Earlier this month the 2014 Champions Tour season concluded with Tom Pernice Jr. winning the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in a playoff and Bernhard Langer capturing the season-long race to the Charles Schwab Cup. It was a fittingly exciting way to end a season filled with historic moments, great golf and ageless Champions. Here's a look back at the biggest and best highlights...

Mr. 59

It was going to happen, sooner or later, and in 2014 it was Kevin Sutherland, a Champions Tour rookie, who stepped up at Dick's Sporting Goods Open at En-Joie Golf Club and made Champions Tour history on a magical Saturday when he shot a 59.

 Sutherland is now in rare company as one of only six players in PGA TOUR history - and the only Champions Tour player - to accomplish this feat. 

History was then made again just one week later at the Boeing Classic when for the first time in Champions Tour history three players in the 59 Club were paired together in the same group during the opening round. Sutherland joined Chip Beck, the second player in PGA TOUR history to shoot a 59, and Paul Goydos, the fifth player to do so on the PGA TOUR. 

 The Standard of Excellence

2010 Boeing Classic Champion Bernhard Langer won five times in 2014 in addition to his Charles Schwab Cup victory. He also earned the Arnold Palmer Award for the sixth time in seven years, topping the Money List with $3,074,189 to set an all-time Champions Tour record.

 The Charles Schwab Cup victory was completed before the final event, which demonstrated his season-long dominance as Langer carved out his finest year on the Champions Tour.

And when it was over, what was Langer talking about? Getting better and improving his game next year. Langer is a success on the Champions Tour because he refuses to accept losing. It motivates him like it motivates few others.

 The Rookies

The elite 30-man field for the season-ending Charles Schwab Championship included nine "rookies." That's a big number (and one short of the record), but not surprising because on the Champions Tour the concept is redefined.

 The newcomers are hardly rookies. They are seasoned professionals with decades of experience. They arrive with skills intact. That makes competing and winning hardly unique.

 Scott Dunlap was one of four rookies to win on the tour this year, earning his first-ever victory at the 2014 Boeing Classic. Other winners in their first year on the Champions Tour included Jeff Maggert, Wes Short, Jr. and Paul Goydos.

A Winner at 60

It's natural for the finest professional athletes to wonder where it might end, when the victories will stop coming. Sure, Jay Haas did contemplate that after the 2013 season, but deep down he knew the game was still intact.

 He proved it time and again in 2014. He played superbly but despite all those top-10 finishes a victory proved elusive. Until the Greater Hickory Kia Classic at Rock Barn.

 At age 60 years, 10 months and 17 days, Haas became the 10th oldest winner on the Champions Tour. It was his 17th title. He ranks No. 16 on the all-time victory list. At Rock Barn, Haas set a tournament 54-hole scoring record with a 17-under 196 total.