Notes: Langer can't defend, Lehman seeks third win

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Fred Couples' tie for 15th at Augusta led the Champions Tour contingent of eight former champions.

The Champions Tour heads to TPC Tampa Bay in Lutz, Fla., for the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am on April 11-17. The purse is $1.7 million with $255,000 and 255 Charles Schwab Cup points going to the winner. Last year, Bernhard Langer birdied the final hole on Saturday which proved to be the difference when Sunday's final round was cancelled due to heavy rain. Langer's birdie gave him a one-stroke victory over Mark O'Meara and Mike Reid.

LAST WEEK

• The Champions Tour had eight former Masters Champions in the field at Augusta National last week -- all but Fred Couples, who finished tied 15th, missed the cut (Ben Crenshaw, Sandy Lyle, Larry Mize, Mark O'Meara, Craig Stadler, Tom Watson and Ian Woosnam). Two-time Masters Champion Bernhard Langer was unable to play as he is recovering from thumb surgery after a bicycle accident.

• Fred Couples made his 27th appearance at the Masters last week, with a win in 1992 among his 11 top-10 finishes and 25 made cuts. It marked his 92nd start in a Major Championship.

• Ben Crenshaw missed the cut in his 40th consecutive Masters appearance last week (1972-2011). Arnold Palmer played in a record 50 consecutive Masters from 1955 to 2004, followed by Doug Ford (46, 1956-2001), Raymond Floyd (45, 1965-2009), Jack Nicklaus (40, 1959-98) and Crenshaw.

COMING UP

• Langer will not be defending his title at the 2011 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am due to his recovery from recent thumb surgery.

• Tom Lehman is looking for his third victory this season after wins at the Allianz Championship and the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic. The last time Lehman won three times in a season was in 1991 on what is now the Nationwide Tour (Gulf Coast Classic, South Carolina Classic, Santa Rosa Open). Lehman finished T44 last year at TPC Tampa Bay.

• Since Outback Steakhouse became the title sponsor of this event in 2004, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame has won in five of the last seven years at TPC Tampa Bay.

• Jeff Sluman, an outdoor cooking aficionado when he's not playing professional golf, hopes to increase his knowledge of the grill when several chefs from local Outback Steakhouses offer cooking tips in the tournament's Billabong Club on Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.

• Jack Nicklaus claimed the only 54-hole event of his Champions Tour career at the TPC Tampa Bay in 1996. Nicklaus overcame a first-round 76 and rallied from five strokes back on the final day to edge J.C. Snead by a stroke.

• In the 24-year history of the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, more than $8.7 million has been raised for Tampa Bay area charities. This year the Special Operations Warrior Foundation and The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (with contributions going to The Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative at the University of South Florida) will share in the proceeds from the 2011 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.

• Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith and Joe Don Rooney, the guitarist and background vocalist for the popular country group Rascal Flatts, have joined the celebrity field for the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am event at TPC Tampa Bay. Smith and Rooney join a group that includes singer/songwriter Vince Gill, former Dateline NBC co-anchor Stone Phillips, Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Ronde Barber, former Buccaneers linebacker Derrick Brooks, ex-NFL quarterback Joe Theismann and actor Craig T. Nelson. Actor Michael J. Fox had committed to play, but shoulder surgery will not permit his participation.

• The Regions Tradition Media Day on Monday, April 11, featured defending champion Fred Funk at Shoal Creek, the new venue for the major championship that began in 1989. Funk won the title in Oregon last year after undergoing knee replacement surgery in November of 2009. Funk also won the event in 2008. The Regions Tradition (May 5-8) will be the first major championship of the 2011 Champions Tour season.

• Wayne Grady and Lanny Wadkinshave accepted sponsor exemptions to participate in the 2011 Regions Tradition at Shoal Creek. Grady, the winner of the 1990 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek, is one of only nine Australians to win a major championship. Wadkins was runner-up to Lee Trevino in the 1984 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek. He is a World Golf Hall of Fame member having been inducted in 2009. Wadkins also won the 1977 PGA Championship, one of 21 PGA TOUR victories he claimed in a 29 year career on the PGA TOUR. Wadkins' lone Champions Tour victory came at the 2000 ACE Group Classic.

• The Dick's Sporting Goods Open has a new iPhone app which enables fans to purchase tournament tickets, check the weather, and stay up-to-date with the Champions Tour leaderboard, along with much more information. The app can be downloaded from the iTunes Store for free.

NUMBERS

298.6 -- The number of yards Fred Couples has averaged in Driving Distance on the Champions Tour this season. Hal Sutton is second with 294.3 yards.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Lehman is ranked No. 1 in the Greens In Regulation statistic on both the Champions Tour (83.33%) and the PGA TOUR (80.56%).

ON THIS DATE

4/12/81 -- In the first Masters played on bentgrass greens, Tom Watson won his second title in the event, holding off Johnny Miller and Jack Nicklaus by two strokes.

4/15/79 -- Playing in his first Masters Tournament, Fuzzy Zoeller birdied the second playoff hole (No. 11) to become the Masters first sudden-death winner. Zoeller finished tied with Tom Watson and Ed Sneed after 72 holes. After all three made pars on the first hole, Zoeller won it on the second. Sneed led by five starting Sunday play, but bogeyed the final three holes to fall into a playoff.

4/17/05 -- David Frost sets a new PGA TOUR 72-hole putting record with 92 total putts at the MCI Heritage Classic. Frost one-putted his first 11 greens in the opening round, had 49 one-putts for the week and holed out two times from off the green at Harbour Town.

QUOTES TO NOTE

"I didn't think there would be this many fantastic players and from so many countries. Not in my lifetime at least." -- South African Gary Player, 75, was the first international player to win the Masters Tournament 50 years ago.

"You've got a good job here, Jim, and I don't know if you really want to do this caddie thing." -- Larry Mize's comment to a young Jim Mackay (Phil Mickelson's caddie) after Mackay begged Mize for the chance to caddie for him at the end of the 1989 season.

"When I stop getting nervous, I won't be here." -- Arnold Palmer comments after hitting the opening tee shot of the 2011 Masters Tournament.

"It would be the biggest upset in golf history." -- Fred Couples comment when asked if he thought he could win the 2011 Masters Tournament when trailing 36-hole leader Rory McIlroy by five strokes.