Haas named Champions Tour Player of the Year

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Jay Haas was named the Player of the Year by his fellow competitors on the Champions Tour, it was announced Tuesday by PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem.

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Jay Haas had four wins in 2007.

"To earn the respect of your peers is the highest honor you can receive," said Finchem. "These players all demonstrated remarkable skill and dedication to their craft this past season and we congratulate them on their selections."

Haas was voted as the Player of the Year on the Champions Tour for the second consecutive season following a four-win campaign that saw him finish with 18 top-10 finishes in 27 starts. He also collected his second consecutive Arnold Palmer Award as the Tour's leading money winner, taking home $2,581,001.

Still, Haas said earlier this year that he has had seasons where he played better.

"I've had a lot of people ask me that, if I thought this is the best I've ever played, and I will say that I've been pretty consistent and I feel probably as confident as I've ever felt playing in my career," he said. "But I guess I'll stop short of saying it's the best golf I've ever played.

"I have been very consistent, I will admit that. But I don't know, I guess I don't think so much about it. It's hard to compare eras, and you know, I was able to win tournaments on the PGA TOUR, and so I guess I would have to say that I was playing well then when I won tournaments.

"Now, could I go out and win a tournament out there? I don't know if I can. I guess I won't find out. I'm having the time of my life here, and I think I'm done with that."

He was selected as the top player in a vote of the membership over Brad Bryant, R.W. Eaks, Loren Roberts and Denis Watson.

Denis Watson, who won twice, including the Senior PGA Championship, earned Champions Tour Rookie of the Year honors. Watson finished third on the money list with 12 top-10 finishes and collected his award over fellow nominees Fred Funk, Scott Hoch, Mark O'Meara and Nick Price.

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Denis Watson

Watson's win at the Senior PGA Championship was his first in a PGA TOUR sanctioned event in 23 years of competiton.

"It's an interesting thing with golf, you know, golfers talking about having goals, they want to win, they want to win twice and a major and all that stuff," he said. "I threw all that stuff out. My goal became just to go play and play to my potential. And, you know, my friend and my teacher, David Leadbetter, he said to me when I started working hard after shoulder surgery last year -- so November.

"I started swinging quite well, was working hard and he said to me, 'You know, if you can swing like this, if you can hit like this, you're going to do fine. Go after it,' he said, 'Once you get there, you'll remember how to play.'"

He sure did.

"When I went to Hawaii I was playing well. I hadn't played very much golf. I hit balls in the snow in California three days before I left to go to Hawaii. It snowed a couple of days out at the TPC out there. The wind was blowing 50 miles an hour, and I was out there hitting balls and having a blast and hitting it fantastic. And I was going, "Man, if I can hit like this, I will have a chance to score well." Well, you know, after I shot 65 the second round in Hawaii, you know, you start going, 'Wow, I got this.'"

But fortunately my wife is going, look, it's a great round, nobody can unring that. Go play the last round and enjoy it. It's like the old cliche, you've heard it 100 times, play one shot at a time; don't get ahead. We all like to delve on the last bad shot, so trying to get away from those dumb mistakes that golf professionals make."

Eaks was named the Champions Tour Comeback Player of the Year after winning the first two titles of his career. The 55-year old Eaks finished sixth on the money list with a career high $1,534,098. He topped Hoch and Watson for the award.

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R.W. Eaks

Eaks' first victory came at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open in July. He closed with a stellar 66 on Sunday to win by three strokes. Eaks, a self-taught golfer from Colorado who has five runner-up finishes the past two years, completed the three rounds over the narrow and tricky En-Joie Golf Club course at 17-under 199. He won $240,000 to push his earnings for the year past $1 million. Not bad for a guy who was told after his only golf lesson to give up the game.

His second win of 2007 came at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn. He closed with a 2-under 70 to hold off Haas and Rod Spittle.

"That's the hardest thing I've ever had to do," said Eaks, who rallied from a five-stroke deficit to force a playoff with eventual winner Andy Bean last year at Rock Barn Golf and Spa. "I always told myself that if I ever had that kind of a lead, it'd be the easiest thing to do to keep it, but it's not. ... I'll never do that again -- at least not intentionally."

"I just started playing too safe," said Eaks. "As well as I was playing, I didn't think anybody could catch me. I probably did a couple things out there that I'd normally wouldn't do."

The Champions Tour Byron Nelson Award for low scoring average went to Roberts for the second consecutive season. On his way to winning the Charles Schwab Cup, Roberts posted a scoring average of 69.31.