SAS Championship: Second-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR Staff CARY, N.C. -- In the first 24 Champions Tour events this year, 12 second-round leaders/co-leaders have gone on to win, including Gil Morgan (Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach) and R.W. Eaks (Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn) in the last two tournaments. In the six-year history of the SAS Championship, three 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).  Dick Mast is trying to become the sixth first-time winner on the Champions Tour this year. (Grant Halverson/WireImage)
• The winner of the SAS Championship will earn 300 points in the Charles Schwab Cup race. Jay Haas, the current Schwab Cup leader with 2,405 points, currently is tied for fourth and could widen his lead on his nearest pursuers with a good finish Sunday. Haas leads Brad Bryant (tied for 52nd) by 386 points and Loren Roberts is in third place (tied for 41st), 565 points back. Schwab Cup points are awarded on a weekly 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. Haas edged Roberts for the Charles Schwab Cup last year in the closest race ever. • Mark Wiebe, making his first career start on the Champions Tour, carries a one-stroke lead into the final round of the SAS Championship. Should Wiebe go on and win, he would not only equal Bobby Wadkins' (2001 Lightpath Long Island Classic) mark as the Champions Tour's youngest winner ever (50 years, 10 days), but he would also become the 12th player in the history of the circuit to win in his debut. Mark McNulty was the last to claim his first Champions Tour win in his first official start at the 2004 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. • With a win Sunday, Wiebe would also became the first sponsor exemption to win since Christy O'Connor, Jr. at the 1999 State Farm Senior Classic. • Wiebe's last victory on PGA TOUR came at the 1986 Hardee's Golf Classic. A win at the SAS Championship on Sunday would end a victory drought of 21 years, 2 months and 3 days. Mike Fetchick holds the record for the longest time between last PGA TOUR victory and first Champions Tour title at 28 years, 9 months, 27 days (1956 Mayfair Inn Open, 1985 Hilton Head International). • Wiebe's PGA TOUR record when he's been the leader/co-leader heading into the final round is 0-3. The last time he played in the final group of a TOUR event on Sunday was at the 2001 Touchstone Energy Tucson Open when he was a leader by two strokes after 54 holes. He ended up shooting a final-round 74 at that event and tied for fifth. • Dick Mast will also be searching for his first Champions Tour title Sunday. Mast last played in a final group on the circuit at the 2006 Regions Charity Classic, where he eventually tied for sixth. This week, Mast is making his 117th career start on the Champions Tour. The all-time record for most appearances before their first Champions Tour victory is 177 starts, held jointly by Bruce Devlin (1995 FHP Health Care Classic) and Mike McCullough (2001 Mexico Senior Classic). • Dana Quigley will be searching for his 12th career win on the Champions Tour Sunday and first since turning 60 in April. Should Quigley prevail, he would join Hale Irwin (MasterCard Championship at Hualalai) and Gil Morgan (Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach). The last time the Champions Tour had three different players over age 60 win in the same season was in 1996, when Jimmy Powell (Brickyard Crossing Championship), Bob Charles (Hyatt Regency Maui Kaanapali Classic) and Dale Douglass (Bell Atlantic Classic) all prevailed. • Both Wiebe and Mast could become the sixth first-time winner on the Champions Tour this year. 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) all earned their first Champions Tour title earlier this year. D.A. Weibring won the first of his three career titles on the Champions Tour at the 2003 SAS Championship. • Mark Wiebe's 13-under-par 131 total is a tournament record for 36 holes. Wiebe's two-round total this week eclipsed Jim Ahern's mark of 12-under 132 in 2003. • The stroke average for the field Saturday was 70.872 compared to 71.359 Friday. There were 31 rounds in the 60s Saturday compared to 25 Friday. Surprisingly, with low scores everywhere, Dick Mast carded the only eagle of the day at the par-5 17th. • Defending champion Tom Jenkins carded a 6-under 66 Sunday and now has a streak of 14 straight par/better scores at Prestonwood. Andy Bean's second consecutive 69 Sunday allowed him to remain perfect at Prestonwood with 13 straight par/better scores in as many rounds played on this course. • Dana Quigley is the only player in the field who hasn't made a bogey for his first 36 holes in this event. Dating back to last week in Hickory, Quigley has now gone 43 straight holes without a bogey. • Mitch Adcock, a third-place finisher at last year's SAS Championship, improved by 13 strokes with his 8-under 64 Saturday, the lowest score of any player in the field on Saturday and a Champions Tour career best. Adcock vaulted 43 spots into a tie for 32nd. Tim Simpson's 7-under 65 was also a Champions Tour career-low score. Dick Mast's 7-under 65 was his low score of the 2006 season. • Fuzzy Zoeller was named as the Honorary Ryder Cup Chairman for the upcoming 2008 Ryder Cup. Next year's Ryder Cup will be held at Valhalla in Louisville, Ky., on Sept. 19-21. At the press conference, Zoeller was presented with a Louisville Slugger bat engraved with his name, the Ryder Cup logo and the years he was a member of the U.S. team (1979, 1983 and 1985). |
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