Insider: Different paths for three first-time winners

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Russ Cochran won last weekend at the Songdo Championship after years of battling injuries.

Good things come to those who persevere. Ted Schulz and Russ Cochran are prime examples that, in sports as in life, there's nothing like keeping the faith.

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Schulz and Cochran are the latest winners on the Champions Tour. On back-to-back weeks, they dusted off the remnants of 19-plus years of waiting for victory.

When Schulz won the First Tee Open two weeks ago, it was his first victory in 19 years, six months and 12 days since he had won the 1991 Los Angeles Open.

Cochran celebrated the Champions Tour's first event in Asia with his long-awaited victory at the Songdo Championship in Korea. It came in his 405th start since last winning on the PGA TOUR at the Centel Western Open in 1991.

The elapsed time between Cochran's victories: 19 years, two months, five days.

And then there's Fred Couples, who won in his second Champions Tour start in February, demonstrating once again that variety is life's elixir.

Schulz, Cochran and Couples are three of the Champions Tour's six first-time winners in 2010. The end result was the same for each -- a stroll into the winner's circle -- but the process that led to each victory was decidedly different.

Here's a look back at the year's new Champions Tour winners and how they achieved the feat.

The ACE Group Classic
Couples arrived as the Champions Tour's marquee rookie. He was regarded as a player who could make both immediate and long-term impact with his game and his popularity.

He didn't disappoint in his first four starts. After a runner-up finish to Tom Watson in Hawaii, Couples closed out the ACE Group Classic with a final round 8-under 64 for a 17-under 199 total and 1-stroke victory over another rookie, Tommy Armour III. Armour's tournament featured an 11-under 61.

It was Couples' first victory since the PGA TOUR's 2003 Shell Houston Open.

On the eve of the tournament, Couples and Armour, friends since college, exchanged texts about enjoying their time on the Champions Tour. The message: Let's have fun.

They aced that test at The ACE Group Classic and Couples would go on to two more victories in succession to dominate the early season.

The Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf
What's better than one hot golfer? Two of them.

Everybody was waiting for a breakthrough by Mark O'Meara. It came at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf alongside Nick Price.

In the Champions Tour's preeminent team competition, O'Meara and Price beat Joey Sindelar and John Cook on the second playoff hole to win the better-ball event. It marked O'Meara's first win since joining the Champions Tour in 2007.

Montreal Championship
There was symmetry to the inaugural Montreal Championship.

The first-time event at Fontainebleau Golf Club in Blainville, Quebec, produced a victory for first-time winner Larry Mize, who closed with an 8-under 64 for a 1-shot victory over John Cook.

Mize, 51, had an eagle and seven birdies in the decisive round. He also ended a long drought, winning for the first time since the 1993 Buick Open.

Mize's mantra during the Montreal Championship: Believe in yourself.

"Doubts are no fun," Mize said.

"I knew it would take a 64 or 65 because the course was in great shape and there were Cook and Couples and a lot of good people behind me."

3M Championship
David Frost finished with a flourish to win his first Champions Tour title at the TPC Twin Cities in the 3M Championship.

A 25-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole capped an 11-under 61. With a 191 total -- that's 25-under -- Frost tied a Champions Tour 54-hole scoring record shared by Bruce Fleischer, Loren Roberts and Bernhard Langer.

Frost won by 5 strokes over Mark Calcavecchia.

First Tee Open
Playing with a conditional status leaves no margin for error.

In only his 12th start on the Champions Tour, Schulz let the lead slip away in the final round at Pebble Beach Golf Links but he pulled himself and his game together to shoot 70 for a 1-stroke victory over Tom Pernice Jr.

Schulz, who won twice on the PGA TOUR before quitting in 2000, is the director of golf at the University of Louisville. The $315,000 payday was the biggest of his career -- and nearly twice what he won for his Nissan Open title.

"I'm happy for Ted," Pernice said. "He hasn't been there in a while."

Songdo Championship
Cochran joined the club with an impressive effort in Korea when he outlasted Fred Funk in a playoff at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club. Cochran's final-round 66 forced an extra hole.

Cochran was out of golf for most of six years while battling injuries and surgeries to his wrist and elbow. "I've been playing well over the last year," the left-hander said. "I felt like a victory was in the near future."

Champions Tour Insider notes:
• The final stretch of six events begins for the Champions Tour next week with the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, N.C. Pernice is the defending champion.

It's the first of successive events in North Carolina and will be followed by the Ensure Classic at Rock Barn.

• Two of the final four events will be in Texas -- the Administaff Small Business Classic at The Woodlands and the AT&T Championship at Oak Hills in San Antonio.

• The final major is Oct. 7-10 - the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm.