Tom Lehman enjoys the freedom of the Champions Tour

Two highlights stick out in Tom Lehman’s career, which has also had its fair share of lows.

In 1996, he won the British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. And in 1999, he was on the winning Ryder Cup team at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

Lehman, who turned 54 last week, has had that kind of success on the Champions Tour, which has stopped at Newport Beach Country Club for the 19th annual Toshiba Classic this week.

At the end of 2012, Lehman became the first player to repeat as Champions Tour player of the year, and he became the first golfer in history to be named player of the year on all three PGA tours: the Web.com Tour (formerly known as Nationwide), the PGA Tour and Champions.

The 50-and-older tour suits him.

“I play with more freedom,” he said. “I have a different perspective. On this tour, they are still very competitive. But they understand that at the end of the day everything is fine. It’s different than being young and on the [PGA Tour] or trying to make it to the [PGA Tour]. That kind of perspective gives you more freedom to play golf.”

When Lehman was younger, he said he felt more pressure. The results mattered more, not just for prestige, but for financial reasons. At times during his career, Lehman struggled to find that “freedom.”

“If I could have had more of that mentality when I was 30 or younger, I would have had better scores,” Lehman said. “I think it could’ve translated to more victories.” Still, Lehman had five victories on the PGA Tour.

Lehman said he hasn’t been playing that well this year, but he has had two top-10 finishes in three events, including a tie for sixth at the Allianz Championship last month at Boca Raton, Fla. . While there he stayed with Bernhard Langer.

Langer said the two have talked about 2012 and the player-of-the-year award. Langer, the two-time Masters champion, was more consistent than Lehman, but Lehman won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, the final event of the year, for his second win of 2012.

This year, Langer, the 2008 Toshiba Classic champion, leads the Schwab Cup standings, a point system that factors into determining the player of the year.

Did Lehman’s 2012 finish motivate Langer to step up his game even more?

“I don’t need Tom Lehman to drive me to be better,” Langer said. “But there’s other competition. I think competition is healthy. … Whenever you have competition, it makes you work harder and strive for more and try to find that extra one or two percent in your game that you could possibly improve.”

Rocco Mediate, Steve Elkington and Esteban Toledo are making their debuts at Newport Beach. Toledo, a former Newport Beach honorary member who lives nearby in Irvine, is playing despite the death of his older brother, Mario, last week.

Other top competitors this week include Tom Watson, Fred Couples and defending champion Loren Roberts. The tournament runs from Friday through Sunday.

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