Round 1 Notebook: Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am

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Weather: Mostly sunny with high temperatures in the mid-80s and winds from the SW in the afternoon at 6-12 mph.

• Russ Cochran carded a bogey-free 7-under-par 64 today and enjoys a two-stroke lead over John Cook and Jay Don Blake after the first-round of the 2011 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. Cochran's round today was his 13th straight sub-par score and the Champions Tour's birdie leader this year, added seven more to his total and now has 85 birdies for the season. Kenny Perry, making his first Champions Tour start of the season, shot 5-under on his second nine and posted a 67 in his first trip around the TPC Tampa Bay course.

• Round 1 Leaderboard: 1) Russ Cochran/64 (-7); T2) John Cook/66 (-5), Jay Don Blake/66 (-5); 4) Kenny Perry/67 (-4)

• Cochran's 7-under 64 is the best first-round score at this event since Tom Watson shot 8-under 63 in the opening round of the 2008 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.

• Cochran has now been a first-round leader/co-leader seven 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. Since the tournament moved to the TPC Tampa Bay in 1992, Tom Watson (2008) is the only first-round leader who has gone on to win the tournament. Through the first five Champions Tour events in 2011, two first-round leader/co-leaders have gone on to victory -- Bernhard Langer (shared lead with Cochran) at the ACE Group Classic, Nick Price (leader by 5 strokes) at the Toshiba Classic.

• Tom Lehman fell short in his quest to equal Hale Irwin's all-time record of 13 straight sub-70 rounds, shooting a 2-over 73 on Friday. Lehman, the current Charles Schwab Cup leader, has claimed a pair of victories this season and his 66 in Round 1 of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai led to a cumulative total of 58-under during this span of sub-70 rounds. Earlier this season, John Cook missed a chance to tie Irwin's all-time mark when he shot 1-under 71 in the first round of the the Allianz Championship. Cook's streak began at the 2010 Administaff Small Business Classic. Fred Couples posted 12 consecutive sub-70 rounds early in the 2010 season.

• Price's even-par 71 today ended a streak of nine straight rounds in the 60s that included a Champions Tour record-tying, 11-under 60 in Round 1 of the Toshiba Classic. Price, the 2009 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am winner, has finished among the top three in his last three events.

• Thanks to a birdie at the par-4 8th hole on his second nine, Jeff Sluman carded an even-par 71 today and was able to extend his streak of par/better rounds to 25. Sluman's streak started last fall at the Administaff Small Business Classic near Houston. In 2008-2009, Sluman reeled off 31 straight par/better scores. Loren Roberts holds the all-time record for par/better rounds with 37 in a row during the 2006-2007 seasons.

• John Cook became the first player to make five straight birdies in a round twice this season. Cook reeled off birdies on holes 3 thru 7 today, matching the best birdie streak of the 2011 season and went on to post a 5-under-par 66, his best-ever score at the TPC Tampa Bay. Cook also had five straight birdies in the final round of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai and went on to win the Champions Tour's season-opening event. Bernhard Langer (Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai/1), Dan Forsman (ACE Group Classic/2), Rod Spittle (ACE Group Classic/2), Gary Hallberg (Toshiba Classic/1) and Tom Lehman (Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic/2) also had runs of five consecutive birdies this year. Cook is in position to end his victory drought in Florida. Coming into this week, Cook was 0-106 in TOUR events in the Sunshine State (0-11 on the Champions Tour).

• Friday's first-round scoring average was 71.897, the lowest for a Friday at this event since 2006. 30 players broke par in Round 1 this year compared to 37 sub-par scores on Friday in 2010.

• It comes as no surprise the last four holes on the back nine at the TPC Tampa Bay played as the four hardest in Round 1 today. There were no birdies made at the par-3 17th hole and it played to a stroke average of 3.449. Last year, No. 17 ranked among the top-20 hardest par-3s on the Champions Tour. There were just two eagles made today and both of them came on par-4 holes. Ted Schulz holed out from the fairway at No. 5 and Hal Sutton made a 2 at the 13th hole.

• Two players who haven't played a Champions Tour event in more than a year, returned to the circuit this week at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. Scott Hoch, out of action since playing in last year's ACE Group Classic, carded a 1-under-par 70 while Jim Thorpe, who last played at the 2009 AT&T Championship, had a round of 1-over 72.

• Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer linebacker Derrick Brooks teamed with Russ Cochran to shoot 10-under 61 and they share the first-round lead in the pro-am portion of the event with Tim Simpson and his amateur partner Jeffrey Leimbacher, an emergency-room physician from Clearwater, Fla. Brooks won the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am with Fulton Allem in 2008.

• Sixty-five-year-old Hale Irwin's 4-under 31 on his second nine today led to a 1-under 71 and was his 27th round under par out of 38 career scores recorded at the TPC Tampa Bay, the most by a player in tournament history. Sixty-eight-year-old Tom Wargo posted a 1-under 70 today to increase his tournament-best total of most rounds of par/better to 30 out of 53 scores posted in this event.

• Bob Gilder made his 174th consecutive start on the Champions Tour that he's been eligible for and carded a 2-under 69. Gilder's run began at the 2004 JELD-WEN Tradition. He's now just three 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.