NEWS

Champions Tour E-Notes: Week of Aug. 27, 2007
 
Aug. 28, 2007
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  • When Denis Watson won last week's Boeing Championship with an eagle on the second playoff hole, it marked the first time in 22 years that a playoff ended with an eagle. Lee Elder defeated Peter Thomson with an eagle at the 1985 Merrill Lynch Golf Digest Commemorative.

  • Bernhard Langer, a World Golf Hall of Fame member and the winner of more than 60 tournaments worldwide, will make his Champions Tour debut this week at the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach. Langer, who turned 50 on Monday, Aug. 27, won a pair of Masters titles (1985, 1993) and earned more than $9 million on the PGA TOUR.

  • Only two Monday qualifiers this season have led after the first round of the tournament and both hail from Canada. Rod Spittle shared the lead after the first round of the Dick's Sporting Goods Open, and Ray Stewart was the leader last week at the Boeing Championship.

  • Hale Irwin remains the only player to win at Pebble Beach on both the PGA TOUR and the Champions Tour. Irwin won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1984 on the PGA TOUR and the 2005 Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach on the Champions Tour.

  • The winner of five AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Ams (1985, 1989-90, 1992, 1997), Mark O'Meara will make his Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach debut this week. The Pebble Beach area was good to O'Meara, who earned $1,206,435 in the event in 25 appearances. This season, O'Meara is 13th on the money list and 15th in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.

  • Seven players in this week's field enjoyed success on the PGA TOUR on the Monterey Peninsula. In addition to O'Meara, the field includes 2005 champion Hale Irwin, who also won the 1984 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am; Tom Watson won the 1977 and 1978 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am and later claimed the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. In addition, Tom Kite won both the 1983 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am and the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Ben Crenshaw won the 1976 Bing Crosby Pro-Am, Fuzzy Zoeller won the 1986 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and Peter Jacobsen was victorious at the 1995 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.