E-notes: Rookie double, Thorpe out, Schwab newbies

text size

• MORE E-NOTES: Nationwide Tour | PGA TOUR

The Charles Schwab Cup race couldn't be much closer. Entering this week's final event, Jay Haas has a slim 12 point lead over Fred Funk with Bernhard Langer only 96 points behind.

Cook

Here's an odd one. Rookie John Cook successfully defended his AT&T Championship title last week. How is that possible? He won the 2007 event in one of his two starts on the Champions Tour last year after turning 50 in October. A player is a rookie on the Champions Tour until the season in which he plays a minimum of six events as a member.

Jim Thorpe won the last two Charles Schwab Cup Championships, but he won't be able to take a shot at three in a row after he failed the make the 30-player field. Thorpe finished 35th on the money list this year.

Blaine McCallister was the latest player to make his Champions Tour debut when he tied for 64th last week at the AT&T Championship.

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 Tom Watson (2002) and Jim 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.

Langer

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 are three-time 2008 winner Bernhard Langer and two-time winner Jeff Sluman. Joining those two will be John Cook, Nick Price, Mark Wiebe, Bruce Vaughan, Tim Simpson, Gene Jones, Joey Sindelar and Mike Goodes.

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

When Mark 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).

Hale 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. Gil 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.

Irwin

Only one player leading the money list going into the Charles Schwab Cup Championship has won the event. That was Hale 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 (Jim Thorpe).

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