Funk's 54-hole score of 23-under-par 193 equaled the third-lowest three-round numerical score ever posted on the circuit and was the second lowest ever in relation to par over 54 holes.

  • Loren Roberts picked up right where he left off in 2006 and ended up with an all-time record streak of 37 consecutive rounds of par or better. Roberts' run bettered Larry Nelson's previous mark of 32 straight par/better scores in 2000. Roberts started his remarkable run on the last day of last year's Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach and it ended with a final-round 75 at the 2007 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf.

  • Both Jay Haas (Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf) and Brad Bryant (Regions Charity Classic) repeated as winners of their respective events. That's the most players to defend a title in the first half of a season on the Champions Tour since three players successfully defended events in the first half of the 2000 campaign. Last year at the halfway mark, no players had defended titles.

  • Players age 55 and older have won four of the first 14 events this year. Last year, only two of the first 13 tournaments were won by players 55 and older. Hale Irwin's victory at the season-opening MasterCard Championship at Hualalai came at 61 years, 7 months and 18 days, making him the fifth oldest winner in Champions Tour history. Fred Funk is the circuit's youngest winner in 2007, claiming the Turtle Bay Championship at 50 years, 7 months and 14 days.

  • For the third consecutive season, there have been three first-time winners in the first half. When Jerry Pate won in Tampa last year at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, he ended a victory drought on TOUR of 23 years, 11 months and 5 days. Denis Watson's victory this year at the Senior PGA Championship was his first since claiming the 1984 Las Vegas Invitational, ending a victory drought of 22 years, 8 months and 2 days.

  • The Champions Tour has two wire-to-wire winners thus far in 2007, one fewer than at the halfway point in the 2006 season. Last year at the mid-point, Loren Roberts (Turtle Bay Championship), Jay Haas (Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf) and Bobby Wadkins (Boeing Championship at Sandestin) led start to finish. In 2007, Fred Funk (Turtle Bay Championship) and Jay Haas (Principal Charity Classic) have produced wire-to-wire victories.

  • For the second consecutive year, the Champions Tour has had four aces made at the halfway point in the season. J.C. Snead had the first hole-in-one of the 2007 season and his ace at The ACE Group Classic was the sixth of his Champions Tour career, moving him out of a tie with Charles Sifford and Jimmy Powell for the most career holes-in-one by a player on the circuit.

  • After going the first six tournaments of the year without a playoff, the Champions Tour has had three overtime sessions in the last eight events. In each of the last two years, there have been just two playoffs at the halfway point.

  • Five different players have shot their age or better in the first half of the 2007 season, including Gary Player who has done so six times already this year. Last year at the midway point in the season, only 63-year-old Raymond Floyd had shot his age, posting a 63 in the final round of the Boeing Championship at Sandestin.

  • Hale Irwin, Tom Purtzer and Eduardo Romero have all carded 62s in the first half of the season, the lowest 18-hole scores. However, in each of the previous five years on the Champions Tour, at least one player has shot 60 or 61 in the first half of the year. Last year, Loren Roberts had 11-under 61 on the last day of the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai.

  • Several players are threatening all-time stats records on the Champions Tour. Loren Roberts currently has a Scoring Average of 68.84 (1998/Hale Irwin/68.59). Roberts also leads in Birdie Average, making 4.68 birdies per round (1998/Hale Irwin/4.80). Joe Ozaki currently has a Putting Average of 1.680 (1998/Hale Irwin/1.700). John Bland currently leads in Sand Save percentage at 66.67 (2000/Vicente Fernandez/65.8).

  • Tom Watson (Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am), Denis Watson (Senior PGA Championship), Loren Roberts (Boeing Championship at Sandestin) and Jay Haas (Principal Charity Classic), all survived a double-bogey in their victories.

  • The longest birdie streak by an eventual winner this year is four straight and its happened six times in the first half of the 2007 season. In two of his three wins this year, Jay Haas has had a run of four consecutive birdies. Haas made four birdies in a row in the final round of the Toshiba Classic and also made four straight birdies in the second round of the Principal Charity Classic. Hale Irwin had two runs of four straight birdies in Round 2 of the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai. Bobby Wadkins also had four consecutive birdies in the first round of The ACE Group Classic and Brad Bryant made four in a two in the final round of the Regions Charity Classic.

  • Brad Bryant (Regions Charity Classic) is the only winner this year to bogey his opening hole of the tournament.

  • Fred Funk (Turtle Bay Championship) is the only winner this year to birdie the 18th hole all three days.

  • Bobby Wadkins (The ACE Group Classic) is the only winner this year to make two eagles in a round (1st round).

  • Nobody birdies par-3s more often than Denis Watson. This year the winner of the Senior PGA Championship has recorded birdies on par-3s 18.9 percent of the time (24 birdies in 31 rounds).

  • Eduardo Romero has made birdie or better on par-5s an amazing 58.47 percent of the time! In the first half of the 2007 season, Romero has carded a birdie or eagle 69 times over his 31 rounds played.

  • Jay Haas has more birdies than any other player, making 193 in the first half of the season. However, Loren Roberts makes more birdies per round (4.68).

  • Tom Purtzer has the longest recorded drive this year, launching a 383-yard bomb on the 10th hole in the first round of the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai. The Champions Tour's longest hitter in 2003 and 2004, Purtzer currently leads the circuit in Driving Distance this year with an average drive of 291.1 yards.

  • For the fourth time in the last five years, the easiest hole on the Champions Tour during the season's first half was the par-5 10th at Hualalai Golf Club. The MasterCard Championship field averaged 4.187. In 123 rounds played, there were 11 eagles and 80 birdies made on the hole.

  • The par-3 17th hole at The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, SC played to a stroke average of 3.596 for the Senior PGA Championship. That's the hardest hole on the Champions Tour since the par-4 4th hole at Royal Aberdeen in Scotland played to a stroke average of 4.757 at the 2005 Senior British Open Championship.

  • Tom Jenkins, Tom Kite, Tom Purtzer, D.A. Weibring and John Harris have all made seven eagles this year. Jenkins led the Champions Tour in Total Eagles in 2005 with 17 and tied Jim Thorpe for the most eagles last year with 13.

  • Loren Roberts and Mark O'Meara have only three-putted eight times this year. O'Meara went 216 straight holes without a 3-putt, while Roberts had just one in his first 237 holes played in 2007. Keith Fergus went 229 straight holes without a 3-putt, the longest run of the year. Hale Irwin holds the longest current streak, going 180 straight holes without a 3-putt.