CAP CANA, Dominican Republic -- A new event on the Champions Tour this year, the Cap Cana Championship in the Dominican Republic, is set for this week at the Punta Espada Golf Club's Jack Nicklaus Course.

• This is the first of two international events this season, with the Senior British Open scheduled for Scotland in July.

• The last time the Champions Tour played an official event in the Caribbean was in 1996, the Puerto Rico Senior Tournament of Champions, the season-opening event at the Hyatt Dorado Beach's East Course in Dorado, Puerto Rico.

• This week's field features 14 players who have won a combined 30 major championships on the PGA TOUR. In the field are five former Masters champions (Tom Watson, Craig Stadler, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam), seven former U.S. Open champions (Watson, Tom Kite, Hale Irwin, Scott Simpson, Jerry Pate and Larry Nelson), three former British Open champions (Watson, Lyle and Nick Price) and four former PGA Championship winners (Price, Jeff Sluman, Dave Stockton, and Wayne Grady).

• This week's Cap Cana Championship will be the first TOUR-sanctioned event held in the Dominican Republic and marks the Champions Tour's return to the Caribbean. The Champions Tour played an official-money event at the Hyatt Dorado Beach's East Course in Puerto Rico from 1990-1993 and 1995-96 and also co-sponsored four different unofficial events in the Caribbean over the years.

• The Chrysler Senior Match Play Challenge was played at the Hyatt Dorado Beach's East in 1999 and 2000. The Bahamas served as the venue for two other unofficial events. The Office Depot Father-Son Challenge was held at The Ocean Club near Nassau from 2000-2002, and the Senior Slam was held at Our Lucaya on Grand Bahama Island in 2000. In the 1980s, the Champions Tour also co-sponsored the Mazda Champions with the LPGA from 1985-89. The event was first held at Tryall Golf & Beach Club in Sandy Bay, Jamaica, from 1985-87 before moving to the Hyatt Dorado Beach in 1988-89.

• Scott Hoch's back-to-back tournament wins in Florida earlier this year gave him two victories in the first four official events of the season. Hoch won the Allianz Championship in Boca Raton by one shot over Brad Bryant and Bruce Lietzke. He followed up with a playoff win over Tom Kite, Tom Jenkins and Bryant at The ACE Group Classic in Naples. The only other time Hoch has claimed a pair of official wins in his career came in 2001 on the PGA TOUR when he captured the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic and the Advil Western Open.

• Seven-time PGA TOUR winner Joey Sindelar is scheduled to make his Champions Tour debut at this week's Cap Cana Championship. His debut in the Dominican Republic will be the third by a former PGA TOUR winner in a four-event stretch this season. Sandy Lyle debuted at the Toshiba Classic in California and tied for 54th. Ian Woosnam played in his first Champions Tour event last week at The Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach, tying for 51st. Sindelar turned 50 on March 30.

• The Champions Tour is no stranger to official international events. In the Tour's second year, players left the U.S. for the first time for the Peter Jackson Champions in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Cap Cana Championship will be the 29th international event in the Tour's history.

• Leading the way is Canada, which has hosted 11 events. The U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico has hosted six tournaments, as has Mexico, with Scotland hosting four and Northern Ireland the site of one tournament.

• Four players -- Don January, Mike Hill, Tom Jenkins and Tom Watson -- have multiple international victories. January won back-to-back titles in Canada in 1983 and 1984, a feat Hill duplicated in Puerto Rico in 1990 and 1991. Jenkins won the 2000 and 2002 AT&T Canada Senior Opens, while Watson won the 2003, 2005 and 2007 Senior British Opens.

• For the first three weeks of the 2008 season, Fred Funk led the Charles Schwab Cup race. For the next three weeks, the leader was Scott Hoch. Bernhard Langer is hoping to start a first-place run of his own now that he owns the top spot in the standings. By winning last week's Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach, Langer took a 363-point lead over Hoch. Langer has earned Charles Schwab Cup points in five of his six events entered this season. Funk is in third, while Brad Bryant and Jay Haas are in the fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

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