Notes: Langer seeking rare U.S. Senior Open defense

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Bernhard Langer returned from an injury absence with a T12 effort at the Senior British Open, and now will look to defend his title at the U.S. Senior Open.

The Champions Tour heads to Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio for the 2011 U.S. Senior Open Championship on July 25-31. The purse is $2.6 million and the winner will receive double Charles Schwab Cup points. Last year, at Sahalee CC, Bernhard Langerbecame the first USGA champion from Germany, shooting four rounds in the 60s to win by three strokes over Fred Couples who was making his first appearance in the championship.

LAST WEEK

• Russ Cochran made six birdies in his first 10 holes during Sunday's final round, and then held off Mark Calcavecchia down the stretch to win the 2011 Senior Open Championship by two strokes. The win was his third career victory on the Champions Tour in his 50th start.

• Cochran became the first left-hander to win a major on the Champions Tour since Bob Charles claimed his second Senior Open Championship in 1993.

• Cochran's win earned him a check for $315,600, a five-year exemption into the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai and an exemption into the 2012 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.

• Cochran won the Senior British Open after lying T27 at the completion of the first round. Tom Watson(T12/ Senior PGA Championship) is the only other Champions Tour winner in 2011 who was outside the top 10 after the opening round.

• Defending champion Bernhard Langer finished T12 at the Senior British Open. It was Langer's first appearance on the Champions Tour since he recovered from thumb surgery in March.

• It was quite a week in London for Cochran's two sons. Reed, taking a short break from law school, was on his father's bag for his first major championship. Older son Ryan, a former collegiate golfer at Florida, caddied for Mike Goodes at Walton Heath and they finished T7.

• Five professionals have now played in all 15 official tournaments on the Champions Tour in 2011 -- Jeff Sluman, Rod Spittle, Tom Kite, Mike Reid and Gary Hallberg.

• Damon Green followed a week caddying for Zach Johnson at the British Open by teeing it up in the qualifying round for the Senior British Open. Green shot 66 at Betchworth Park GC to easily qualify for the Senior British Open and went on to finish T50. It was Green's second Champions Tour event, having finished T46 at the Principal Charity Classic last month.

• Tom Pernice Jr. was the only Champions Tour professional in Canada, choosing to stay and play on the PGA TOUR instead of last week's Senior British Open. Following his T2 finish at the Viking Classic, Pernice contested the RBC Canadian Open and failed to make the cut. He dropped from 20th to 22nd position in the Charles Schwab Cup standings when double points were awarded last week.

• Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle are among 10 centenary ambassadors named by the PGA of Australia to launch the centenary celebrations on Sept. 19. The centenary patron will be Greg Norman, who, back in 1999, was voted Australian golfer of the 20th century. The centenary celebration recognizes how the association has grown from 15 members to more than 2500, the growth of golf in Australia and the champions it has produced. A gala dinner will be held in Sydney on Nov. 11, the day of the second round of the Australian Open at The Lakes

CHARLES SCHWAB CUP

Russ Cochran's win at the Senior British Open earned him 632 Charles Schwab Cup points and he jumped from 10th place into second place in the season-long race with 1,163 total points. Mark Calcavecchia's runner-up finish boosted him from 12th to 6th in the standings. After 15 events, Tom Lehman still leads the 2011 Schwab Cup race was 1,533 points.

Comments from the three leading players before last week's Senior British Open:

"I'm just trying to play my best each week. I got off to a great start this year, but the last couple months have not been quite as good. I'm looking forward to getting back into that mode where my game is building and improving again. Hopefully, I'll be back on top of my game soon." -- Tom Lehman.

"This is a crucial time in the Charles Schwab Cup race. Out of the guys in the top five, I think he who plays best during this stretch is probably going to have a really good shot at winning it. That's one of the reasons I did not play last week in The Open Championship. With the Schwab Cup race, I wanted to be fresh and ready to go for the events we have coming up." -- Nick Price.

"If I'm going to hold or improve my position in the Charles Schwab Cup race, I need to play well in the majors. I've had three nice wins this year, but it's the majors where you pick up ground. It can make or break your year. You can have a nice year, but if you don't play well in the majors, guys can run by you in the Schwab Cup race. My emphasis is on the next four events with three of them being majors. I need to make up some ground." -- John Cook

COMING UP

• The Inverness Club, which hosted the U.S. Senior Open in 2003 when Bruce Lietzke won, will join Oakland Hills CC (1981, '91) and Saucon Valley (1992, 2000) as the only courses to host a pair of U.S. Senior Opens.

• Only three players finished under-par at Inverness Club during the 2003 U.S. Senior Open -- Bruce Lietzke(-7), Tom Watson (-5) and Vicente Fernandez (-4). Lietzke is the only player of these three scheduled to compete at Inverness this week.

• Bernhard Langer will be attempting to do something only three other players have done in the history of this event -- defend his title. Miller Barber was the first to do so in 1985 at Edgewood Tahoe GC. Gary Player became the second in 1988 at Medinah CC, while Allen Doyle became the third when he won at Prairie Dunes CC in 2006.

• Dale Douglass is in the field list for this week's U.S. Senior Open at Inverness. It will be his 600th career start on the Champions Tour. Only Miller Barber has more with 603. Douglass will also set a new record by playing in his 26th consecutive U.S. Senior Open. He was tied with Arnold Palmer with 25 straight. Read an interview with Douglass here.

• Hale Irwin, the 1979 U.S. Open champion at Inverness, owns a record six consecutive top-5 finishes at the U.S. Senior Open (1995-2000). Irwin has a total of seven top-5 finishes in the championship, a record he shares with Jack Nicklaus. Irwin and Nicklaus also share the tournament record for most rounds in the 60s (17).

• Although there have been 17 aces in U.S. Senior Open history, only one player has recorded a double eagle -- Bruce Lietzke at the NCR CC in 2005.

• Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus are the only two players to have won the U.S. Amateur, the U.S. Open and the U.S. Senior Open.

• In 1979, Hale Irwin won the U.S. Open when it was played at Inverness Club but the most memorable moment may have come that year in the first round when Lon Hinkle took a shortcut over the corner of the dogleg, par-5 8th hole by hitting onto the 17th fairway. Overnight, USGA officials planted a "Hinkle" tree to block the shortcut.

• Tom Watson will play at The Greenbrier Classic this week. He is the pro emeritus at The Greenbrier Resort. Watson's last non-major start on the PGA TOUR came at the 2007 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where he partnered with son Michael and finished T19. He finished T22 at the Open Championship two weeks ago.

NUMBERS

2,525 -- The number of entries accepted by the USGA for this week's U.S. Senior Open. Entries were received from 49 states (all except North Dakota) and the District of Columbia. In addition to the USA, entries were received from 17 countries.

16 -- The number of times the record-low score of 30 has been recorded at the U.S. Senior Open, most recently by Olin Browne at Sahalee last year. Jim Thorpe is the only player to have posted 30 twice (2000, 2001).

DID YOU KNOW?

Fred Funk holds the record for most strokes under par for 72 holes at the U.S. Senior Open. His 20-under-par score in 2009 also claims the record for most strokes under par at any point in the history of the championship. This is ironic because Funk, not known as a long hitter, achieved this feat at Crooked Stick, the longest course in U.S. Senior Open history (7,316 yards).

ON THIS DATE

7/25/09 -- Mark Calcavecchia reels off a PGA TOUR record nine straight birdies in the second round (Holes 12-2) of the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey.

7/26/98 -- Despite opening with a 77, Hale Irwin birdies the final hole to nip Vicente Fernandez by one stroke at the U.S. Senior Open at Riviera CC in Los Angeles. The win comes one week after going wire-to-wire at the Ameritech Senior Open.

7/27/97 -- Dave Stockton wins the Champions Tour's 500th event when he beats Kermit Zarley by two strokes at the Franklin Quest Championship in Park City, Utah.

7/27/06 -- Corey Pavin sets a new PGA TOUR 9-hole scoring mark when he shoots an 8-under-par 26 on the front nine in the opening round of the U.S. Bank Championship on his way to a 9-under-par 61. Three days later he won the event.

7/31/05 -- Allen Doyle wins the first of two consecutive U.S. Senior Open titles when he fires a final round 8-under-par 63 (tying a U.S. Senior Open record) and comes from nine strokes back to defeat Loren Roberts and D.A. Weibring by one stroke at NCR CC.

QUOTES TO NOTE

"I liked him better when he was injured." -- Mark Calcavecchia playfully refers to Russ Cochran, who beat him by two strokes at the Senior British Open after being out for two months with a wrist injury.

"I never will retire. You've got to keep going. The minute you retire, you're gone." -- 75-year-old Gary Player explains why he continues to play in corporate days, design golf courses and stay active.

"Do I miss golf? I do now because I know I am going to get ready to play again." -- Greg Norman, who has been out of the game for an extended period due to shoulder surgery, looks forward to his preparation to play in the Australian Open and the Australian PGA Championship. In between those events, he will captain the International team against the United States in the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.

"I think it's a good thing. People still associate me with the tree. I hear about it on a regular basis." -- Lon Hinkle comments on his 'legacy' after USGA officials planted a tree overnight to block the shortcut he took on the 8th hole in the first round of the 1979 U.S. Open at Inverness.

"Once you're a golfer, going back into the normal workforce, it ain't that easy." -- Mike Harwood, the first-round leader at the Senior British Open last week, shares what life was like after he departed the European Tour in 1995 and ended up teaching golf before returning to the European Senior Tour.