Notes: McNulty, Eger turn medical status into full

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The Champions Tour is idle for a week before heading to Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala., for the first major championship of the season, the Regions Tradition. The official purse for the Regions Tradition is $2.2 million with $330,000 and 660 Charles Schwab Cup points going to the winner. Last year, Fred Funk scored a one-stroke win over Michael Allen and Chien Soon Lu to win the event for the second time. Funk joined Jack Nicklaus and Gil Morgan as the only multiple winners of the event.

LAST WEEK

Kenny Perry and Scott Hoch both missed short par putts on the second playoff hole, handing the Legends Division title at the 2011 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf to Mark McNulty/David Eger. McNulty and Eger teamed for a final-round 11-under 61 to post a 27-under-par score.

McNulty and Eger each earned 230 Charles Schwab Cup points and $230,000 in Official Money. McNulty now has 281 total Schwab Cup points and is in the top 10 in the Schwab Cup standings. Tom Lehman is still the Schwab Cup leader with 772 total points on the year.

McNulty (knee) and Eger (ankle) entered the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf with special medical status on the Champions Tour after recovering from injuries. With the victory, both players are now fully exempt for the next 12 months.

• Eger and McNulty came from four strokes back to win the Legends Division in a playoff and it equaled the biggest come-from-behind win in the long history of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf.

• With ideal scoring conditions at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, 25 teams in the Legends Division had 54-hole totals of 20-under-par or better, a record at this event.

• Liberty Mutual donated $100 to the Chaplains' Consolidated Tithes and Offering Fund at Hunter Army Airfield Fund for every birdie made on the par-3 holes during the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf. The field made 139 birdies on the par-3s during the tournament.

• Steve Jones, the 1996 U.S. Open winner who paired with Doug Tewell, finished T10 in the Raphael Division in his Champions Tour debut.

• Ian Baker-Finch joined forces with Japan's Naomichi (Joe) Ozaki to finish in a five way share of third at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf. It was the second Champions Tour start for the Australian after finishing 78th at the Toshiba Classic last month. Ozaki captured his third consecutive T3 finish this season (Toshiba Classic, Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf).

• Mark James and Des Smyth fired a back-to-back 63s to finish 18-under and win the Raphael Division by one stroke over the teams of Gary Koch/Roger Maltbie and Ben Crenshaw/Curtis Strange. Smyth from Ireland and James from England become the second consecutive international team to claim the Raphael Division, following the team of Australia's Graham Marsh and South Africa's John Bland in 2010.

• Gibby Gilbert and J.C. Snead fired a second-consecutive 10-under-par 62 to win the Demaret Division of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf by five strokes over the teams of Mike Hill/Lee Trevino and Jim Albus/Jim Dent. Their two-day, better-ball winning score of 20-under 124 is the lowest in the 18-year history of the Demaret Division competition, eclipsing the previous record of 19-under 125 set by Bob Charles and Gary Player in 2010.

• Current Champions Tour professionals Fred Funk, Chip Beck and Peter Jacobsen share the tournament record for most consecutive cuts (15) at The Heritage. Funk, the only Champions Tour player in the field at last week's TOUR event missed his third consecutive cut at The Heritage after making the 15 straight.

• It was announced last week that in just eight years, the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn presented by Kia Motors has surpassed the $1 million mark in charitable giving.

COMING UP

• The next two tournaments on the Champions Tour schedule (Regions Tradition, May 2-8 and Senior PGA Championship, May 23-29) are major championships and carry double Charles Schwab Cup points. Tom Lehman is the Schwab Cup leader with 772 points this season, a 212 point lead over second-placed John Cook.

• Mark McNulty, who paired with David Eger to win the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf last week, finished T8 at the 1990 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek, site of next month's Regions Tradition.

• When Hale Irwin tees it up at the Regions Tradition next month he will pass Gay Brewer for total number of combined career starts on the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour. Both players currently have 1,023 combined career starts and are tied for eighth in that category. Miller Barber leads with 1,292 combined career starts.

• Charles Schwab Cup leader Tom Lehman, a Grand Rapids resident as a youngster, will return to the area on April 28 as guest speaker to help with fundraising for tuition assistance at the Grand Rapids Christian Schools and Ada Christian Schools.

NUMBERS

2 -- The number of Champions Tour winners this season who did not play at Shoal Creek in either the 1984 or 1990 PGA Championship (Tom Lehman, David Eger). Shoal Creek will host the Regions Tradition next month, the first major of the 2011 Champions Tour season.

3 -- The number of consecutive years the winning team of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf has been determined with a par at the second extra playoff hole.

DID YOU KNOW?

• New Zealand golf legend Sir Bob Charles was granted that country's highest honor last week when he was invested with the Order of New Zealand. Sir Bob's career has spanned more than 50 years and he still holds the record as the oldest player to make a cut on the European Tour, a feat he achieved at the 2007 New Zealand Open at the age of 71. The award puts him in elite company with just 20 living people sharing the title.

ON THIS DATE

4/25/04 -- When Hale Irwin wins the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, he wins at least one event for 10 straight years, breaking his tie with Miller Barber for most consecutive years with at least one win.

4/28/02 -- Jim Thorpe made a three-foot birdie on the 72nd hole and then birdied the first playoff hole (six-footer) to defeat John Jacobs to win The Countrywide Tradition near Phoenix for his first major championship.

4/30/78 -- The unofficial Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf hosts its first event with Sam Snead and Gardner Dickinson winning by one stroke over Kel Nagle and Peter Thomson in Austin. It would lead to the formation of what is now the Champions Tour.

4/30/89 -- Three weeks after losing in a playoff to Nick Faldo at the Masters, Scott Hoch defeats Robert Wrenn with a birdie on the fifth extra hole to win the Las Vegas Invitational.

5/1/05 -- Jim Thorpe birdied four of the last five holes at the Hills CC to break away for a four-stroke victory in the FedEx Kinko's Classic in Austin. After his win Thorpe donated his entire winner's check of $247,500 to his church in Orlando.

QUOTES TO NOTE

"I've been injured 10 years of my 28 years out here. I kind of have to start all over again." -- Steve Jones, 52, on making his Champions Tour debut at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf.

"Let's be realistic ? the kids out there are younger than my kids." -- Kenny Perry shares his thoughts about competing on the PGA TOUR.

"I go off like a Christmas tree when I go through the airport." -- Mark McNulty comments on the titanium knee replacement he received last year.

"Yeah, my wife has plenty for me." -- David Eger's response when asked if he has a nickname.