Charles Schwab Cup Championship notes

text size

Getty Images (2)

Jay Haas (left) and Fred Funk will enter this week's Charles Schwab Cup Championship separated by just 12 points.

The Champions Tour's season ends this week at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship and, fittingly, the Charles Schwab Cup (and the $1 million annuity for the winner) will be decided at Sonoma (Calif.) Golf Club.

Twelve points separate Jay Haas and Fred Funk, the players in first and second, respectively, in the standings. With double points available, five players are still mathematically in contention -- Haas, Funk, Bernhard Langer (96 points behind), Eduardo Romero (524 points behind) and John Cook (689 points behind).

A year ago, Jim Thorpe won this tournament for a third time. He won't pick up his fourth win. With the field open to just the top-30 money-winners, Thorpe didn't qualify. He finished 35th.

Twenty-nine players will tee it up this week as Tom Watson, 17th on the money list, will not be playing due to injury.

The Charles Schwab Cup, designed to recognize the Champions Tour's leading player, is a season-long bonus-points competition. Players receive points for top-10 finishes at all 29 official events based on each week's money distribution, with $1,000 earned the equivalent of one Charles Schwab Cup point (points are doubled at the five major championships and the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship).

Click here for more information on the Charles Schwab Cup.

AWARDS UP FOR GRABS: The Charles Schwab Cup Championship should play a determining factor for several post-season honors.

Romero

• Player of the Year: Romero's three wins include the U.S. Senior Open, while Haas and Funk are two of seven players with a pair of 2008 titles. Each has also already won a major championship this year (Haas at the Senior PGA Championship and Funk at the JELD-WEN Tradition). Haas is bidding for an unprecedented third straight Player of the Year honor on the Champions Tour.

• Rookie of the Year: Four players are battling for this honor. Langer with three titles (14 top-10 finishes) and Jeff Sluman with a pair of wins this year lead the way in victories, but Mark Wiebe, a winner early in the season at The Cap Cana Championship, and Cook (14 top-10s) are also having standout rookie campaigns.

• Arnold Palmer Award: Haas could record a Champions Tour first should he win the Arnold Palmer Award as the Tour's leading money winner. If Haas accomplishes that feat, he'll become the first player to win money titles three years in succession. Miller Barber (1981-82), Don January (1983-84), Bob Charles (1988-89), Dave Stockton (1993-94), Jim Colbert (1995-96), and Hale Irwin (1997-98) all did it two years in a row but could not manage a third consecutive money title. Barber came the closest to making it three straight in 1983. However, he finished second to January by $6,563.

TOM WATSON OUT: A three-time winner of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship (2000, 2002 and 2005), Watson will miss the tournament for just the second time in his Champions Tour career following left-hip replacement surgery performed Oct. 2.

Watson

No player had enjoyed the success Watson has had at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. In seven appearances, Watson posted those three wins, was a runner-up to Thorpe in 2003, had a fourth-place effort in 2001 and tied for sixth in 2006.

He did not finish in the top 30 on the money list in 2004 while troubled with hip and shoulder problems, limiting him to just 12 starts.

The Stanford alumnus has earned $1,816,000 in those seven Charles Schwab Cup Championship starts, an average of $259,429 per event. Fifteen of his 28 rounds have been in the 60s, and his scoring average is 68.86.

ODDS AND ENDS: In the 18 previous Charles Schwab Cup Championships, a player leading or tied for the lead heading into the final round has won nine times. During the years 1990-93 (it was a 54-hole event), three of four players who led or were tied for the lead after 36 holes posted victories. Since going to 72 holes in 1994, six of 14 players who led or shared the lead after 54 holes have won, including three of the last six winners -- Watson (2002) and Thorpe (2003 and 2006). Twelve times in the tournament's history a player has been in sole possession of the lead going into the final round, winning six times. ...

Ten players who have never competed in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship are in Sonoma this week as the Champions Tour continues its transition. The 10 include Langer and Sluman (multiple winners this season) as well as Cook, Weibe, Nick Price, Bruce Vaughan, Tim Simpson, Gene Jones, Joey Sindelar and Mike Goodes. ...

Price

Thirteen players come into this event without a 2008 victory. The group includes Price, Tim Simpson, Lonnie Nielsen, Nick Price, Scott Simpson, David Eger, Mark McNulty, Brad Bryant, Tom Jenkins, Jones, Craig Stadler, Sindelar, Keith Fergus and Goodes. ...

When McNulty won the event in 2004, he became the seventh player to win this tournament in his first appearance, joining Mike Hill (1990), Raymond Floyd (1992), Gil Morgan (1997), Gary McCord (1999), Tom Watson (2000) and Bob Gilder (2001). ...

Irwin's streak of 13 consecutive trips to the Charles Schwab Cup Championship came to an end this year when he failed to get into the top 30 on the money list for the first time in his career. Morgan was second, with 11 straight, and he, too, didn't qualify. Tom Kite earned a berth in the field for the ninth consecutive year, the longest current streak on the Champions Tour. ...

Only one player leading the money list going into the Charles Schwab Cup Championship has won the event. That was Irwin in 1998. ...

Fifteen players come into this week's Charles Schwab Cup Championship with earnings of more than $1 million. Last year, 14 players entered the season-ending tournament with seven-figure totals, and one more joined the club following the event (Thorpe). ...

Since the tournament became a 72-hole affair in 1994, only three players have posted four straight rounds in the 60s, but only Thorpe (2007) won the event. John Jacobs was the first in 2000, but he finished one stroke behind winner Tom Watson. Kite became the second three years later. However, Kite finished third, five strokes behind Thorpe.