E-Notes: Allianz welcomes many new faces

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• Winning the Turtle Bay Championship has traditionally led to having a great season. Of the 20 previous winners of the tournament, three have gone on to lead the money list that year with 12 finishing in the Top 5 and 15 finishing in the Top 10. Might be a good idea to watch and see how Jerry Pate does this year.

Fred Funk

• After playing for the last five weeks, Fred Funk is finally taking a week off. Through two starts on the Champions Tour, Funk finds himself in first place in the Charles Schwab Cup standings and after three PGA TOUR starts, he's 49th on the FedExCup points list.

• Loren Roberts' strong start on the Champions Tour continues as he's one of only two players to finish in the Top-10 in each of the first two events of the season. Bernhard Langer is the other. Dating back to the end of last season, Roberts has finished in the Top-10 in four of his last five starts. He has 39 career Top-10 finishes in only 52 starts.

• Eleven players are expected to make their first appearances at the Allianz Championship this year. Among that group of new faces are PGA TOUR veterans Fulton Allem, Phil Blackmar, John Cook, Hale Irwin, Ben Crenshaw, Mark Wiebe, Bernhard Langer, Jeff Sluman, Wayne Grady, Bruce Lietzke and Dave Stockton.

Bernhard Langer

• Boca Raton resident Bernhard Langer is just one of the players who can enjoy the comforts of home this week at the Allianz Championship. This will be his first appearance in this tournament after he joined the Champions Tour last August shortly after turning 50. He quickly made his presence felt, winning the Administaff Small Business Classic in just his fourth start as well as tying for 10th in his debut at the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach. The two-time Masters champion tied for 10th at last year's Honda Classic on the PGA TOUR in nearby Palm Beach Gardens.

• Other Boca Raton/South Florida players competing this week include Ed Dougherty (Port St. Lucie), Bruce Fleisher (BallenIsles), Bob Murphy (Delray Beach), Lonnie Nielsen (Palm Beach Gardens), Gary Player (Jupiter Island), Nick Price (Hobe Sound), Dana Quigley (West Palm Beach) and Denis Watson (Fort Lauderdale).

• When Gary Player fired a 1-under par 71 in the second round of last year's Allianz Championship, it marked the 16th time in his career Player had matched or bettered his age on the Champions Tour. He has now done it 17 times. The 72-year-old Player matched his age six times in 2007 and bettered it three times. In 2000, Player shot a 64 in the opening round of the BellSouth Senior Classic at Opryland at age 64.