Notes: Champions Tour returns in two weeks

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The 2012 Champions Tour season begins with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai GC in Ka'upulehu-Kona, HI on January 16-22. The purse is $1.8 million and the winner will receive $315,000 and 315 Charles Schwab Cup points. Last year, John Cook posted a final-round 64, including five consecutive birdies on the back nine, to win by two strokes from Tom Lehman. It was the first of three victories for Cook in 2011. Lehman also won three times last year.

RECENTLY

• Tom Lehman was voted by his peers as the 2011 Champions Tour Player of the Year. Kenny Perry was named Rookie of the Year and Chip Beck was the recipient of the Comeback Player of the Year Award. Lehman also joined Luke Donald (PGA TOUR) and Yani Tseng (LPGA) as the 2011 Golf Writers Association of America Players of the Year.

• Champions Tour professional Sandy Lyle was elected through the International Ballot and will be honored along with fellow 2012 inductees Phil Mickelson, Hollis Stacy, Peter Alliss and Dan Jenkins at the World Golf Hall of Fame's Induction Ceremony on May 7, 2012. The Ceremony is held at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla. on the Monday of THE PLAYERS Championship week.

• Champions Tour professional Peter Senior showed the youngsters he still has a lot of game when he finished 7-under to tie for 4th at the Australian Masters at Victoria GC last month. Peter Fowler, who won the European Senior Tour Order of Merit in 2011, finished T12 at 4-under.

• Ian Baker-Finch shot 68-69-72--209 (-7) to win his first golf tournament in nearly 20 years at the Australian Legends Tour Championship in Byron Bay, NSW, Australia last month. It was his first win since the 1993 Australian PGA Championship at Concord, NSW. Baker-Finch played in two Champions Tour events in 2011, finishing 78that the Toshiba Classic and T3 (with teammate Joe Ozaki) at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf.

• Children's of Alabama, the primary charitable beneficiary of the Regions Tradition at Shoal Creek, was named the 2011 Champions Tour Charity of the Year. Champions Tour President Mike Stevens presented the award to Mike Warren, Chief Executive Officer at Children's of Alabama, during a function in the lobby of Children's last month. It was also announced that $767,988 raised during the Regions Tradition will benefit 128 charities in metro Birmingham area. A significant proportion of the proceeds went to Children's of Alabama as the tournament's primary charitable beneficiary as well as the American National Red Cross Tornado Disaster Relief efforts in Alabama.

• Fred Couples, the first American to win the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, is seeking to revive some good memories when he returns to the Emirates GC in February for the 2012 event. Couples, who won the event in 1995, was one of four multiple winners on the Champions Tour in 2011.

• Emmy award-winning journalist Jim Huber passed away on Monday, January 2, after being diagnosed with acute leukemia. Huber had recently chronicled Tom Watson's amazing run at the 2009 British Open in his book Four Days in July.

• The NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning will host the 2012 Tampa Bay Pro-Am, formerly known as the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. The 2012 event will celebrate the tournament's 25th year of existence, April 9-15, at TPC Tampa Bay.

NUMBERS

19 -- The number of different winners on the 2011 Champions Tour, the most since 2007 when there were 21 different winners.

DID YOU KNOW?

During the first half of 2011, the Champions Tour had four straight events decided by 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 tournaments with a playoff.

QUOTES OF NOTE

"It's every bit as significant simply because it's a goal I set and any time you set a goal that's a lofty goal -- and this is a lofty one because no one had done it before -- it's the culmination of a journey. There were no guarantees, no promises I would achieve it." -- Tom Lehman's response when asked how his 2011 Champions Tour Player of the Year award compared with the same awards he won on the Nationwide Tour (1991) and PGA TOUR (1996).

"They're fun, but they're hard competitors and you have to have your game pretty sharp to compete to win out there." -- Sandy Lyle comments on the competition on the Champions Tour during the announcement that he will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in May this year.