Haas' lackluster week still gives him the Schwab Cup
By Art Spander, Special to PGATOUR.COM
SONOMA, Calif. -- Jay Haas didn't do much. Except win the Charles Schwab Cup. That's enough isn't it, especially since it produces a $1 million annuity.
Haas finished first in the year-long Champions Tour points chase because, even though he didn't play well in the season's ultimate tournament, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, neither did any of the other contenders.
Or at least well enough to collect any points, given only to the top 10 finishers each week.
And not a single player who arrived at Sonoma Country Club with a chance to take the Cup, legitimate or outside, came in better than 13th.
Andy Bean, at an impressive, and almost ridiculous, 20-under par total of 268, was the guy in first. He and everybody else on Sunday had to play both part of the rain-suspended third round and the entire fourth round. You can see it didn't bother him.
Nor did staggering to the finish line particularly bother the 54-year-old Haas, who, Wake Forest alum and knowledgeable basketball fan that he is, said, "I was kind of in a four corners out there.''
Haas closed with an even-par 72 and a 4-under total of 284, tied for 16th. Of the potential Cup-winning fivesome, rookie John Cook, was low at 282, but in 13th. Bernhard Langer shot 285, Eduardo Romero 287 and frustrated Fred Funk an even-par 288.
Funk was the overall point's leader two weeks ago but tied for 36th in the AT&T at San Antonio and tied for 25th at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. "I just wish,'' said Funk, "I could have made it a little more exciting.''
Haas, who joined Hale Irwin and Tom Watson as two-time Cup winners, didn't need any excitement if he couldn't create it. And he couldn't.
"But, anyway, when everything is said and done, it's like NASCAR, or whatever,'' Haas pointed out, "when the guy holding the big major trophy at the end doesn't win the last race.
"That's a pretty cool thing.''
Champions Tour golf seems cyclical. This is the Jay Haas cycle. He took the Charles Schwab in 2006 by 20 points over Loren Roberts, was second to Roberts in 2007 and now in 2008 takes the Cup once more, by the smallest margin ever, 12 points over Funk.
Langer was third, 96 points back of Haas, Romero came in fourth and Cook fifth.
"I was real fortunate that nobody behind me did what he had to do,'' said Haas. "I didn't do what I had to do, but they didn't either.
"I thought when Cook got off to a great start Saturday (he was 3-under through five holes), and with all the bad weather, I better look out for him. But he had to win to pass me. I was more concerned with trying to get some points of my own this week . . . But I just couldn't do it.''
Nor could he earn enough (his purse was $48,500) to catch Langer in the money standings, Bernhard's $42,500 giving him a season-long total of $2,025,073 compared to Haas' second-place $1,991,726.
Haas alluded to his Cup victory in '06. "I guess I feel like I did a couple of years ago,'' he said. "I don't feel like I backed into it that year, even though Loren missed a short putt and everything.
"It's amazing it comes down to just a few points.''
And, as we've been told repeatedly about high-quality golf, a few putts.
One of those came eight days ago in the AT&T Championship. After what Haas called "the shot of year. If you can just boil it down to one shot.''
At No. 18 there, Haas hit "an awful iron'' into a grass bunker, then made a magnificent recovery to about seven feet, then holed the putt to tie for third.
"That put me the 12 points ahead. So that was the whole thing as you look back.''
Funk said Sonoma, some 50 miles north of San Francisco in the wine country, and Oak Hills, last week's venue in San Antonio, are two of his favorite courses.
"And I off to a bad start there,'' he said, "and a bad start there. But overall, it was a pretty good year.''
Overall, for Haas, it was a very good year. A million bucks in one fell swoop, is the stuff of which Wall Street used to dream. Past tense.
"I guess my body's lasted pretty good,'' Haas, who turns 55 next month said of his physical condition. "I think that's a big part of it.
"Emotionally, after the (2004) Ryder Cup, coming out here, I was torn between still playing some PGA TOUR golf but wanting to come out here. I wasn't quite ready for either. But my first win there at Hickory three years ago, kind of spurred me on a little bit. I guess this says I've been pretty consistent.''
It says from beginning to end he's the Champions Tour player of the year.
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