O'Meara to play in U.S. Open

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• Mark O'Meara qualified on Monday for next week's U.S. Open. O'Meara shot rounds of 70-70 for a total of 140 in Lake Forest, Ill., to advance to his 23rd U.S. Open Championship. The 51-year-old O'Meara was raised in Southern California and played in 25 PGA TOUR events at Torrey Pines, where he won in 1997.

While O'Meara hasn't added a U.S. Open win to his majors collection -- he won the Masters Tournament and the British Open Championship in 1998 -- he did tie for third at the '88 U.S. Open held at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

Here's how O'Meara has fared at the Buick Invitational, which takes place early in the year at Torrey Pines, in the past three decades:

• If the golf course has the word "Oak" in it, bet on Jay Haas. The veteran won his seventh career title last week on a course that had "Oak" in its name. Haas has won the last two Principal Charity Classics at Glen Oaks, has two career wins at the Valero Texas Open at Oak Hills, a victory at the Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill, another Senior PGA Championship at Oak Tree and a SBC Championship at Oak Hills.

• The Champions Tour will take the next two weeks off before returning the week of June 16-22 just outside of Boston at the Bank of America Championship.

• Three different players -- Scott Hoch, Tom Watson and Jay Haas -- have recorded back-to-back victories this year. That's the most since four players accomplished the feat back in 1997.

• Nick Price is still looking for that elusive first win on the Champions Tour, but he's among the hottest players on Tour. Price has finished in the top 10 in six of his last seven starts and has done so in seven of nine outings this season.