Tom Lehman awarded the Champions Tour Player of the Year award
Grizzled Tom Lehman, winner of last week’s MCB Tour Championship on the European Senior Tour, has been declared as the Player of the Year on the Champions Tour, a subsidiary of the PGA and has become the first player in the history to be awarded with the
accolade on all three tours on PGA. Playing simultaneously on the PGA Tour’s Champions Tour and the European Senior Tour on the European Tour, Lehman has pulled in the unprecedented feat with gross earnings of $2,081,526 on the PGA alone. He is also the only
player to cross the $2-million mark in earnings in a single year 2011 on the Champions Tour.
"Tom's year has been incredible," said Champions Tour President Mike Stevens. "To become the first person to receive Player of the Year on all three Tours is a significant historical achievement and must be rewarding and satisfying for Tom.”
Lehman was nominated for the award, the Nationwide Player of the Year, the then known as the Hogan Tour in 1991. He was again nominated for the coveted PGA Tour Player of the Year award in 1996 when he won the British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
"It was a goal of mine to complete Player of the Year on all three Tours and it's very satisfying to achieve something you set out to do," Lehman said. "To prove yourself as the best player of the year at every level is very satisfying."
Lehman carded three victories this year on the Champions Tour alone, including the Charles Schwab Cup. The season-opener Allianz Championship at The Old Course at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, and went over to pull in his third victory at the Mississippi
Gulf Resort Classic at Fallen Oak in Biloxi, Miss. He made 21 starts this year on the Champions Tour, winning three titles and posting 12 top-ten finishes.
Lehman joined the Champions Tour in the year 2009. He earned a colossal 2,422 points, 74 points better than the nearest contender Mark Calcavecchia. He posted a Greens in Regulation average of 77.68 percent.
Lehman also made four cuts in his five appearances on the PGA Tour this year, posting a high of joint 22nd at the Open Championship at Royal St. Georges.
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