Notes: 2011 major season opens in a familiar place

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The Champions Tour heads to Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala. for the first major championship of the season, the Regions Tradition, where the official purse is $2.2 million with $330,000 and 660 Charles Schwab Cup points going to the winner. Last year, Fred Funk scored a one-stroke win over Michael Allen and Chien Soon Lu to win the event for the second time. Funk joined Jack Nicklaus and Gil Morgan as the only multiple winners of the event.

LAST WEEK

Nick Price earned the Champions Tour's Player of the Month for March/April. Price won the Toshiba Classic, shooting a record-equaling Champions Tour low round of 11-under 60 in the opening round. He finished T2 behind Tom Lehman in the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic, tied for seventh at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am and posted a T12 finish with Mark O'Meara while attempting to defend their Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf title.

• After last week's deadly and destructive tornadoes in Alabama, Champions Tour professional Jerry Pate donated several hundred chainsaws from his Toro dealership to the cities of Birmingham and Tuscaloosa to assist with the clean-up. Pate will join Condoleezza Rice for the opening ceremonial tee shot to begin the Regions Tradition at Shoal Creek on Thursday.

• Michael Allen, Fred Funk and Tom Pernice, Jr. all missed the cut at the PGA TOUR's Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

• John Cook, a two-time winner on the Champions Tour this season, assisted Tiger Woods with his Tiger Jam golf clinic in Las Vegas to raise funds for his foundation last Friday.

COMING UP

• The next two tournaments on the Champions Tour schedule (Regions Tradition, May 2-8 and Senior PGA Championship, May 23-29) are major championships and carry double Charles Schwab Cup points. Tom Lehman is the Schwab Cup leader with 772 points this season, a 212 point lead over second-placed John Cook.

• The Champions Tour has launched the 2011 Champions Tour Majors Challenge, part of the Tour's 2011 "Come to Play" social media initiative, will allow fans to compete for prizes by answering a series of situational questions that will occur during this year's Champions Tour major championships. The first leg of the Majors Challenge will take place this week during the year's first Champions Tour major, the Regions Tradition, being played at Shoal Creek Golf Club. Besides this week's Regions Tradition, the other legs of the Majors Challenge will be the Senior PGA Championship (Valhalla Golf Club), Senior Open Championship (Walton Heath Golf Club; London), U.S. Senior Open Championship (Inverness Club) and the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship (Westchester Country Club). For more info or to sign up and play, visit www.facebook.com/championstour or http://www.championstourchallenge.com/.

• Birmingham native Steve Lowery will play his first Champions Tour major in his home state when he tees it up in the Regions Tradition at Shoal Creek. It will be his eighth Champions Tour start since turning 50 last October. (MORE LOWERY: A tour of Birmingham | Q & A)

• Many long-time members of the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour will gather on Tuesday for the Great Grand Champions Par-3 Pro-Am at Shoal Creek. Among those expected to compete are World Golf Hall of Fame members Billy Casper, Doug Ford and Gene Littler as well as Miller Barber, Don January, Dow Finsterwald and Bob Goalby.

• World Golf Hall of Fame member and eight-time PGA TOUR major winner Tom Watson has committed to play in the Dick's Sporting Goods Open next month.

• Arnold Palmer will participate in the Wednesday Pro-Am at the Wells Fargo Championship this week. Palmer will play with his grandson Sam Saunders, a PGA TOUR player who received a sponsor exemption into the tournament this year, and close friend John W. Harris, President of Quail Hollow Club.

NUMBERS

16-- The number of players in the Regions Tradition field who made the cut in both the 1984 and 1990 PGA Championships, also held at Shoal Creek.

15-- The number of consecutive sub-par rounds for Olin Browne, the longest current streak on the Champions Tour.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Mike Sullivan, a three-time PGA TOUR winner and now a Champions Tour Rules Official, finished T65 in the 1984 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek.

ON THIS DATE

5/3/81 -- Ron Streck wins the rain-shortened Michelob-Houston Open and earns the distinction of being the first player to win a PGA TOUR event using a metal wood.

5/4/06 -- Jay Haas competes in the Wachovia Championship where he is joined by his sons, Jay, Jr., and Bill in Charlotte. He eventually finishes T22 at the event.

QUOTES TO NOTE

"That's my goal. I've always said that. Until it's proven otherwise, that's what I'm going to focus on."-- Longtime Braves pitcher John Smoltz makes clear his intention to compete on the Champions Tour when he becomes eligible at age 50. Smoltz teed it up in the Nationwide Tour's South Georgia Classic last week and missed the cut by 27 strokes.

"They joke about me being young and how far I hit the ball. On the PGA TOUR, it was exactly the opposite."-- Steve Lowery comments on the reception from his fellow Champions Tour players.