Round 1 Notebook: ACE Group Classic

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Weather: Sunny with highs near 80 degrees and winds from the WNW in the afternoon at 5-10 mph.

• Russ Cochran and Bernhard Langer matched 8-under-par 64s to share the first-round lead at the 2011 ACE Group Classic. Cochran's round included a run of four birdies in a row (holes 6-9) to close out his front nine and he added three more birdies on the back nine. Langer's 64 today was his low score thus far in 2011 and included seven birdies and a chip-in eagle at the par-5 3rd hole at The Quarry. Mark O'Meara trails Cochran and Langer by one stroke after posting a 7-under 65 that included a 31 on his second nine.

• Round 1 Leaderboard: T1) Russ Cochran & Bernhard Langer/64 (-8); 3) Mark O'Meara/65 (-7); T4) Olin Browne, Mark Calcavecchia & Keith Fergus/67 (-5).

• Cochran has now been a first-round leader/co-leader six times in his Champions Tour career. Thus far, he's only gone on to win once when leading/co-leading after Round 1 -- 2010 SAS Championship. Prior to today, Bernhard Langer had held sole possession or shared the first-round lead of a Champions Tour event on seven occasions and gone on to win four times. In the previous 23 years at The ACE Group Classic, first-round leaders/co-leaders have gone on to win seven times.

• Cochran and Mark O'Meara's 8-under 64s are the lowest first-round scores at The ACE Group Classic since Bobby Wadkins shot 64 in Round 1 at Quail West in 2007 and went on to victory.

• Cochran's 8-under round today means he's a cumulative 35-under-par for his first seven rounds on the Champions Tour in 2011.

• A total of 31 players broke par in the opening round. When last year's weather-suspended first round was finally completed on Saturday, just 19 players were under par. The stroke average for the field today at The Quarry was 71.802 vs. 74.074 in Round 1 last year.

• The par-3 2nd hole was the most difficult in Round 1 (3.284). The par-5 7th hole was the easiest for Round 1, yielding two eagles and 40 birdies among the 81-player field.

• Mark Calcavecchia (-5), Cochran (-8) and Larry Mize (-5) all posted bogey-free first rounds at The Quarry today.

• Calcavecchia's 67 today was his best opening round on the Champions Tour since he shot a 64 on Friday at the Home Care & Hospice First Tee Open at Pebble Beach on September 3. Calcavecchia, making his first appearance in Naples as a member of the Champions Tour, won the 2007 Merrill Lynch Shoot-Out with Woody Austin at nearby Tiburon Golf Club while he was on the PGA TOUR. A total of nine players in tournament history have won The ACE Group Classic in their first attempt and for Allen Doyle (1999), Lanny Wadkins (2000) and Fred Couples (2010), it was their first career victory on the Champions Tour.

• World Golf Hall of Fame member Gary Player made his 23rd appearance in The ACE Group Classic today and posted a 4-over-par 76. The 75-year-old Player had a chance to shoot his age or better, but three-putted the final green to make a double-bogey and fall one stroke short of matching his age. Player was the tournament's inaugural champion in 1988, edging Dave Hill for the title at the Club at Pelican Bay.

• Gary Player was grouped today with Tommy Armour III. He also played in the late 1950s with Armour's legendary grandfather, "The Silver Scot", while he was the head professional at famed Winged Foot Golf Club in New York.

• A pair of open qualifiers into The ACE Group Classic got off to good starts in Round 1 of the event. Willie Wood, who shot 69 at Old Corkscrew on Monday, carded a 3-under 69 while England's Roger Chapman, a survivor of a three-way playoff after a 2-under 70 at Old Corkscrew, also posted 69 on Friday.

• Jeff Sluman continued his good play early in the 2011 season. Sluman's 3-under 69 was his seventh straight sub-par round this year. He finished T4 at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai and then was T2 last week at the Allianz Championship, one stroke short of champion Tom Lehman.

• Bob Gilder made his 171st consecutive start on the Champions Tour that he's been eligible for and carded a 2-over 74. Gilder's run began at the 2004 JELD-WEN Tradition. He's now just six events shy of tying Mike McCullough (177) for second place among most consecutive eligible events played. Dana Quigley holds the Champions Tour's all-time record in that category with 278.