Through the U.S. Open, three rookies are inside the top 30 in the FedExCup standings: Charl Schwartzel (19), Keegan Bradley (22) and Jhonattan Vegas (24).
With their performances at the U.S. Open, Kevin Chappell (T3) and Louis Oosthuizen (T9) both made the largest jumps of the week in the FedExCup standings. Chappell moved 27 positions from No. 88 to No. 61, while Oosthuizen moved 27 spots from No. 158 to No. 131.
Jason Day (T2/Masters and 2/U.S. Open) and Charl Schwartzel (1/Masters and T9/U.S. Open) have totaled top 10s at the first two major championships of the 2011 campaign.
The last four major champions are all are in their 20s: (Louis Oosthuizen/2010 British Open -- Martin Kaymer/2010 PGA Championship -- Charl Schwartzel/2011 Masters -- Rory McIlroy/2011 U.S. Open.
The last 11 major championships have been won by 11 different players – only Phil Mickelson (2010 Masters Tournament), Angel Cabrera (2009 Masters Tournament) and Padraig Harrington (2008 PGA Championship) among the 11 players have career multiple major victories.
Jason Day currently leads the International Team standings for The Presidents Cup, to be played in his homeland of Australia in November. The International Team will consist of the top 10 international players (excluding those eligible for the European Ryder Cup team) from the Official World Golf Ranking as of Sunday, Sept. 18 (through the BMW Championship). International Team Captain Greg Norman will select two players to complete his team of 12 following the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola.
Hunter Mahan, who captured his first PGA TOUR title at the 2007 Travelers Championship, played in his first career TOUR event at TPC River Highlands in 2000 as an 18-year-old amateur. He was the reigning American Junior Golf Association Player of the Year at the time.
Corey Pavin, who lost in a playoff to Bubba Watson at the 2010 Travelers Championship, was playing in his first sudden-death playoff since the 1995 Kemper Open, a span of 340 events. Pavin’s career playoff record on the PGA TOUR stands at 5-4.
CHAMPIONS TOUR
Bernhard Langer was back in action for the first time after recovering from thumb surgery. Langer, the Champions Tour Player of the Year last season, finished T11 in the Berenberg Bank Masters on the European Senior Tour, a tournament he co-promotes with his brother Erwin, at the Cologne GC in Germany. Ian Woosnamshot 9-under to win the 54-hole event while American Tim Thelen finished third in his first European Senior Tour start.
Tom Lehman, who currently leads the Charles Schwab Cup and money races, will be making his first appearance at this week's Dick’s Sporting Goods Open. A three-time winner so far in 2011, Lehman played at the B.C. Open four times in his PGA TOUR career, making one cut in four starts (T66 in 1983). He is attempting to become the first to win Player of the Year honors on all three Tours. He was the Nationwide Tour Player of the Year in 1991 and the PGA TOUR Player of the Year in 1996.
Loren Roberts will celebrate his 56th birthday on Friday’s opening round of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open, where he will be attempting to defend his title. No player has defended a title at En-Joie GC in the four-year history of the tournament.
Senior PGA champion Tom Watson is scheduled to appear at En Joie GC for the first time since 1976 when he finished T21 at the B.C. Open on the PGA TOUR. The price of gas was $0.59 a gallon back then.
Fred Funk has recorded back-to-back runner-up finishes in his last two starts at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open (2009-2010). Funk, the 1996 B.C. Open champion, was also second in both 1999 and 2002 at En-Joie.
With 202 career top-10 finishes, Hale Irwin is just one shy of tying Bob Charles for the lead in that category in Champions Tour history.
Hal Sutton comes into the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open with a string of 86 consecutive holes without a bogey. Sutton’s last bogey came at No. 4 in the second round of the Principal Charity Classic. The record is 98 holes by Morris Hatalsky in 2003.
Champions Tour professional Bob Tway will caddie for his son Kevin at the Travelers Championship when he makes his PGA TOUR debut as a professional.
Nick Price, the 2011 Toshiba Classic champion, is the only Champions Tour winner this year to feature in the top 10 of the three major statistical categories during the week of his victory – 1st in Fairways Hit, T10 in Greens In Regulation and T6 in Putts.
NATIONWIDE TOUR
Aussie Mathew Goggin picked up his second Nationwide Tour win of 2011 in Wichita on Sunday. He is one win away from a battlefield promotion to the PGA TOUR. He has a commanding money list lead of $115,720 over Kyle Thompson of Columbia, SC.
2007 Nationwide Tour graduate Jason Day has finished runner-up in the first two majors of 2011 (Masters, U.S. Open) to go along with his T10 in the PGA Championship last August. Day, 23, is the only player to finish in the top 10 in the last three majors.
A pair of Nationwide Tour alums, Kevin Chappell (2010) and Robert Garrigus (2002, 2004, 2005), tied for third in the U.S. Open and were the low Americans. Playing in his first major, Chappell opened with a 76 at Congressional, then posted the best total of any player over the final 54 holes (67-69-66).
The Nationwide Tour travels to Leon, Mexico, this week for the Mexico Open by Banamex. The 144-man field includes 22 players from Mexico and the four leading members of the Tour de Las Americas.
Rob Oppenheim has made his last 15 cuts dating back to last October and posted 43 of 57 rounds of par or better. The Massachusetts native and 2002 Division II Player of the Year at Rollins College is 19th on the money list.
