E-notes: Champions Tour takes over old TOUR site

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With his victory last week at the Commerce Bank Championship, Loren Roberts has eight Champions Tour wins to go with eight PGA TOUR titles.

Two more former PGA TOUR winners celebrated their 50th birthdays recently and debuted on the Champions Tour. Two weeks ago, Gary Hallberg made his first start and finished tie for 16th at the Bank of America Championship. Last week, it was Ronnie Black who made his first career start and posted a tie for 49th at the Commerce Bank Championship.

Nielsen

Lonnie Nielsen joined the Champions Tour in 2003 and waited until the 2007 Commerce Bank Championship to finally record his first win. A year later, he nearly added a second, finishing one stroke back of Loren Roberts while defending his title at the Commerce Bank Championship.

A couple of players looking for their first wins on the Champions Tour keep knocking on the door. Nick Price finished tied for second last week for his eighth top-10 finish of the season and his 11th since joining the Tour last year. Tim Simpson was tied for sixth last week for his fourth top 10 of the year and his 10th overall.

After competing for more than 20 years at the PGA TOUR's B.C. Open, area pros Joey Sindelar and Mike Hulbert will make their Dick's Sporting Goods Open debuts this week. Sindelar, a two-time winner of the B.C. Open (1985 and 1987), played in the event 22 times, making 17 cuts and earning $411,218. He had seven top-10 finishes. Hulbert also made 22 starts and won the event in 1989. His career earnings of $237,705 came on the strength of his win and 15 other made cuts.

Vaughan

Open qualifiers turned in some strong performances at last year's tournament, with three earning top-10 finishes, including a second-place effort by Bruce Vaughan. In addition, Boonchu Ruangkit tied for sixth, and Jack Ferenz tied for ninth. Three others finished in the top 20. Rod Spittle and Tim Conley (tied for 11th), and Steve Thomas (tied for 18th).

The field for the 2008 Dick's Sporting Goods Open will certainly have an international flavor. Players from nine countries are in the field. In addition to the United States, there are players from Argentina (Vicente Fernandez, Eduardo Romero), South Africa (Fulton Allem), England (Mark James), Ireland (Des Smyth), Germany (Bernhard Langer), Australia (Wayne Grady), Zimbabwe (Denis Watson, Mark McNulty) and Japan (Isao Aoki, Joe Ozaki and Massy Kuramoto).