SAS Championship: Final-round notebook Mark Wiebe's victory today at the SAS Championship made him just the 12th player in Champions Tour history to win in his debut and first since Mark McNulty at the 2004 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. ![]() A girl holds a sign during Sunday's final round in Raliegh. (WireImage) Mark Wiebe also equaled Bobby Wadkins' (2001 Lightpath Long Island Classic) all-time mark as the Champions Tour's youngest winner ever (50 years, 10 days). Mark Wiebe became the first sponsor exemption to win since Christy O'Connor, Jr. at the 1999 State Farm Senior Classic. Mark Wiebe's win today ended a TOUR victory drought of 21 years, 2 months and 3 days. Prior to winning this week's SAS Championship, Wiebe's last victory on the PGA TOUR came at the 1986 Hardee's Golf Classic. Mark Wiebe's victory earned him a check for $300,000, his largest ever ($280,800-2000 Westin Texas Open at LaCantera), but more importantly earned him an exemption on the Champions Tour for a calendar year from today's date. Wiebe also earned a trip to the season-opening MasterCard Championship at Hualalai in Hawaii for the next two years. Mark Wiebe came into this week having played part-time on the Nationwide Tour over the last several years. In 2007, Wiebe had played in 11 events, made five cuts and earned $20,535. In his Nationwide Tour career, he played in 61 events, made 16 cuts and earned $51,169. Wiebe also registered three top-25 performances on the Nationwide Tour. Mark Wiebe also picked up 300,000 points and qualified for the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship at Baltimore Country Club in two weeks. The Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship is the last of five majors on the Champions Tour.
Mark Wiebe became 18th different winner on the Champions Tour this year and sixth first-time winner in 2007, joining Keith Fergus (Ginn Championship), Scott Hoch (FedEx Kinko's Classic), Denis Watson (Senior PGA Championship), Lonnie Nielsen (Commerce Bank Championship) and R.W. Eaks (Dick's Sporting Goods Open). Mark Wiebe's 18-under-par 198 total is a SAS Championship record for 54 holes. Wiebe's three-round score this week eclipsed Craig Stadler's old mark of 17-under 199 set in 2004 at Prestonwood. Mark Wiebe also became the second player to win his first Champions Tour event in Cary. In 2003, D.A. Weibring claimed his initial Champions Tour title at Prestonwood. Mark Wiebe earned 300 Charles Schwab Cup points for his win at the SAS Championship. Jay Haas picked up 54 points after finishing T9 this week and now has 2,459 Schwab Cup points on the season. Haas widened his lead on Brad Bryant (440 points back) and Loren Roberts (619 points back). Schwab Cup points are awarded on a per-thousand basis for top-10 finishes and at the end of the official season, the player earning the most points will collect a $1 million annuity. Last year, Haas edged Roberts for the Charles Schwab Cup in the closest race ever. ![]() Mark Wiebe tees off on the first hole in the final round. (WireImage) Mark Wiebe went all 54 holes this week without a three putt and, along with Dana Quigley and Massy Kuramoto, made only two bogeys in the event. Wiebe's first-round 65 matched the lowest start by a winner in event history (D.A. Weibring/2003, Craig Stadler/2004). Wiebe's 20 birdies this week were one shy of Larry Nelson's tournament record of 21 birdies at the 2001 event. The field stroke average for this year's event was 71.318, the lowest since the inaugural event in 2001 (71.216). Gil Morgan's T6 finish this week was his fourth consecutive performance among the top-6 in a Champions Tour event. Morgan began his run with a playoff loss at the Boeing Classic in Seattle, but then won the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach and finished T5 last week at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn. His three sub-70 scores this week at Prestonwood runs his streak of sub-par rounds to 12 straight, matching the longest run on the Champions Tour thus far in 2007 (Mark O'Meara and Tom Purtzer). Bruce Lietzke, a two-time winner of the SAS Championship, finished T3 this week at Prestonwood, his best performance in a Champions Tour event since finishing T2 at last year's rain-shortened Administaff Small Business Classic near Houston. Lietzke's only other top-10 finish this year was a T9 at the Toshiba Classic in mid-March. Keith Fergus earned $132,000 for his T3 finish this week in Cary and went over $1 million ($1,038,501/12th) in single-season earnings for the first time in his Champions Tour career. Defending champion Tom Jenkins carded a 70 today and now has a streak of 15 straight par/better scores at Prestonwood. Jenkins finished T15 this week and remains the all-time leading money-winner in SAS Championship history with $769,075. Andy Bean withdrew before the start of his round today due to heat exhaustion. Bean was at 6-under 136 (T15) through his first 36 holes at Prestonwood. |