Midseason Glance: Couples, Price ahead of the pack

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MORE MIDSEASON: Stat Leaders | 2009 vs. 2010 Money list comparison

• Here is where the top players stand in the 2010 Charles Schwab Cup race compared to last year's leaders after 13 events.

• Fred Couples grabbed the lead in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race after the first of his three early victories at The ACE Group Classic and has held the lead since that February win in Naples, Fla.

• The oldest winner this season has been Tom Watson, who captured the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai at age 60 years, 4 months, 20 days. In the process he became just the 18th player over the age of 60 to win a Champions Tour event and the first since Gil Morgan won the 2007 Walmart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach at age 60 years, 11 months, 7 days. The youngest winner this year has been Fred Couples at The ACE Group Classic at 50 years, 4 months, 11 days.

• After not having a winner over age 55 in 2009, there have been two this year. In addition to Watson, David Eger claimed the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic at age 58 years, 1 month, 15 days.

• Fred Couples set a new standard when he became the fastest player to earn $1 million in a season. By virtue of his T4 finish with teammate Jay Haas at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, Couples won $83,750 which increased his season earnings to $1,049,317 making him the fastest to hit that plateau in a season. Couples did it in just his sixth event, breaking the record set in eight events by Hale Irwin in 1998 and later matched by Loren Roberts in 2006.

• There have been three first-time winners in 2010 -- Fred Couples (The ACE Group Classic), Mark O'Meara (Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf with Nick Price) and Larry Mize (Montreal Championship). At this point last year, there were five, including Mike Goodes, Dan Forsman, Nick Price, Tom Lehman and Michael Allen. Three players own multiple victories this year -- Fred Couples, Nick Price and Bernhard Langer. Keith Fergus and Langer were the only multiple winners after 13 events in 2009.

• During the entire 2009 season, only four players won a 54-hole stroke-play event with a sub-200 score. However, this year there have already been eight winners with scores under 200. The all-time Champions Tour record for most sub-200 scores in a season is 15 in 2000. So far, 10 players have enjoyed double-digit scores under par on their way to victory.

Irwin

• Seven of the 13 wins have been posted by the second/third round leader or co-leader. At this juncture last year, four of 13 players heading into the final round held on to win.

• Hale Irwin played in his 1,000th combined PGA TOUR/Champions Tour event when he teed it up at the 2010 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. Irwin's April appearance near Tampa made him just the 11th player in history to accomplish the feat. Irwin made 659 starts on the PGA TOUR and won 20 official titles, including three U.S. Opens. He has also won 45 official Champions Tour events in 347 appearances.

• Jim Colbert is scheduled to make his 500th career start on the Champions Tour in the next few weeks. He'll join a select group of Champions Tour players to reach that number. Miller Barber leads, with 603; Dale Douglass is second, with 598, followed by Jim Dent (540), Walt Zembriski (527), Harold Henning (520), Orville Moody (513), Rocky Thompson (506) and Jim Albus (505).

• Excluding the Colorado Golf Club (75.079), site of the Senior PGA Championship, the most-difficult course for a non-major championship on the 2010 Champions Tour has been The Quarry, site of The ACE Group Classic. So far in 2010, it ranks second overall. The field averaged 73.054, or more than a stroke (1.054) over par. Its closing hole is the fourth-most-difficult on the Champions Tour so far in 2010, and it yielded just 10 birdies during the tournament. In fact, none of the top-10 finishers made a birdie in any of the three rounds. The easiest hole to date has been No. 18 at Hualalai (Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai) with an average score of 4.315 (-.685).

• When 62 players posted rounds under par in the second round of the Allianz Championship, it was just one shy of the all-time Champions Tour record for scores under par in a single round. The record of 63 was set in the final round of the 2000 Gold Rush Classic near Sacramento. The third round of the 2003 JELD-WEN Tradition also featured 62 players under par.

• The best showing by a defending champion this year was a T5 by Nick Price at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. Tom Lehman and Bernhard Langer, were T4 in defense of their 2009 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf title, but that was in a better-ball team event.

• Several Champions Tour players have turned in impressive showings when competing on the PGA TOUR this year. Corey Pavin, who will serve as the U.S. Ryder Cup captain this fall, lost in a playoff at the recent Travelers Championship a month after finishing T7 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. Pavin posted eight consecutive rounds in the 60s at those two events. Fred Couples finished sixth at the Masters Tournament and T14 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, while Tom Watson was T18 at the Masters and T29 at the U.S. Open. Michael Allen was fifth at the Farmers Insurance Open, while Tom Pernice, Jr., was T7 at the HP Byron Nelson Classic and has four other top-25 finishes to his credit. Tom Lehman was T16 at the Sony Open in Hawaii and T14 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Fred Funk made the cut at both THE PLAYERS Championship and the U.S. Open. In addition, Tommy Armour III and Robin Freeman also have made cuts on TOUR.

• Here is a look at what some of the 2010 winners did on their way to their victory.

• The second half of the Champions Tour schedule will have a huge impact on the year-long Charles Schwab Cup race, with four major championships remaining and double points available to all top-10 finishers in those four events. The Senior British Open kicks off the second half July 22-25 at Carnoustie, followed by the U.S. Senior Open at Sahalee CC in Snoqualmie, Wash., July 29-August 1. The JELD-WEN Tradition returns to the Crosswater Club at Sunriver Resort in Bend, Ore., August 19-22 with the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, the final major championship, slated for October 7-10 at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farms in Potomac, Md. Bernhard Langer, who led all players in points at the halfway point in 2009, finished third at the close.

• The Champions Tour will have a new site for the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship this fall. Harding Park Golf Course, site of the 2009 Presidents Cup, will host the event, which features the top 30 money winners on the 2010 money list. John Cook, last year's Charles Schwab Cup Championship winner, is currently seventh on the 2010 money list. The tournament had been played the previous seven years at Sonoma Golf Club in Sonoma, Calif.

• With his victory in the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, Tom Watson is the only player to go wire-to-wire in a Champions Tour event in 2010. There was just one wire-to-wire winner in the first 13 events last year (Bernhard Langer/Triton Financial Classic) and he eventually became the only player to accomplish that feat a year ago.

• Fred Couples is on pace to break several Champions Tour statistical marks. He is zeroing in on the all-time scoring record of 68.59 (Hale Irwin/1998), with an average of 67.17 after 13 Tour events this year. Couples is averaging 5.33 birdies per round, well ahead of Irwin's record of 4.80 in 1998 and Couples is also averaging an eagle every 39.3 holes, more than a dozen better than Tom Watson's record of 54.0 in 2003.

• Three other players are also threatening records in statistical categories. Dan Forsman is at 79.12% in Greens in Regulation with the record, 78.0, by Tom Kite in 2000. Tom Watson could break Hale Irwin's putting average record of 1.700 in 1998. He is averaging 1.669, with Fred Couples, a close second, at 1.688. Allen Doyle leads in Driving Accuracy, at 85.45 percent. The record is 84.2 by John Bland in 2005.

• Bob Gilder remains the Champions Tour "ironman." Although he was not eligible for the year's first event in Hawaii, Gilder continues to play every event he's been eligible for and that string is now at 157 consecutive. Mark Wiebe is the current leader in consecutive starts with 39.

• Three of 13 events have been decided by playoffs. At the Allianz Championship, Bernhard Langer chipped in from a greenside bunker on the first extra hole to defeat John Cook. At the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, Mark O'Meara and teammate Nick Price made a par on the second playoff hole to defeat Cook and Joey Sindelar. Tom Lehman became the third playoff winner in 2010 when he made a par on the first playoff hole at the Senior PGA Championship against David Frost and Fred Couples to claim his first senior major title, despite a triple bogey in the third round.

Armour III

• Five players set new course records this year. Tommy Armour III fired a closing-round 11-under-par 61 at The Quarry at The ACE Group Classic to finish second to Fred Couples in Naples. Just over a month later, Couples fashioned a 10-under-par 62 in the final round to win The Cap Cana Championship by two strokes over Corey Pavin. Dan Forsman's 10-under-par 62 in the second round set a new standard at the Robert Trent Jones Trail at Ross Bridge and was instrumental in his victory at the Regions Charity Classic. David Frost fired an impressive 7-under-par 65 in the third round of the Senior PGA Championship at the Colorado Golf Club to set a new course mark. D.A. Weibring's 9-under-par 63 in the second round at the Club de Golf Fontainebleau at the Montreal Championship was the fifth.

• Bernhard Langer and Tom Watson share the distinction of having the most birdies in an event in the first 13 tournaments in 2010. The pair each recorded 22 birdies. Langer's came at the Allianz Championship and Watson at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.

• Holes-in-one on the Champions Tour have been scarce in 2010. Bob Tway is the only player to accomplish the feat at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (second round, No. 15, 8-iron, 157 yards). This is the fewest at this point in the season since 1998 when there was also one after 13 events (by Don January).

• Among the former PGA TOUR winners who made their Champions Tour debuts in the first half of 2010 were the following:

• Eligible to join the Champions Tour after the midway point are J.L. Lewis (turns 50 on July 18), Kenny Perry (August 10), Tom Byrum (September 28), Willie Wood (October 1), Steve Lowery (Oct. 12), Jay Delsing (Oct. 17) and Ian Baker-Finch (Oct. 24).

• While there is still much golf to be played, including four major championships, the current top 30 includes 10 players who were among the top 30 at the close of the 2009 season. That group is Fred Couples, Tommy Armour III, David Frost, Peter Senior, Chien Soon Lu, Ronnie Black, Corey Pavin, David Peoples, Olin Browne and Joe Ozaki. Lurking in positions Nos. 31-33 are 65-year-old Hale Irwin, Bob Tway and Michael Allen.

• Although he didn't win the tournament, Peter Senior became the first player this season to play all 54 holes without a bogey when he did so at the Regions Charity Classic in May. Senior finished T2 along with Joe Ozaki, three strokes behind winner Dan Forsman. He was the first player to have a bogey-free tournament since Fred Funk at the 2007 Turtle Bay Championship.