Anaylsis: The top-10 in the Charles Schwab Cup race

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Oct. 8, 2008

There are only four events left in the 2008 Champions Tour season, which means the Charles Schwab Cup race is winding down. Nine of the top-10 players in the standings are in the field at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, an event that awards 780 points to the winner.

How have these top-10 players fared at this event in the past? How do we expect them to do this week? PGATOUR.COM's Lauren Deason has evaluated these high-ranking contestants.

Rank	Name	Points	Best finish*	Analysis
1	Jay Haas	2,186	T3 (2006)	After taking over a month off during the summer due to injuries and family events, Haas hasn't quite regained his early season form. His best finish in the five events he's played since that layoff was a tie for third at the JELD-WEN Tradition, the fourth major on the Champions Tour.
2	Bernhard Langer	2,047	T13 (2007)	Germany's Bernhard Langer returned to Europe after a tie for seventh at the JELD-WEN Tradition and won his first European Seniors Tour title at the inaugural Casa Serena Open in early September. When he returned to the Champions Tour two weeks ago, he had an uncharacteristic tie for 45th -- his worst finish of the year -- at the SAS Championship.
3	Fred Funk	1,964	T3 (2007)	Funk has decided to spend the rest of the season focusing solely on the Champions Tour because he wants to win the Charles Schwab Cup race. Thanks to a win at the JELD-WEN Tradition and three top-10 finishes in the past four tournaments, Funk is narrowing the gap between himself and the leaders.
4	Eduardo Romero	1,874	2nd (2007)	There's no one hotter than Romero at the moment. He's won three times in his last five events and was third in one of the others. Romero's most recent win came the last time the Champions Tour teed it up and the Argentine could earn back-to-back victories.
5	John Cook	1,461	N/A	One of only two players in the Charles Schwab Cup standings without a win, Cook leads the Champions Tour in top-10 finishes this season with 13. He's also hitting the green in regulation 73.82 percent of the time, which makes him the second most accurate player on the Champions Tour in that category.
6	Scott Hoch	1,453	T7 (2007)	He kicked the year off with two wins in his first four events and, though he hasn't captured a title since, he's continued to play well. Hoch has finished inside the top 10 in three of the first four majors this season and tied for 10th in his last event.
7	Loren Roberts	1,191	Win (2007)	Last year Roberts took over the Charles Schwab Cup lead with a win at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. Usually one of the Champions Tour's most consistent players, Roberts has 11 top-10s this season but has only had one in his last five events. Roberts is leading the Tour in scoring average with 69.68 strokes.
8	Jeff Sluman	1,157	T17 (2007)	One of the nine multiple winners on the 2008 Champions Tour, Sluman won the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at the end of August and the Bank of America Championship in late June. Sluman is the best on Tour in scrambling, making par or better 67.46 percent of the time despite missing the green in regulation.
9	Tom Watson	1,117	2nd (2007), T2 (2003)	The only player in the top-10 who's not in the field in Baltimore -- Watson had left hip replacement surgery and will sit out for the remainder of the season -- he will likely be passed this week since Champions Tour majors offer double the Charles Schwab Cup points as other weeks.
10	Scott Simpson	898	T3 (2007)	Though he hasn't won this season, Simpson is in the top 10 due to his eight top-10 finishes. Simpson has really turned it on lately, earning top-10s the last three times he's played on the Champions Tour.