Lehman poised to do what no player has ever done

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Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

Tom Lehman is just four strokes back after the first round of the Insperity Championship.

THE WOODLANDS -- He's poised to go where no one has gone before.

And where Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson never will.

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Three different tours, three Player of the Year titles. Hard enough these days to get one. But three?

Tom Lehman is tantalizingly close. To Champions Tour Player of the Year -- to go with his 1991 then-Ben Hogan Tour (now Nationwide) POY and 1996 PGA TOUR POY awards -- and the Charles Schwab Cup. Two weeks and two days to go now, if you're counting. Three titles -- and up for grabs to go with the three he's already won this season.

As for Tiger and Phil? Well, the other likely candidates for dual tour awards both went straight to the TOUR and you have to wonder if they'll play into their 50s. And, at best, Nick Price, Fred Couples and Mark O'Meara -- all TOUR POYs -- are the only other players who could currently pull a double with a POY on the Champions Tour.

"Obviously that would be something that would be really nice,'' Lehman said. "But I would feel very, I guess, fulfilled, because my goal has always been no matter what tour I'm on to try to be the best player on that tour. Whether it's for a year or for two years or five years or whatever, just at some point you would like to say, hey, I was at the top and that means something.

"But more importantly, I think with the respect of your peers; so that's the main reason because of it, just because that carries a lot of importance by saying that, hey, a lot of the guys on this tour respect and that you were the top player that particular year. So that means a lot.

"At the end of the day, more than anything I'm all about just trying to do my best.''

Okay. So we won't get ahead of ourselves. Lehman has a nice -- but not too cushy -- lead over John Cook on the money list and a lead over Mark Calcavecchia in the Schwab Cup standings. But he has work to do. So do they.

Which means you shouldn't be surprised in the least to see all three are in contention after the opening round of the Insperity Championship. Michael Allen rabbit-ed out Friday there with an opening 63, while Cook shot 66 and Calc and Lehman are tied at 67. Lehman coulda been tied with Cook, but, well, he came off a low burner 4-iron burner that dove into the water at the 18th, then put his next shot to 5 feet for what felt like a sweet bogey.

"If there is such a thing as a good bogey,'' he said, "that was it.''

Cook just chuckled. The two have been paired together so many times this year, he said, it's odd when they're not walking down fairways together.

"We didn't get paired together last week and it was my worst finish of the season (T67 at the SAS Championship),'' Cook said. "It might have been his, too."

It wasn't. Lehman was T12.

"It feels like you must be playing alright if you're paired with Tom,'' Cook said.

And as for the races? "We all know what we need to do,'' Cook said. "That's win."

But Calc and Cook have to chase down Lehman, who added a second Champions Tour major to his resume this season at the Regions Tradition.

It's only fitting that Lehman is in this position. He's been the blue-collar guy his entire career. A Tom Kite kind of guy, only Kite -- he just celebrated his combined 1,000th start combined on the TOUR and Champions Tour -- went straight to the TOUR back in 1972.

Remember that tale about him showering in the rain when he was playing on one of those alphabet mini-tours one year? He had played in Amarillo and was driving straight through to meet wife Melissa in California to go to a wedding.

"It was pouring rain and I couldn't stop and spend the night,'' he said. "I was stinking so bad that I just got out of the car and took a shower. It was the typical mini-tour experience.''

Not long afterward, Lehman was on the then-Hogan Tour winning four times -- three in that 1991 season. Then it was on to the TOUR where he won five times, including the 1996 British Open and TOUR Championship. Now the former Ryder Cup captain has five Champions Tour wins, two of them majors.

This season, he won two of the first four tournaments of the year and might have won a third had Cook not clipped him by two in the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. And the week after Lehman won his second tournament, Cook picked up his second win at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.

A few weeks later, Lehman picked up win No. 3 at the Regions Tradition. Cook won his third in Montreal. And Calc? He's got the most top 10s of the trio with 12 and, after finishing runner up to Olin Browne at the Senior British Open, he won the Boeing Classic.

And now? The race -- or maybe just chase -- is on.

If Lehman or Cook can get that fourth win, it might seal POY. Or Calc could jump in and it might go down to the season finale Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Harding Park.

But if Lehman can pull off the triple, he might be the only one for a long while. Tiger, Phil and Vijay Singh never played on the Nationwide Tour and no recent Nationwide Tour POY, with the exception of perhaps Stewart Cink or Chad Campbell, has shown the potential to jump into the TOUR POY race. Even if they did win there, then it would be a while until they made joined the fiftysomething set.

"I think being healthy is a big part of it, to be able to play, you know, long enough and stay healthy long enough to be competent at each level, you're fortunate from a health standpoint,'' Lehman said. "I think on the one hand, a lot of guys haven't had the opportunity to win that Nationwide Tour Player of the Year award because you've never been bad enough to play on that tour.

"So there's an element of the struggle, put me in a position where I actually could use that tour to move to the next step, so very grateful for that tour. Always be grateful for (former PGA TOUR commissioner) Deane Beman to forming that Hogan Tour at the time. Phil Mickelson will never have a chance at winning all three Player of the Year awards because he's never had to stoop that low. So if you're good enough, you get to bypass that stuff."

But Lehman? Even if he doesn't pull off the triple/POY and Schwab Cup double later this month, he's still one of the guys everyone's looking up to on the Champions Tour.

His career has been a testament to persistence. To drive. To belief in himself and his game.

To rounds like the one he played in gusty winds at the Woodlands TPC Friday.

On the par-3 14th hole, he had the perfect club, perfect yardage and perfect line. What he didn't have was perfect timing. The wind stopped just as he hit his tee shot and it flew 12 yards over the pin and into the bunker. No worries. Nature of the game.

He bombed it so far down the fairway on the 15th, caddie Andrew Martinez didn't have a yardage. "Do you want me to go hit it again?" Lehman cracked. They laughed.

Not a hard day. Not an easy one. Just another really solid start in a seriously strong season.

"I know what my potential is; I know what I'm capable of; and I know that if I play my very best, that some really good things are going to happen," he said. "But golf is the kind of sport where some things are out of your control; some guys play better. Maybe too many putts hit the lip and spin out. So you can't always get what you want.

"So I do know that if I can look at myself in the mirror and say, yeah, you gave it all you had and you did all you had to do to be the best this year, that's success."

One this year that has produced a great chase and -- just maybe -- could set a three-fer of a record that will stand for a long time.