LAKEWAY, Texas -- Scott Hoch won his first Champions Tour event, the 2007 FedEx Kinko's Classic, holding off D.A. Weibring by shooting a final-round 68. Since then, Hoch, who finished 23rd in last year's Charles Schwab Cup standings, has won two more times and is second in the year-long points chase after winning the Allianz Championship and The ACE Group Classic on back-to-back weeks in February.

The FedEx Kinko's Classic is in its sixth year, with all the previous tournaments at The Hills Country Club in suburban Austin, a Jack Nicklaus-designed course that opened in 1981. The Hills is the site again this week, a year after ranking as the fifth-most-difficult course on the 2007 Champions Tour. A year ago, players were nearly 1.5 strokes over par for the tournament (1.423).

This week's FedEx Kinko's Classic is the first of three Champions Tour stops in the Lone Star State in 2008. After the Austin event, the Champions Tour returns to Texas in the fall for the Administaff Small Business Classic near Houston and the AT&T Championship in San Antonio. Tom Kite enjoyed the most success in Texas last year. Even though he didn't win, Kite was fifth at the FedEx Kinko's Classic, third at the Administaff Small Business Classic and tied for 13th at the AT&T Championship.

Past champions haven't enjoyed great success when trying to defend their title at this tournament. In 2004, Hale Irwin tied for 40th after winning the inaugural event the previous year. In 2005, Larry Nelson tied for 25th in defense of his 2004 crown. In 2006, Jim Thorpe tied for 21st after winning in 2005. Last year, Jay Haas finished 10th in defense of his 2006 title.

The par-4 ninth hole at The Hills Country Club annually ranks among the most-difficult on the Champions Tour. Last year, it was the seventh-toughest hole on the Tour, with an average score of 4.491. Players made just 12 birdies there in 2007. A year earlier, No. 9 was the second most-difficult hole on the Champions Tour, with an average score of 4.498 -- again yielding only 12 birdies.

In 2003, the inaugural year of the tournament, the ninth hole played as the eighth-hardest on the circuit, with a stroke average of 4.421. In 2004, No. 9 was the second-hardest on the Champions Tour, with a stroke average of 4.659. In 2005, it ranked fourth overall, with an average of 4.652. Last year, Scott Hoch played the ninth hole in 1 over par while D.A. Weibring, the tournament's runner-up, was 1 under on No. 9.

Scott Hoch's win last year in Austin was his first on the Champions Tour and first since claiming the last of 11 PGA TOUR titles, at the 2003 Ford Championship at Doral. He's added two titles already this season, at the Allianz Championship and The ACE Group Classic.

Leonard Thompson's tournament-record 64 in the opening round of last year's tournament gave him a first-round lead in a tournament for the first time since the 2005 Bank of America Championship near Boston. Thompson eventually tied for 11th a year ago.

Jay Haas has been par or better in five of his six rounds at The Hills. His only over-par round was the second-round 73 he shot last year.

Hale Irwin and D.A. Weibring both come into this year's event with five straight sub-par rounds at The Hills. In addition to winning in 2003, Irwin tied for sixth in 2006 and was fourth last year. Weibring, the runner-up in 2007, has never finished outside the top 20 in four starts in Austin.

Craig Stadler has never finished better than a tie for ninth in the event (2005), but he has also never placed worse than a tie for 14th (2004).

Bernhard Langer pulled farther ahead in the Charles Schwab Cup standings, taking a 208-point lead over Scott Hoch. Jay Haas is in third, while Tom Watson moved into the fourth position after teaming with Andy North to win the Legends Division of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf. John Cook rounds out the top five, while North moved into 17th place.

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