E-Notes: Big week for international TOUR players

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• It's been all or nothing for Stuart Appleby at the Shell Houston Open. In seven career starts in the event, Appleby has won twice, finished second twice and missed the cut three times.

• More on Appleby: In his last three starts at the Shell Houston Open, Appleby has finished first (2006) and tied for second twice (2005, 2007). In the two years the tournament has been played at The Tournament Course at Redstone GC, Appleby is 33-under par with seven rounds in the 60s.

• One more on Appleby: While TOUR players frequently do most of their damage on the par 5s, Appleby has excelled on the par 4s at Redstone. In the past two years, he's been 21-under on the par 4s and just 12 under on the par 5s. His long putting may be the reason he's made 13 of 26 putts between 10 and 15 feet in length and six over 25 feet during that span.

• There's a very strong field assembled in Houston this week with five of the Top-10 players in the current FedExCup standings on hand. Scheduled to compete this week are Phil Mickelson (second), K.J. Choi (fourth), Justin Leonard (sixth), Steve Stricker (seventh) and Geoff Ogilvy (10th).

• International players have dominated at the Shell Houston Open over the past 10 years. Players from outside the U.S. have won seven of the last 10 tournaments with Aussies winning four of them. Stuart Appleby was the winner in 1999 and 2006 while Robert Allenby won in 2000 and Adam Scott last year. Vijay Singh of Fiji won three times over the past decade 2002, 2004, 2005.

• Andres Romero made the biggest leap in the FedExCup standings last week with his victory at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans vaulting him from 135th place all the way to 14th. Peter Lonard was nearly as successful, moving from 107th to 24th after finishing second.

• It was a week to celebrate the international nature of the three Tours last week. International players won on all three last week Andres Romero of Argentina on the PGA TOUR, Bernhard Langer of Germany on the Champions Tour and Gavin Coles of Australia on the Nationwide Tour.

• When Billy Mayfair tees it up this Thursday at the Shell Houston Open, it will be his 600th career start.