Six former Shell Houston Open champions are still in the FedEx Cup hunt, teeing it up this week in the second round of the PGA TOUR playoffs.

The following are teeing it up this week in the Deutsche Bank Championship: Robert Allenby (2000), Stuart Appleby (2999, 2006), Adam Scott (2007), Paul Casey (2009), Anthony Kim (2010) and Vijay Singh (2002, 2004, 2005).

Notice a trend here? Only Kim is American-born. The others are international stars. Allenby, Appleby and Scott are Australians, Casey an Englishman and Singh a Fijian.

When 16-year-old Aubrey Phillips scored two holes-in-one in the same round on Aug. 19, it made national news. Golf Digest, GolfWorld, The Golf Channel and others picked up the story on what took place on the Cypress Course at Cypresswood Golf Club in a qualifying tournament for the Greater Houston Junior Championship. BTW: According to Golf Digest, the odds of such a feat are 67 million to one.

Let’s put that into perspective. Since 1946 a total of 8,815 golfers, including Hall of Famers and major championship winners, have played 25,966 rounds in Shell Houston Open PGA TOUR event. Nobody has ever made two aces in one round at the Shell Houston Open.

In fact, only 27 holes in one have been made in the tournament’s history.

Here’s something to consider: Aubrey Phillips used the SAME ball to make his aces, the first on the par-3 5th hole and the second on the par-3 16th. Coincidentally, Phillips struck both shots with the SAME club — a 9-iron.

Even after Phillips made his second ace, he still kept his Slazenger golf ball in play. He had no fear that he would lose the ball, even though a lake comes into play on the 18th hole. For the record Philliips shot 42-35 for a 5-over-par 77 that was good enough to claim a spot in the Greater Houston Junior Championship, set Aug. 28-29 at Redstone Golf Club — Tournament Course, home of the Shell Houston Open.

Stuart Appleby, two-time SHO winner (1999 & 2006), is back where he belongs - in the winner’s circle. His victory at the Greenbrier Classic topped off by a stunning final-round 59 put him in exclusive company.

Only five 59s have been shot during PGA TOUR competitive tournament rounds. Only two players have recorded them in the final round and gone on to victory. Both happen to be former Shell Houston Open champions.

David Duval (1998 SHO winner) did it in 1999 when he won the Bob  Hope Classic, posting a 13-under-par 59 on a par-72 layout. Appleby’s 59, 11-under-par, came last week on the par-70 White Course at Greenbrier.

Is it more impressive to shoot 59 on a par-72 or a par-70? Or how about breaking 60 a par-71? That’s what Paul Goydos did in the first round of the John Deere Classic two weeks ago.

No matter. The discussion will make for an interesting topic. The other two players who shot 59 — Al Geiberger in Memphis (2nd round) in 1977 and Chip Beck in Las Vegas (3rd round) in 1991 — bring another question into the debate. Is shooting 59 a blessing or a curse?

Ater winning at Memphis Geiberger would win only once more. Beck finished third in Las Vegas. He, too, won only once more PGA TOUR event after shooting 59. In fact, Beck missed 46 consecutive cuts in 1997-1998 before taking a haitus from the game to pursue business interests.

The Shell Houston Open’s penchant for giving up-and-coming talent a chance was again underscored at the 2011 British Open, won by Louis Oosthuizen. The young South African played in the 2008 SHO on an exemption offered by tournament director Steve Timms.

Refer back to June when Ireland’s Graem McDowell won the U.S. Open. McDowell teed it up in the SHO in 2001 on an exemption when he was still a college student.

With both guaranteed spots in the 2011 Masters Tournament, hopefully they will consider playing the week prior in the Shell Houston Open. BTW: It was disappointing that current SHO champion Anthony Kim was still on the mend from his hand surgery and missed the Open Championship at St. Andrews. But it was fun watching 2009 SHO winner Paul Casey climb into contention and gratifying to see England’s Lee Westwood claim another runner-up finish in a major.

Showings like that continue to highlight the strength  of the player field in the Shell Houston Open.

Dave Lancer, Director of Information for the PGA Tour, is leaving after 26 years. To say that Lancer will be missed is such an understatement. He is a walking, talking Wikipedia about the PGA TOUR in particular and golf in general.

Lancer, 57, joined the PGA TOUR Media Staff one year after yours truly left the newspaper ranks and found honest work with the Houston Golf Association. Lancer was/is/has been the ultimate professional ever since. Dave penned most of the PGA TOUR’s news releases on significant golf happenings in the last quarter century.

More than that he trained other PGA TOUR Media officials through the years. He handled difficult situations with media members and players in the same patient, understated manner.

Lancer had no problem telling a national media member to wait until after the mass interview was over to ask a player questions about an upcoming major championship or some other event.  “There are others here whose assingment is to report on what happned today,” Lancer would remind the offender. “Be respectful of their time.”

When players sometimes wanted to shun the media, Lancer would offer advice something like this: “You can’t play golf in a vacuum. Give the media some sort of statement. Or answer a few questions and then say you do not want to discuss it again. Refuse to address the situation and it will take on a life of its own.”

Lancer was a maestro on an IBM Electric typewriter, churning out information with blistering speed. Harless Wade, the late Dallas Morning News golf writer of another era, once told Lancer, “You type so damn fast you would make a great secretary.”

Dave could also make a computer keyboard click like castanets.  The last nine years Lancer has composed weekly E-notes and sent them to various media members. Those notes appeared regularly on the Tour Talk page on shellhoustonopen.com.

It would not be a stretch to say Lancer’s pearls have spawned more positive columns, notes and feature stories than anything coming out of PGA TOUR headquarters in Ponte Vedra, FL. Wedneday, July 15 will be Dave’s last day at the PGA TOUR. The Communications Department at PGA TOUR headquarters certainly will not be the same.

Neither will those who always had a “go-to-guy” for information at the PGA TOUR.

With rising star Anthony Kim winning the Shell Houston Open and Lee Westwood taking the St. Jude Classic, the lead-in events for golf’s first two majors grabbed the national spotlight.

Both ended in playoffs. Kim, after a bogey on the closing hole, defeated Augusta native Vaugh Taylor in a playoff the week prior to The Masters. Westwood (3 in the world rankings) defeated Robert Karlsson and Robert Garrigus in a playoff to take momentum into this week’s U.S. Open Championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Garrigus actually supplied the most drama, frittering away a 3-shot lead with a triple-bogey-7 on the 18th hole. Then Garrigus bogeyed the 18th, which was the first playoff hole.

Westwood finally prevailed with a birdie to win, ending a string of 12 years between his PGA TOUR wins. He had won all over the globe but had not triumphed on the PGA TOUR since the 1998 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Two-time (1999 & 2006) Shell Houston Open winner Stuart Appleby continues his improved play in 2010. The Aussie qualified to play in the U.S. Open next week at Pebble Beach Golf Links, shooting 67-67 in a sectional qualifier at Columbus, OH.

BTW: Derek Lamely, who played in Houston Golf Association’s junior program when he was in high school at Montgomery, also snagged a spot at the Ohio qualifier by shooting 68-69. Chris Stroud, who makes his home near Redstone GC, shot 70-66 in the Memphis sectional qualifier and earned one of two final spots in a 5-way playoff.

The Texas Slam remains a myth in 2010, no player has won all-four Lone Star State PGA TOUR stops.

Corey Pavin, boasting wins in Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth, finished T23 at the HP Byron Nelson Championship last week. So, the 50-year-old Ryder Cup captain remains one tournament shy of completing the slam.

Adam Scott, 29, who has wins at the 2007 Shell Houston Open, 2008 HP Byron Nelson Championship and 2010 Valero Texas Open, will not try to complete his slam. The Aussie is not entered in Fort Worth this week at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.

Eleven players have now won three legs of the mythical Texas Slam but Scott is the only competitor still active on the PGA TOUR. Five active PGA TOUR players have won two legs  Rory Sabatini, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia (all Dallas & Fort Worth), Fred Couples and Vijay Singh (Dallas & Houston).

Lyn Fitzpatrick got an unexpected birthday present at the Shell Houston Open Birdies for Charity Grand Prize Drawing on Thursday (May 20). She won!

Out of 2,726 pledges there were 10 correct guesses that 1,528 birdies would be made at the 2010 Shell Houston Open. Fitzpatrick, representing Culture Shapers, selected a key that started the 2010 Honda Fit, the grand prize donated by Goodson Honda and its president Rocky McCullough.

Fitzpatrick, representing Administaff, had two pledges with the correct number of birdies. She got to pick the very first key, which did not start the car. Five others selected keys that failed to start the engine. The number seven was lucky! That key started the Honda Fit.

Fitzpatrick will donate the car back to Culture Shapers. Culture Shapers is an arts organization that is dedicated to encouraging young people through our unique visual and performing arts contests for high school students.

The Birdies for Charity program, administered by the Houston Golf Association since 1999, has generated more than $5 million for local non-profits. HGA provides all the collateral material, such as pledge forms and posters, and all of the collected pledges go to the participating organizations.

“We are proud of this program and how it gives local agencies the opportunity to connect with the Shell Houston Open as a vehicle for raising funds,” said Steve Timms, president and CEO of the Houston Golf Association.

Adam Scott, 2007 Shell Houston Open champion, won the Valero Texas Open over the weekend and is now in position to be the first-ever winner of the mythical Texas Slam.

Eleven players have won three legs of this Lone Star State Slam. No player has ever won all four Texas PGA TOUR stops - Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth. Scott added his name to the list of players with three Texas victories with his triumph in in San Antonio. The Aussie, who turns 30 in July, won in Dallas in 2008.

The closest any player has come to winning the Texas Slam is Arnold Palmer. Palmer won in Houston, San Antonio and Colonial. He lost in a playoff with Jack Nicklaus in 1970 at Dallas.

Interesting note: Scott and the late Byron Nelson are the only players with victories in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Nelson, the late Ben Hogan and Ben Crenshaw (now on The Champions Tour) are the native Texans with three Texas titles, the latter two lacking a victory in Houston.

The PGA TOUR moves to Dallas this week and then over to Fort Worth the following week.