2011 Champions Tour: Halfway notes and feats

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Tom Lehman has been the player of the (half) year on the Champions Tour, with three wins and the Schwab Cup lead.

With 12 of the 24 official events now in the books, here are some notes that stand out so far at the turn on the Champions Tour in 2011.

• Tom Lehman is the leader in victories (Three-Allianz Championship, Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic, Regions Tradition) while John Cook is the only other multiple winner thus far in 2011 (Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am).

• John Cook's victory at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, Hawaii coupled with his win last year at the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship made him the first player since Gil Morgan to claim the last official event of one season and the opening tournament the following year. Morgan won the 1997 Energizer Senior Tour Championship and then claimed the 1998 MasterCard Championship.

• Tom Lehman leads the Charles Schwab Cup race after leading 11 of the 12 official events that have been played this year. The only week Lehman did not lead was after the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, which was won by John Cook. Here's a comparison of this year's Schwab Cup race to last year at the halfway point in the season:

Langer eventually won the 2010 Charles Schwab Cup by 826 points over Fred Couples. Senior finished 26th in the Schwab Cup race last year, while Eger finished 38th in the final standings. Mark Wiebe, who finished T-29th at the end of last season, is in sixth-place in the current Schwab Cup standings.

• Tom Watson (Senior PGA Championship) and Bob Gilder (Principal Charity Classic) have become the first back-to-back over-60 winners in Champions Tour history. Watson's victory at 61 years, 9 months, 25 days made him the oldest to win a major championship since the start of the Champions Tour in 1980 and the third-oldest in the annals of the circuit.

• John Huston's win at the recent Dick's Sporting Goods Open made him the first first-time winner on the 2011 Champions Tour and his victory came just 25 days after he turned 50, tying him with Dale Douglass for the 11th youngest champion on the Champions Tour's all-time list.

• The Champions Tour's rookie class in 2011 includes Steve Lowery, Kenny Perry, Ian Baker-Finch, Jim Gallagher, Jr., Mark Brooks, Steve Pate and John Huston, who have all played in events this season. Brad Faxon will join the group when he turns 50 on August 1.

• Nick Price's 11-under 60 in the opening-round of the Toshiba Classic tied the lowest-score ever recorded on the Champions Tour. It was the seventh 60 shot in the annals of the circuit and was also the third 60 shot in the opening round of an event. Tom Purtzer had 11-under 60 in Round 1 of the 2004 Toshiba Classic and Bruce Fleisher shot 10-under 60 in Round 1 of the 2002 RJR Championship.

• Both Mike Goodes and Tom Kite shot 8-under 28s on different nines, on different days, during the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn. It was the lowest 9-hole scores shot on the Champions Tour since Tom Watson had 7-under 28 on the front 9 in the opening round of the 2008 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. The last time multiple players shot 28s was in 2004, when a total of three players shot 28s in events, including both Gary Koch and Lonnie Nielsen on the back nine during the opening round of the ACE Group Classic.

• Nick Price's 60 in the first round of the Toshiba Classic was good enough for a five-shot lead after the first day of the event, tying the Champions Tour record for largest 18-hole lead. Allen Doyle was the last player to enjoy a five-stroke, first-round, advantage at the 2000 IR SENIOR TOUR Championship.

• The Champions Tour's record for most birdies in a 54-hole event was shattered at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn when 1,147 birdies were made. The old mark was set at the 2010 Allianz Championship when 1,012 birdies were made on the Old Course at Broken Sound. Also, the cumulative scoring average of 69.008 on the par-72 layout at Rock Barn was easily an all-time record on the Champions Tour in relation to par since records were first kept in 1988.

• Five of the first 12 events this year have required playoffs to decide the outcome. The Champions Tour had four consecutive events with playoffs (Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, Regions Tradition, Senior PGA Championship), tying the all-time record set in 2005 for most consecutive events with playoffs.

• 66-year-old Hale Irwin, the Champions Tour's all-time victory leader with 45 titles, recorded the 203rd top-10 finish of his illustrious career when he was T10 at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open. It tied him with Bob Charles for the most top-10 finishes in Champions Tour history. It was Irwin's fifth top-10 finish this season after he had just three top-10 finishes combined in the previous three years.

• Olin Browne has the only hole-in-one on the Champions Tour in the first half of the season (No. 8, Old Course at Broken Sound, Allianz Championship, Rd. 1, 6-iron, 176 yards). Last year at the halfway mark, Bob Tway had made the only ace of the year. Eventually, five aces were made in 2010, the fewest ever in a season on the Champions Tour and they included a second hole-in-one by Tway at the Ensure Classic at Rock Barn.

• Tom Kite became the first player in Champions Tour history to make three eagles on the same nine at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn. It marked only the sixth time in Champions Tour annals that a player had three eagles in a round. Prior to Kite's feat this year, Curt Byrum made three eagles in his final round at the 2009 Senior British Open Championship.

• Loren Roberts, Hal Sutton and Peter Senior all had bogey-free events at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn. It was the first time in Champions Tour history that as many as three players were bogey-free in the same event. Last year, David Frost and Jeff Sluman were bogey-free at the 3M Championship.

• Hal Sutton played 90 consecutive holes without a bogey over the course of three tournaments (Principal Charity Classic, Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn, Dick's Sporting Goods Open). He came up just shy of the all-time record held by Morris Hatalsky of 98 consecutive holes in 2003.

• Tom Watson's third-place finish at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship is the best performance so far this year by a defending champion. Three defending champions have been unable to play due to injury -- Fred Couples/ACE Group Classic, Bernhard Langer/Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, Loren Roberts/Dick's Sporting Goods Open.

• Of the top-10 money leaders for the 2010 season, only three are in the top-10 so far this season: Nick Price, John Cook and Russ Cochran.

• A total of 68 of 81 players in the field at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn shot sub-par rounds in the opening round, the most ever in a Champions Tour 54-hole event. The previous best was 63 in the final round of the 2000 Gold Rush Classic.

• Tom Lehman is the only player to set a course record this year, firing an 8-under-par in the second round of the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic.

• While there is still much golf to be played, including three major championships, the current top 30 includes 10 players who were not among the top 30 at the close of the 2010 season. That group is David Eger (5th), Rod Spittle (13th), Jay Don Blake (17th), Mark McNulty (18th), Hale Irwin (21st), Mike Goodes (24th), John Huston (25th), Kenny Perry (27th), Bob Gilder (28th) and Keith Fergus (29th).