Notes: Lehman's Mississippi triumphs, 20 years apart

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This week, Sandy Lyle will become the first European with 30 starts at the Masters.

The Champions Tour is idle during The Masters Tournament before heading to TPC Tampa Bay in Lutz, Fla., for the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am on April 11-17. The purse is $1.7 million with $255,000 and 255 Charles Schwab Cup points going to the winner. Last year, Bernhard Langer birdied the final hole on Saturday which proved to be the difference when Sunday's final round was cancelled due to heavy rain. Langer's birdie gave him a one-stroke victory over Mark O'Meara and Mike Reid.

LAST WEEK

• Tom Lehman pulled away for his second Champions Tour victory of the season with a final-round 69 at the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic at Fallen Oak. Lehman, who won the Allianz Championship in February, started the day with a one-stroke lead over Jeff Sluman and bogeyed the first hole to briefly fall into a tie before finishing at 16-under and four strokes ahead of Sluman, Nick Price and David Frost.

• Lehman's win at the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic came 20 years after he won a Ben Hogan Tour (now Nationwide Tour) at Windance CC in Gulfport, Miss., in a playoff with Tim Straub and John Wilson. One of the other competitors in that event was Olin Browne, who finished T5, the same finish he posted on Sunday at Fallen Oak.

• Lehman is looking to make history -- again. Lehman is the only player to have claimed Player of the Year awards on both the Nationwide Tour (1991) and the PGA TOUR (1996). With two victories on the Champions Tour in 2011, Lehman is in good shape to contend for Champions Tour Player of the Year. He leads the money list with $718,038 and also has a commanding lead in the Charles Schwab Cup race with 694 points. Nick Price is second with 478 points.

• With his victory at the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic, Lehman became the fourth straight former major championship winner to claim a Champions Tour crown in 2011. Lehman began the string with his win at the Allianz Championship and he was followed by Bernhard Langer (The ACE Group Classic) and Nick Price(Toshiba Classic).

• 65-year-old Hale Irwin finished tied for seventh at the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic, earning his 200th top-10 finish on the Champions Tour. He now trails the all-time leader, Bob Charles, by just three on the all-time list. The last player aged 65 or older to post a top-10 was 66-year-old Dave Stockton who had a T4 at the 2008 Administaff Small Business Classic.

• By making the cut at the PGA TOUR's Shell Houston Open, Fred Couples broke out of a tie with Jimmy Demaret for the tournament record for most consecutive cuts made -- 18. It was Couples' 480th made cut in 595 starts on TOUR. He finished tied for 60th.

• It was announced last week that Hickory-area charities will sell tickets and ticket packages for the ninth annual Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn with 100 percent of the ticket proceeds going directly to the charity that sold them. The event is scheduled for June 6-12.

COMING UP

• The Champions Tour will have eight former Masters champions in the field at Augusta National this week -- Fred Couples, Ben Crenshaw, Sandy Lyle, Larry Mize, Mark O'Meara, Craig Stadler, Tom Watson and Ian Woosnam. Two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer is unable to play as he is recovering from thumb surgery after a bicycle accident. Read more here.

NUMBERS

15 -- The number of starts at the Masters Tournament it took Mark O'Meara before he won, the most of all time.

71.94 -- Fred Couples' scoring average at Augusta National, the lowest scoring average of any player with 100 or more rounds at The Masters Tournament.

DID YOU KNOW?

Sandy Lyle, the 1988 Masters champion, will become the first European to make 30 appearances at Augusta National this week.

ON THIS DATE

4/9/95 -- In an emotional ending, Ben Crenshaw pays tribune to his late mentor, Harvey Penick, by winning his second Masters title.

4/9/78 -- Starting the final round seven strokes behind Hubert Green, Gary Player closes with a 64 and wins his third and final Masters Tournament by one stroke.

4/9/73 -- In a rare Monday finish, Tommy Aaron wins the Masters, closing with a 4-under-par 68 to finish one stroke.

4/10/77 -- Tom Watson's critical birdie on No. 17 would prove decisive as he beat Jack Nicklaus by two strokes to win the first of two Masters titles.

4/10/88 -- Sandy Lyle became the first British winner of the Masters when he was a one-stroke victor over Mark Calcavecchia at Augusta National.

4/10/61 -- Despite closing with a 74, Gary Player wins his first Masters with a one-stroke victory over Arnold Palmer and amateur Charles Coe.

QUOTES TO NOTE

"I was very aware that history was unfolding at the time." -- Sandy Lyle refers to the final round of the 1986 Masters, when he was paired with eventual champion Jack Nicklaus.

"It's kind of nice to get out here where everybody has aches and pains, and I know just about everybody in the field."-- Mark Brooks comments on making his Champions Tour debut at the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic.

"There's still a lot of good golf left on the Champions Tour. We have all won; we all know how to win; we have all given away tournaments versus a lot of the young guys haven't gone through that maturation process." -- Jeff Sluman shares his thoughts on the Champions Tour.

"Good scores always sneak up on you."-- Tom Lehman explains his course-record 8-under 64 in round two of the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic at Fallen Oak in Biloxi, Miss.

"We figured it went in -- unless they were playing an April Fool's joke on me, which really would have been pretty funny -- for a few moments." -- Jeff Sluman refers to his holed 9-iron for eagle from 154-yards at the 4th hole during the first round of the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic.

"We drink more than we sell." -- David Frost, when asked how the wine business is. Frost, who finished tied for second at the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic, has a 300-acre vineyard and produces his own wine.