Round 1 notes: SAS Championship

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Weather: Players off both the first and 10th tees with lift, clean and place rules in effect. Cloudy throughout the day with light showers in the afternoon. Winds from the N at 10-15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph late in the day.

• Round 1 Leaderboard:

T1. Russ Cochran, Denis Watson (-6/66)
T3. Joey Sindelar, Dan Forsman, Larry Mize, Jim Thorpe, R.W. Eaks, Tom Pernice, Jr. (-5/67)

• Today marks the first time both Cochran and Watson have been in the lead after the opening round of a Champions Tour event. Cochran, making only his 12th career start on the Champions Tour, last led after the first round of a PGA TOUR event at the 1999 Southern Farm Bureau Classic where he eventually finished T9. Watson's last first-round lead in a TOUR event was at the 1985 NEC World Series of Golf and he eventually finished second.

• Watson's 6-under 66 today matches his low round of 2009. Watson also had 66 in Round 3 of the Senior British Open. For Cochran, today's 66 is his best first-round score on the Champions Tour. Cochran started the 2009 season with very limited status on the Champions Tour and was 70th on the money list at the end of June with $68,175. However, a third place finish at the U.S. Senior Open in early August as well as a T2 last week at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn have elevated Cochran up into the top 30 (28th - $457,336) on the current money list.

• Thus far on the 2009 Champions Tour, Friday leaders/co-leaders have won five of the 20 official events played including the last two events. First-round leaders have won this event four times in the previous eight years at Prestonwood, including each of the last two events in Cary.

• Tom Pernice, Jr., a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR, turned 50 on September 5 and posted a 5-under 67 in his debut today on the Champions Tour. Last year, Larry Mize made his first start on the Champions Tour at the SAS Championship and finished T27. Two years ago, both Fulton Allem and Mark Wiebe made their first starts on the Champions Tour at this tournament, Allem finished T36 while Wiebe won the tournament just 10 days after turning 50.

• Leonard Thompson became just the 10th player in history to play in at least 1,000 TOUR events (PGA TOUR/Champions Tour combined) when he carded a 2-over 74 today. Thompson, a native of Laurinburg, North Carolina, made 651 starts on the PGA TOUR and won three official titles. He also won three official events on the Champions Tour in 348 previous appearances. Thompson's first event on the PGA TOUR was the 1971 U.S. Open at Merion. Other Champions Tour players with more than 1,000 TOUR starts include: Miller Barber (1,292), Dave Eichelberger(1,239), Charles Coody (1,068), Arnold Palmer (1,050), Dale Douglass (1,040), J.C. Snead (1,046), Gay Brewer (1,023), Jim Colbert (1,019) and Gene Littler (1,013).

• In his first action on the Champions Tour since mid-April, World Golf Hall of Fame member Curtis Strange carded a 2-over 74. Strange underwent right hip surgery after competing at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am and made his first appearance in five months.

• Mize, Eaks, Pernice, Jr., Bobby Wadkins and David Frost all played a bogey-free round today. In the opening round of last year's SAS Championship, no players had a bogey-free round...Pernice, Jr. and Sandy Lyle both made eagles at the par-5 17th hole while Mike Hulbert had the only eagle at the par-5 12th hole...Watson's eight birdies were the most by a player in the field...Andy Bean's 4-under 68 today gives him 17 consecutive rounds of par/better and 11 straight sub-par rounds at Prestonwood.

• This and That: Fred Funk and Bruce Lietzke hit all 15 fairways today...Eaks hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation (94.4%), the most by a player in the field...Gary Hallberg had just 23 putts today...Lyle had the longest measured drive of the day, 325 yards at the par-5 17th hole at Prestonwood.

• World Golf Hall of Fame member Lee Trevino was forced to withdraw from the tournament before the start of his first round due to a sore back. Trevino was replaced in the field by John Morse.

• With lift, clean and place rules in effect today, a total of 45 players posted sub-par rounds and the scoring average of 71.538 was the second lowest for a Friday in tournament history. Last year on Friday, a total of 26 players finished with rounds under par. Here are first round scoring averages for each year of the SAS Championship.