Notes: Commerce Bank Championship

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THE SCHEDULE: This year's Commerce Bank Championship will mark the 21st year for an official Champions Tour event on Long Island. The 2008 Commerce Bank Championship is also the 16th of 29 official events on the Champions Tour schedule. This year's official Champions Tour season concludes with the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Sonoma, Calif., October 27-November 2.

DATES: June 23-29, 2008

SITE: Eisenhower Park (Red Course); East Meadow, NY

PAR: 35-36--71 YARDAGE: 7,021

DESIGNER: Devereux Emmet (1914)

FORMAT: 54-hole stroke-play event with no cut. PURSE: $1,600,000 ($240,000 to the winner)

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Lonnie Nielsen (66-64-69 -- 199/14-under)

TELEVISION: This year's tournament will be televised by GOLF CHANNEL, with live coverage on Friday from 1:00 -3:00 p.m. (ET) and Saturday/Sunday from 1:00-4:00 p.m. (ET).

THE TITLE SPONSOR: TD Commerce Bank, one of the nation's most dynamic financial services organizations, was established in early 2008 as a result of TD Bank Financial Group's (TDBFG) acquisition of Commerce Bancorp, Inc and the subsequent merging of Commerce Bank and TD Banknorth. Going forward under the TD Commerce Bank banner, the combined strengths of Commerce Bank and TD Banknorth will create a financial services network with more than 1,100 offices spanning 13 states and Washington, D.C. TD Commerce Bank's assets will total $109 Billion.

TD Commerce Bank will carry on the Commerce Bank tradition of being "America's Most Convenient Bank" and build on TD Banknorth's nearly 160-year-old heritage of providing a full line of quality retail and commercial financial products and services.

NOTABLE STORIES:

BOOMER THE HONORARY CHAIRMAN: Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, a native of Long Island, will again serve as the Honorary Chairman of this year's tournament. Esiason quarterbacked the Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals during a 14-year NFL career and is currently the studio analyst on the NFL pre-game show, "The NFL Today" on CBS. He also teams with Marv Albert as color analyst for Westwood One's "Monday Night Football" radio broadcast.

SIGNIFICANT CHARITY PROCEEDS: The Commerce Bank Championship has had a long association with Schneider Children's Hospital and the facility on Long Island has been the tournament's primary charity since 1989. This year's event will also support the Boomer Esiason Foundation which raises money and awareness for cystic fibrosis, the disease that afflicts his son, Gunnar. More than $4 million has been raised for local charities in the history of the event. Champions Tour players will also donate $5,000 from the pro-am purse to help the local First Tee chapters on Long Island.

FIRST AT LAST: Lonnie Nielsen, who didn't win in five years on the PGA TOUR and had made 91 starts on the Champions Tour without a victory, shot a 2-under 69 in the final round for a two-stroke win over Loren Roberts in the Commerce Bank Championship. Nielsen, who celebrated his 54th birthday two days earlier, won 32 titles on smaller tours and PGA of America-sanctioned events, including the New York State Open in 1985 and 1989. He entered the final round at the 7,021-yard Red Course at Eisenhower Park with a three-stroke lead and was never threatened in taking home the $225,000 top prize from a purse of $1.5 million.

A CHAMPIONS TOUR STAPLE: The Commerce Bank Championship has been a fixture on the Champions Tour schedule for 21 years and is one of the circuit's oldest events. With the first official tournament played on Long Island in 1988, this event is tied for the third-longest span in one metropolitan area. After playing for 15 years at The Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, the tournament moved to East Meadow and The Red Course at Eisenhower Park in 2003. Originally opened in 1914, this week's stop is the third-oldest venue on the 2008 Champions Tour schedule. Only the Old Course at Royal Troon Golf Club (1878) in Scotland, the site for this year's Senior British Open, and Del Monte Golf Club (1897), one of two courses used for the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, were built before The Red Course at Eisenhower Park.

NEW FACES ON THE CHAMPIONS TOUR: Since the Champions Tour was on Long Island last summer, there have been quite a few new additions to the ranks. Among the group of former PGA TOUR winners making their first appearances at this year's Commerce Bank Championship are: Fulton Allem, Phil Blackmar, John Cook, Wayne Grady, Scott Hoch, Mike Hulbert, Jeff Sluman and Mark Wiebe.

STRONG FIELD: This year's field for the Commerce Bank Championship features five members of the World Golf Hall of Fame (Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Nick Price, Isao Aoki, and Curtis Strange). There are also eight players in this year's field who have won major championships on the PGA TOUR. In addition to Kite, Crenshaw, Price, and Strange, Jerry Pate, Scott Simpson, Jeff Sluman and Wayne Grady all have major championship titles on the resume.

WHO'S NEXT TO BREAK THROUGH? Andy North (Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf) and Jeff Sluman (Bank of America Championship) are the only two first-time winners thus far in the 2008 season, but lately, this tournament has been the place to earn your first Champions Tour title. No native New Yorker has ever won this tournament. Could this be the week for Mike Hulbert (Elmira), a rookie on the Champions Tour? Perhaps, it's time for a trio of veterans and World Golf Hall of Famers like Ben Crenshaw , Nick Price or Curtis Strange to finally notch that first Champions Tour title. Crenshaw has gone 121 Champions Tour events without winning, finishing second once and third in two other events. Price hasn't won in 25 starts on the Champions Tour but was T2 last month at the FedEx Kinko's Classic near Austin and was third in his last appearance at The Principal Charity Classic. Strange has played in 69 Champions Tour tournaments without a victory and his best finish was third in the 2005 Constellation Energy Classic near Baltimore.

FIRST-TIMERS: There have been six first-time winners in Commerce Bank Championship history, one short of the mark established by the AT&T Champions Classic in 2005 for most first-timers by a tournament in Champions Tour history. Here's a list of the top-five tournaments with the most first-time winners:

This year, the Commerce Bank Championship will have a chance to become just the second tournament in Champions Tour history to produce four consecutive first-time champions. The old Greater Kansas City Golf Classic produced four consecutive first-time champions -- Bobby Nichols (1989), Jimmy Powell (1990), Jim Colbert (1991), Gibby Gilbert (1992),

BUICK OPEN WINNERS IN COMMERCE BANK FIELD: This week's stop on the PGA TOUR, the Buick Open, is celebrating its 50th anniversary with the PGA TOUR and four former winners of that event are in this year's Commerce Bank Championship field. Wayne Levi claimed the sixth of his 12 PGA TOUR victories at Warwick Hills in 1983, edging Isao Aoki and Calvin Peete by a stroke. A year later, Denis Watson won his first PGA TOUR event in Grand Blanc, Mich., holding off the late Payne Stewart by a stroke. Ben Crenshaw won the 1986 Buick Open, his 11th of 19 career victories on the PGA TOUR. Crenshaw bested J.C. Snead and Doug Tewell by a stroke at Warwick Hills. Leonard Thompson claimed the 1989 Buick Open, the last of his three PGA TOUR victories. Thompson rallied with a four-under 68 in the final round for a one-stroke triumph over Billy Andrade, Tewell and Stewart. His win ended an 11-year, nine month drought, the third longest stretch between wins in PGA TOUR history.

FLEISHER, THORPE STILL BIDDING FOR THIRD TITLE ON LONG ISLAND: Bruce Fleisher and Jim Thorpe will again attempt to join the late George Archer as the only other three-time winner of this event. Archer won consecutive tournaments at The Meadow Brook Club from 1990-92. Fleisher won back-to-back events in 1999-2000, while Thorpe won in both 2003 and 2004. Fleisher's last Champions Tour victory came at the 2004 Bruno's Memorial Classic, while Thorpe's last victory was at last year's Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

KEEN COMPETITION: Through the first 15 events, 10 tournaments have been decided by either a playoff or just one stroke. In fact, going into the Commerce Bank Championship, six of the last seven events have been decided by a single shot. Thus far in 2008, only five of 15 leaders/co-leaders heading into the final round have gone on to win.

SLU GOING FOR TWO: Jeff Sluman's initial victory on the Champions Tour came last week at the Bank of America Championship in his 18th start. The win ended a victory drought of just over six years. Can he make it two in a row this week at the Commerce Bank Championship.

ACES, ACES, ACES: There have been 11 holes-in-one in tournament history, including an amazing seven in the last five years on the Red Course at Eisenhower Park. Sam Torrance made the last ace in this event, holing his tee shot on No. 5 in the opening round of last year's tournament. It was Torrance's first career ace on the Champions Tour.

OLDEST/YOUNGEST: Bobby Wadkins' victory in the 2001 event at the Meadow Brook Club came just 10 days after he turned 50, making him the youngest winner in Champions Tour history. Gary Player's last of 19 official victories on the Champions Tour came at Meadow Brook in 1998. At 62 years, 9 months and 22 days, Player became the second-oldest winner in Champions Tour history.

SECOND-ROUND LEAD IS KEY: Over the last 20 years, players leading or co-leading after Saturday have gone on to win the Commerce Bank Championship 12 times and six of the last nine years. Only five first-round leaders/co-leaders have ever won this event.

ALBUS' 19TH: Jim Albus, the former head professional at the Piping Rock Club on Long Island and a longtime Met PGA section standout turned Champions Tour player, will make his 19th appearance in the Commerce Bank Championship. Albus has played in this event more times than any other player and was second in 1992 at Meadow Brook Club, two strokes back of George Archer. This year's Commerce Bank Championship will be Albus' 497th event on the Champions Tour.