Round 2 Notebook: ACE Group Classic

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Weather: Sunny with highs near 80 degrees and winds from the NE in the afternoon at 5-10 mph.

• On a perfect day for scoring, three-time Champions Tour Player of the Year Bernhard Langer shook off back-to-back bogeys by scattering eight other birdies en route to a 6-under-par 66. Today's round, coupled with his 64 on Friday, puts Langer in the driver's seat after 36 holes of the 2011 ACE Group Classic. Langer's round today allowed him to forge a four-stroke lead over a group of four other players, including first-round co-leader Russ Cochran, and his two-day total of 14-under-par 130 ties the tournament's 36-hole record originally set in 2002 by Tom Watson.

• Round 2 Leaderboard: 1) Bernhard Langer/130 (-14); T2) Mark Calcavecchia, Russ Cochran, Fred Funk & Mark O'Meara/134 (-10); T6) David Frost & Nick Price/135 (-9)

Here's some fun facts on tomorrow's final grouping:

• Bernhard Langer is 9 for 10 on the Champions Tour when he's been a Saturday leader or co-leader. The only time he didn't go on to win was at the 2009 Toshiba Classic. In each of the first two official Champions Tour events in 2011, a player has come from off the pace to win. In the previous 23 years of The ACE Group Classic, a player has come from behind to win 12 times, including six of the last nine years.

• The winner of The ACE Group Classic has come out of the final grouping in each of the last 11 years. The last time it didn't happen in Naples was in 2000 when Lanny Wadkins fired a final-round 64 to rally from three strokes back to force a playoff that he eventually won. It was Wadkins only Champions Tour triumph and came in his debut on the circuit.

• Langer's four-stroke advantage after 36 holes this year is not the largest lead in event history, but it is the biggest margin since Jim Albus was up by four strokes after two rounds of the 1998 event at Bay Colony Golf Club. Albus carded a final-round 77 that year to fall back in the pack and Gil Morgan won the tournament. The record for the largest 36-hole lead at the ACE Group Classic is six strokes by Mike Hill in 1993. Prior to today, the last time a player led by four strokes heading into the final round of a Champions Tour event was Russ Cochran when he went wire-to-wire in winning the 2010 SAS Championship.

• Langer's four-stroke lead after Saturday at the ACE Group Classic is his largest heading into a final round since he was up by four shots over Tom Kite at the 2007 Administaff Small Business Classic and went on to win his first career title on the Champions Tour in Houston by eight strokes.

• Tomorrow's winner will earn 240 Charles Schwab Cup points. Bernhard Langer, the 2010 Charles Schwab Cup champion and current ACE Group Classic 36-hole leader, is searching for his first Schwab Cup points in 2011. Tom Lehman is idle this week but leads the 2011 Schwab Cup race with 454 points. John Cook is second with 305 points. Points are awarded throughout the year to only the top-10 finishers each week based on a per-thousand basis. At the end of the official season, the player with the most Schwab Cup points will earn a $1 million payout.

• Dan Forsman and Rod Spittle both reeled off runs of five birdies in a row today, tying the best birdie streak in 2011. Both Bernhard Langer and John Cook made five straight birdies at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in Hawaii.

• With ideal weather conditions, there were 32 rounds in the 60s posted today compared to just 17 sub-70 scores on Friday. The field stroke average at The Quarry today was 70.914 vs. 71.802 for Round 1 yesterday.

• Over the first two days, the hardest hole has been the par-4 18th (4.204), yielding just 13 birdies. The easiest hole has been the par-5 7th (4.438), yielding 5 eagles and 87 birdies through the first two rounds.

• Mark Wiebe's bogey-free 7-under 65 was the low round on Saturday and vaulted him up 22 spots on the leaderboard into eighth place. J.L. Lewis made the day's biggest move, moving up 35 places into a T16 after he posted 6-under 66 on Saturday. Wiebe's 65 today also matched his career-low score on the Champions Tour.

• Six players have only missed one fairway through the first two rounds -- Allen Doyle, David Frost, Hale Irwin, Mark McNulty, Mark O'Meara & Scott Simpson...Mark Calcavecchia has missed just two greens in regulation after 36 holes...Allen Doyle has averaged just 25.5 putts per round through the first two days of the event...Nick Price has eagled the par-5 12th hole each of the first two days and is the only player in the field with a pair of eagles this week...Bernhard Langer has made 15 birdies over 36 holes, the most by any player in the field...Mark Calcavecchia, Russ Cochran and Mark Wiebe have made just one bogey over the first two days, the fewest in the event thus far.