Champions Tour Notes: Week of Sept. 17, 2007 Jay Haas extended his Charles Schwab Cup lead with a tie for second last week at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn. Haas now has a 386-point lead over Brad Bryant. ![]() Tom Jenkins is the defending champion in Cary, N.C. (Rogash/WireImage) One more on Haas: He leads the Champions Tour with 16 Top-10 finishes. He has a Tour-best four wins along with four second-place efforts. Gil Morgan's T5 last week in North Carolina pushed him over the $1-million mark in season earnings for the 11th consecutive season. That breaks a tie between Morgan and Hale Irwin for most consecutive years winning $1 million or more. Jeff Sluman finished T15 last week in his Champions Tour debut. This week will see debuts from former PGA TOUR winners Fulton Allem and Mark Wiebe at the SAS Championship. Tom Jenkins will defend for the seventh time in his Champions Tour career at this week's SAS Championship. His best effort in six title defenses on the circuit was a tie for third at the 2005 Blue Angels Classic. Jenkins is also bidding to extend to six his streak of years winning at least one Champions Tour event. Even though poor weather shortened last year's tournament to 36 holes, the field scoring average at Prestonwood Country Club was 72.908, the highest ever for this event. After ranking as the ninth-hardest layout on the Champions Tour in 2005, Prestonwood's scoring average last year ranked the course as the 10th-most difficult on the circuit in 2006. In the six-year history of the SAS Championship, three of the previous second-round-leaders/co-leaders have gone on to win the event (Bruce Lietzke in 2001, Craig Stadler in 2004 and Tom Jenkins in 2006). Lietzke shared the lead with Jay Overton and Bobby Wadkins at 9-under 135 before a closing-round 66 gave him a three-stroke win. Stadler held a four-stroke margin over Jenkins in 2005 before winning by six strokes. Last year, Jenkins led Chip Beck and Loren Roberts by one stroke after play on Saturday and was declared the winner on Sunday after inclement weather forced the cancelation of the final round. No one has been more consistent at Prestonwood Country Club during the last four years than Tom Jenkins. He won the 2006 rain-shortened event with a 36-hole score of 10-under 134. His 54-hole total in the three years prior to winning was 11-under 205. He is a combined 52 strokes under par in six appearances in the SAS Championship. Jenkins currently has reeled off 12 straight par-or-better scores at Prestonwood. Andy Bean has been par or better in all 11 of his rounds at Prestonwood, while both Chip Beck and Loren Roberts played all 36 holes at Prestonwood without a bogey last year. Tom Jenkins is the leading money-winner at the SAS Championship, with $737,035. Bruce Lietzke, a two-time winner of the event, is second in earnings, with $572,000. Craig Stadler is third, with $439,700. R.W. Eaks and David Eger are enjoying banner seasons in 2007. Eaks picked up his second Champions Tour victory of the year last week at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn and has 11 top-10 finishes in 2007. He's earned more than $1.4 million in official money this year, in excess of $700,000 more than his previous-best season on the Champions Tour (2006). After registering just three top-10s in 2006, Eger has posted nine top-10s this year, his most recent coming last week at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn (tied for 10th). He is currently 17th on the 2007 money list, his highest standing on the single-season money list. |