Rd. 1 Notes: Insperity Championship

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Weather: Players off both the first and 10th tees. Partly cloudy with highs in the upper-80s and winds from the SE at 5-10 mph in the afternoon.

Round 1 Leaderboard: 1 -- Michael Allen (-9/63); 2 -- John Cook (-6/66); T3 -- Mark Calcavecchia (-5/67), Tom Lehman (-5/67), T5 -- Tommy Armour III (-4/68), Fred Couples (-4/68), Eduardo Romero (-4/68).

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Round 2 tee times
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• Michael Allen, making his first appearance in the Insperity Championship, fired a bogey-free, 9-under-par, 63, his low score on the Champions Tour since posting a career-best 61 in the third round of the 2010 Charles Schwab Cup Championship, to take the first-round lead. Allen's round matched the low score at The Woodlands in this event (Fred Couples, Rd. 3, 2010) and was the best first-round number at the Insperity event since Bernhard Langer opened with a 10-under 62 at Augusta Pines in 2007. John Cook, the 2009 Insperity Championship winner, also was bogey-free today, carding a 6-under 66, and is in second place after the first round, three strokes back of Allen. Cook is a three-time winner on the 2011 Champions Tour while Allen is seeking his first win on the circuit since the 2009 Senior PGA Championship.

• Bernhard Langer's 5-under 31 on the front nine today set the 9-hole record on that side at The Woodlands. Allen later matched Langer's number on the front nine.

• Allen's three-stroke advantage after Round 1 of the 2011 Insperity Championship is the largest 18-hole lead in a Champions Tour event since Nick Price led by five strokes after the opening day of this year's Toshiba Classic. Price went wire-to-wire at that event earlier this year. It is also the largest first-round lead at the Insperity Championship since Bernhard Langer led by four strokes after Round 1 of the 2007 event.

• Friday marks the first time Michael Allen has held sole possession of a first-round lead on the Champions Tour. He was tied for the first-round lead at both the 2010 Posco E&C Songdo Championship and the 2011 Songdo IBD Championship in South Korea.

• Allen's best finish at this course when it hosted the Shell Houston Open on the PGA TOUR was a T41 in 1991. Before today, Allen has made seven previous appearances on the Tournament Course at The Woodlands.

• Thus far in 2011, seven first-round leaders/co-leaders have won the 21 Champions Tour events that have been played. The last time a first-round leader/co-leader went on to win was Jay Haas at the 3M Championship in early August. First-round leaders/co-leaders have won the Insperity Championship just twice in the previous seven years (Jay Haas/2006, Bernhard Langer/2007).

• Defending champion Fred Couples shot 4-under 68 today and is now a cumulative 10-under for his last 27 holes on the Tournament Course at The Woodlands. Last year, Couples opened with a 1-under 71 and went on to record a seven-stroke victory at the Insperity Championship.

• Tom Lehman, the current Charles Schwab Cup leader, shot 5-under 67 today, his seventh straight sub-par round at this event. Lehman was T9 at the Insperity Championship last year and was T4 at The Woodlands in 2009.

• There were 14 rounds in the 60s in Round 1, after only three players broke 70 in the opening round last year. The field scoring average today was 72.241 vs. 73.818 on Friday last year.

• The par-4 17th hole played the hardest for Round 1 with a stroke average of 4.468. The hole yielded eight birdies but only five birdies were made at the par-4 18th (4.278/3rd).

• Tommy Armour III, currently 37th on the 2011 money list, carded a 4-under 68 today and needs a good performance to move closer to the top-30 and a spot in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship. Armour currently trails No. 30 Brad Bryant by $105,309 with just two official events left to qualify. Bryant opened with a 1-over 73 today.

• Jay Haas, the 2006 Insperity Championship winner, shot 2-under 70 today, his 17th score of par/better in the 18 rounds he's played in this event. Haas was the recipient of the 2011 Dave Marr Award at a dinner on Thursday evening. The award is named for the 1965 PGA Championship winner and is given annually by the tournament to a person who exemplifies honor, integrity and sportsmanship. Other prominent past recipients of the Dave Marr Award include: former President George W. Bush, Arnold Palmer, Ben Crenshaw, Miller Barber and last year's recipient, Fuzzy Zoeller.

• This and That: Blaine McCallister was the only player to hit all 14 fairways today...John Cook hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation...Bernhard Langer had just 22 putts in the opening round...John Huston's 322-yard drive on the par-5 13th hole was the longest measured drive of the day.

• Just nine players have now played in all eight Insperity Championships -- Ben Crenshaw, Keith Fergus, Bruce Fleisher, Bob Gilder, Tom Jenkins, Tom Kite, Wayne Levi, D.A. Weibring and Fuzzy Zoeller.

• In support of October's Breast Cancer Awareness month, volunteers and tournament staff will be wearing pink shirts tomorrow at the Insperity Championship to support the cause and pink flags will be used on each of the holes. The tournament is again a partner with the Houston affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and fans coming to the tournament are encouraged to wear pink.