Notes: Gilder moves up on ironman list, then rests

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The Champions Tour heads to Conover, N.C., for the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn presented by Kia on June 6-12. The purse is $1.75 million and the winner will receive $262,500 and 263 Charles Schwab Cup points. Last year, Gary Hallberg tied the Champions Tour record for lowest final-round score by a tournament winner with an 11-under-par 61 which gave him a one-stroke victory over Fred Couples.

LAST WEEK

• Bob Gilder's downhill 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole, coupled with Mark Brooks' three-putt bogey from 25 feet gave the 2011 Principal Charity Classic an improbable winner. Brooks led from the opening round until the last hole.

• With 60-year-old Bob Gilder's win at the Principal Charity Classic, and 61-year-old Tom Watson's win at the Senior PGA Championship the week before, it marks the first time in Champions Tour history that players over 60 have won back-to-back events. It was just the 20th time in 943 official events on the Champions Tour that a player over 60 has won.

• Gilder earned his first Charles Schwab Cup points of the season with 259 this week and moved to 24th in the standings. After 10 events this year Tom Lehman continues to lead the Schwab Cup race. He increased his lead by earning 62 points with a T6 finish at the Principal Charity Classic. Lehman now has 1,494 points and holds a 644-point lead over Tom Watson.

• John Huston, a seven-time winner on the PGA TOUR, finished T16 in his Champions Tour debut at the Principal Charity Classic. Damon Green, best known as the caddie for Zach Johnson on the PGA TOUR, finished T46 in his first start on the Champions Tour.

• Gilder played in his 178th consecutive event for which he's been eligible. Gilder's appearance at last week's Principal Charity Classic moved him past Mike McCullough into second place on the all-time list behind Dana Quigley's record of 278 straight tournaments he was eligible for. Gilder's streak began after he missed the 2004 Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn and ironically, it will end at that same event this week when he leaves on a two-week trip to Europe.

• Three-time Memorial Tournament champion Kenny Perry missed the cut for the first time since 1993, snapping his streak of made cuts at the event at 17. Fred Couples, the 2011 United States Presidents Cup team captain, also missed the cut in the Columbus, Ohio, PGA TOUR event.

• Tom Watson, who won the Senior PGA Championship at age 61, earned the Champions Tour Player of the Month award for May.

• World Golf Hall of Fame Member Nick Price was named the 2011 Ambassador of Golf by Northern Ohio Golf Charities. The Ambassador of Golf Award is presented annually to a person or persons who have fostered the ideals of the game on an international level and whose concern for others extends beyond the golf course. An 18-time winner on the PGA TOUR, highlighted by three major championship victories including back-to-back grand slam titles at the 1994 British Open and PGA Championship, Price has long been one of the most respected players on both the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour and has left his mark on charitable organizations across South Florida. Price will be honored in a ceremony at Firestone Country Club on Aug. 3 in conjunction with the 2011 Bridgestone Invitational.

• The Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am announced last week that Tournament Director Amy Hawk was named the 2011 Distinguished Sports Business Woman of the Year by Tampa Bay's Sports Commission for making a significant impact in the community and sports arena.

• Australian Peter Fowler posted his maiden European Senior Tour victory with a three-stroke win at the ISPS Handa Senior Masters last week.

• Memorial Tournament host Jack Nicklaus and the Captains Club announced that Champions Tour star Tom Watson will be the Memorial Tournament honoree for 2012.

• Champions Tour professional Tom Pernice Jr. will join Brian Gay and several other Gaylord Sports Management clients to help support the St. Jude Children's Hospital by donating $100 for each birdie they make during this week's FedEx St. Jude Classic on the PGA TOUR.

COMING UP

• Victory at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn last year made Gary Hallberg the fourth player in history to win on the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour -- Ron Streck, Keith Fergus and Tom Lehman are the other three.

• Hale Irwin hit every fairway in last year's Greater Hickory Classic, becoming just the third player in Champions Tour history (since stats have been kept) to hit every fairway from the tee in a 54-hole event (Ed Dougherty, 2005 ACE Group Classic/Calvin Peete, 1996 VFW Senior Championship).

• Media Day for the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship was Tuesday, June 7 at Westchester CC. Defending champion Mark O'Meara featured with NBC's Jimmy Roberts as host. Roberts is a member at Westchester, the new venue for the final major championship of the season.

• Following the Greater Hickory Classic, the next Champions Tour event on the schedule is the Dick's Sporting Goods Open at En-Joie GC in Endicott, N.Y., on June 20-26. Senior PGA champion Tom Watson is scheduled to appear at En Joie GC for the first time since 1976 when he finished T21 at the BC Open on the PGA TOUR.

• Tim Thelen, from Albany, Minn., turns 50 on June 14 and is heading to the European Senior Tour. Thelen, who made five cuts from 33 career starts on the PGA TOUR, won both stages of the European Senior Tour qualifying school, firing 64-69 to win by four shots in the first stage. In the final stage, he shot 67-71-72-65 to prevail by five strokes.

NUMBERS

10 -- The number of career Champions Tour wins by Bob Gilder, joining Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Kite and Al Geiberger.

DID YOU KNOW?

Each past champion of the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn has received a unique gift, The Kennedy Rocker, from the P& P/Troutman Chair Company.

ON THIS DATE

6/9/91 -- Jim Albus becomes the first former club pro to win a senior major title when he holds off Dave Hill, Charles Coody and Bob Charles to win the Mazda Senior Players Championship at the TPC Michigan.

6/10/77 -- Al Geiberger becomes the first player to break 60 in a PGA TOUR event when he shoots 59 in the second round of the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic.

6/12/81 -- The first Champions Tour event played outside the U.S., the Peter Jackson Champions, begins in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

QUOTES TO NOTE

"I search for that. I have moments of 'There it is.'" -- Gary Hallberg, who fired a final-round 61 to win the 2010 Greater Hickory Classic, remembers how it was all so easy when he was a stand-out amateur.

"They want me to bring in the pins when I'm done."-- Damon Green, who caddies for Zach Johnson on the PGA TOUR, comments on being in the final group of the day in the opening round of the Principal Charity Classic where he made his Champions Tour debut last week. Green finished T46.

"Big seasons, they just kind of happen." -- Tom Lehman, who leads the Charles Schwab Cup standings and Champions Tour money list after three wins this season, comments on the possibility of becoming the first player to earn Player of the Year awards on all three Tours (Nationwide Tour in 1991 & PGA TOUR in 1996).

"Our Tour refreshes itself. Every month there are new faces. The neat thing is you only get the very best. Not every 50-year-old is qualified." -- Bernhard Langer comments on the Champions Tour.