Champions Tour E-Notes: Thorpe and Fleisher going for three  Bruce Fleisher and Jim Thorpe will attempt to join the late George Archer as the only other three-time winner of the Commerce Bank Championship this week. Archer won consecutive tournaments at the Meadow Brook Club from 1990-92. Fleisher won back-to-back events in 1999 and 2000, while Thorpe won in both 2003 and 2004. Fleisher's last Champions Tour victory came at the 2004 Bruno's Memorial Classic, while Thorpe last won at the 2006 Charles Schwab Cup Championship.  Jim Thorpe is the all-time money winner at the Commerce Bank Championship. (Jim Rogash/WireImage)
• Lee Trevino's victory in the 1994 Commerce Bank Championship enabled him to catch Miller Barber on the Champions Tour's all-time wins list. When Trevino successfully defended his title a year later at the Meadow Brook Club, he became the Champions Tour's all-time victory leader, with 25 titles. Trevino held onto the top spot on the all-time wins list until Hale Irwin won his 30th Champions Tour event in his 135th career start at the 2001 Siebel Classic in Silicon Valley. • World Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player will make his first appearance in the Commerce Bank Championship since 1999. Player's win in the 1998 Northville Long Island Classic was the last of his 19 titles on the Champions Tour and came just two months shy of his 63rd birthday, making him the second-oldest player to claim a Champions Tour title. Player's win at the Meadow Brook Club also came 12 years and 9 months after his first Champions Tour victory at the 1985 Quadel Seniors Classic, the longest time between a first Champions Tour win and last. • Darrell Kestner, a long-time standout in the Metropolitan PGA Section and the head professional at Deepdale Golf Club, will once again be in the field at the Commerce Bank Championship. Kestner was in contention at the 2005 Commerce Bank event before tying for sixth on Long Island, his best career performance on the Champions Tour. Ron Streck, the 2005 Commerce Bank Championship winner, is also scheduled to return to Eisenhower Park this week. Streck's victory made him the first player to win events on the Champions Tour, PGA TOUR and Nationwide Tour. • Jim Thorpe is the career money leader at the Commerce Bank Championship, with $654,628. Bruce Fleisher is second, with $630,890, and Allen Doyle is third, with $548,238. • The par-4 15th hole on the Red Course at Eisenhower Park yielded just 13 birdies last year and ranked as the 23rd-most difficult hole (4.335) on the circuit in 2006. In 2005, the par-4 opening hole ranked among the top-50 hardest holes on the Champions Tour, coming in at No. 45, with a stroke average of 4.278. Overall, the par-71 Red Course at Eisenhower Park played to a field scoring average of 70.742 last year versus 69.863 in 2005. In 2004 when the course played as a par-70, the scoring average was 70.537. In 2003, the par-70 course had a field stroke average of 70.172. • Leonard Thompson made a double eagle during the first round of last week's Bank of America Championship. It was the first double-eagle on the Champions Tour since Howard Twitty recorded one at the 2005 JELD-WEN Tradition. • R.W. Eaks had a strange week at the Bank of America Championship. During one nine-hole stretch in the second round, Eaks was nine-under par, going birdie-par-birdie-birdie-eagle-eagle-par-birdie-birdie. The rest of the week he was one-over par and eventually finished the tournament in a T5 at eight-under. • With his victory last week, Jay Haas passed the $20 million mark in combined career earnings on the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour. He's the sixth Champions Tour to reach that mark joining Hale Irwin, Gil Morgan, Tom Kite, Fred Funk and Nick Price. |
