Lehman Voted Champions Tour Player of the Year for the Second Year in a Row

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Tom Lehman didn't win the money title on the Champions Tour this year. On the other hand, he won one major, repeating as the Regions Tradition champion, and finished second in two others. He also won the season-ending Charles Cup Championship, which enabled him to claim the Charles Schwab Cup (the Champions Tour equivalent to the PGA Tour's Fed Ex Cup) for the second year in a row. 

All of which helps to explain why on Friday he was named the Champions Tour Player of the Year for the second straight year. 

The former University of Minnesota All-American thus becomes the fifth player to be voted Player of the Year by the other senior players in consecutive years, joining Jim Colbert (1995-96), Hale Irwin ('97-98), Jay Haas (2005-06) and Bernhard Langer (2008-09-10) on that exclusive list.

"I felt like Bernhard had the inside track," Lehman said. "So I was a bit surprised. To win two awards in a row is very special. It's nice to feel like I maintained a high level of play beyond just one season." 

Langer was the leading money-winner on the 2012 Champions Tour with $2,140,296, and was remarkably consistent, finishing in the top 10 17 times in the 20 events he played.

Lehman had 12 top-10's in 19 starts -- and made $1,982,575 -- but he was at his best on the biggest occasions. The Regions Tradition was his third senior major, and he nearly added to that total. He finished second to Joe Daley in the Constellation Senior Players Championship and tied for second at the U.S. Senior Open, behind Roger Chapman.

Going into the Charles Cup Championship, Lehman knew that he could overtake Langer, who was the leader in the Schwab Cup points race, by winning the tournament, which was precisely what he did. What's more, he did it in convincing fashion, setting a Champions Tour record with a 72-hole total of 258, 22 under par on the Cochise Course at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Ariz.

His putting was first-rate at Desert Mountain -- you have to putt extremely well to average 64.5 on a nearly 7,000-yard championship course --  but it wasn't his putting that made him Player of the Year again. It was his play from tee to green, as always. For the second consecutive year, Lehman was No. 1 on the Champions Tour in Total Driving (he was fifth in Distance and ninth in Accuracy, giving him a total score of 14) and No. 1 in Greens in Regulation (77.68).  

As for the other awards that were announced on Friday, Langer won the Arnold Palmer Award as the leading money-winner, Fred Couples claimed the Byron Nelson Award for the lowest scoring average (68.52 strokes per round), and Kirk Triplet was named the Rookie of the Year. Triplet, who turned 50 on March 29 (he was born on a Thursday, which is a good excuse for not winning the Masters), was the only senior rookie to win in 2012 (Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach). He was also the only rookie to qualify for the Charles Cup Championship by finishing the year in the top 30 on the money list. Triplet ended up No. 19 on the list with $833,717, and was 20th on the Schwab Cup points list.