Charles Schwab Cup race will likely shift in Baltimore
By Lauren Deason, PGATOUR.COM Editorial Coordinator
BALTIMORE, Md. -- A degree in Calculus isn't needed to understand how the Charles Schwab Cup race works. When a player finishes in the top 10 at one of the 29 official events on the Champions Tour schedule, he earns one Charles Schwab Cup point for every $1,000 he made that week.
For instance, if he wins and pockets a $240,000 paycheck, take off the zeros and you get his 240 Charles Schwab Cup point total. Only one more thing to remember: the five majors and the season-ending, 30-player Charles Schwab Cup Championship take that point total and double it. Therefore, this week's winner of the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship will earn 780 points for a $390,000 win.
Fairly simple, right? What's not simple, however, is figuring out who's going to win this thing.
| The race is on | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 10 players | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Jay Haas is the man with the target on his back this week, as he's been for much of the year. He's held the top spot for 10 of the last 12 weeks but isn't too worried about the outcome.
"I know this is a big stretch here for sure, I know that in the back of my mind. But I don't stand over shots and say I've got to hit this shot or else I'm going to blow the Schwab Cup," Haas said. "People say, 'How much did that putt cost you?' or 'How much was that putt worth?' and I don't think any of us have ever thought in those terms but we know deep inside if we miss it, we are going to make less (money) or make fewer points."
That "big stretch" he's referring to features four straight weeks of Champions Tour events, with two of those tournaments awarding double points. Theoretically, any player with at least one top 10 this season who won the next four events could earn 2,163 points (that's just 23 points less than leader Haas has amassed all year) and overtake Haas.
More realistically, the lead stealer would be someone like Bernhard Langer, who only trails Haas by 139 points at the moment and could easily make that up with a win or several top-10s. Langer is the man who kept Haas from going 12-for-12 when he borrowed the lead from Haas for two weeks in the middle of the summer. Langer also held the top spot for seven weeks before Haas took over.
"This being the last major, it counts double for the Schwab points and the final event does as well, obviously these are important tournaments for the outcome of the Charles Schwab Cup standings," Langer said on Wednesday. Because he doesn't like to play four events in a row and leave his children for that many weeks, he will sit out one of the remaining events. While that might jeopardize his chances, Langer, like Haas, says it's not at the top of his mind.
"It is a goal for me to win the race. I'm aware of it but I'm out there playing the best I can. Hopefully, if I can play as well as I can, I can be up at the top," Langer said. "I can't control what Jay does, I can only take care of myself."
Haas and Langer may have something to worry about, though. This time last year, Loren Roberts was 619 points behind Haas heading into the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. He won, moved from third place into the lead and eventually went on to win the whole race and the $1-million annuity.
"I really wasn't in the race with Jay. He was out there pretty far and to get the win here, which has the most points all year long, this was the right tournament to win," said Roberts, who's seventh in the rankings this year and almost 1,000 points back.
"Obviously I find myself in the same position again, so that is a factor that I've thought about. I would like to be able to come and play, obviously I want to defend, on a golf course that I really love. That might go a little ways and give me a little edge," Roberts said. "Hopefully I can make a run here and make a run for the Charles Schwab Cup."
There's also Fred Funk, a Maryland native who'll have the crowd on his side this week. Funk split his time at the start of the year between the PGA TOUR and the Champions Tour, but he won the previous major on the Champions Tour, the JELD-WEN Tradition, and decided to spend the rest of the season focusing on getting the Charles Schwab Cup.
"After I finished second at the U.S. Senior Open and then got the win at the JELD-WEN Tradition, that bolted me right up in the Schwab Cup (race). I changed my whole focus for that," Funk said, then cautioned, "whoever is going to win the race between Bernhard, Jay, me or whoever else will come from behind, has got to play good this week."
Seeing the names Roberts and Haas at the top of the Charles Schwab Cup race is no surprise because they are the last two winners of the season-long competition. Since Langer has been in first or second place for almost the entire season, it's hardly shocking that he's still at the top. And Funk, who won on the PGA TOUR as recently as 2007, was expected to perform this well on the Champions Tour.
But two players did take the Champions Tour by storm this summer and vaulted up the rankings. The week before the Dick's Sporting Goods Open, Romero was 36th in the race and couldn't even book a trip to the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, which only invites the top-30 players.
He went on to win three of his next five events -- Romero switched to a belly putter and watched his putts drop and his confidence soar -- and is now fourth in the standings.
"I have been thinking all the time now about the Charles Schwab (Cup). I am very close. There (are) two or three tournaments to finish the Charles Schwab Cup," Romero said. "I think I can win. I think I can get it. My game is good, my concentration is good. This week, if I win, I can win the Charles Schwab Cup."
Tom Kite didn't move up quite as high as Romero but he's not out of the running yet. He also changed his game by switching to a long putter and propelled from 31st in the standings in mid-August to 12th at the end of September because of a win and two runner-up finishes over four events.
"I was so far back I wasn't even on the radar screen for so long. I was so inconsistent the first part of the year and I got myself way behind (in the Charles Schwab Cup race). Obviously for me to do something I have to have an incredible finish to the year," Kite said. "I need to have a top 2 or 3 here and a top 2 or 3 at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship plus play well in the Texas tournaments.
"I have to have a really strong finish to have a chance since the guys in front of me have built up a sizeable lead but the way I'm playing right now, there is that possibility."
That's the thing about this year's Charles Schwab Cup. It hasn't been wrapped up yet, so anything's possible.
Get the best deals on the best equipment all at the SHOP.PGATOUR.COM.
FANTASY
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network