
The Champions Tour is idle this week. Next week, the Tour visits The Crosswater Club at Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore. for the JELD-WEN Tradition, the fourth major of the season. The tournament is the 17th of 26 Charles Schwab Cup events. The purse is $2.6 million with the winner set to earn $390,000 and 780 Charles Schwab Cup points. Last year, Mike Reid claimed his second major title in a playoff with John Cook after Cook had bogeyed the 72nd hole.
LAST WEEK
David Frost tied the Champions Tour 54-hole scoring record of 191 (-25) after closing with a final-round 11-under-par 61 at the 3M Championship.
In the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race Bernhard Langer remains in first place with 2,390 points followed by Fred Couples with 1,993. Tom Lehman (1,134), Nick Price (1,079) and John Cook (960) round out the top five. Frost moved into sixth place with 798 points.
Defending champion Langer, who was coming off successive wins at the Senior British Open and the U.S. Senior Open, finished T25 in defense of his crown. No player has been able to defend his title in this event.
For the fourth time this season Jim Rutledge successfully Monday qualified into a Champions Tour event. Rutledge finished tied for 21st at the 3M Championship.
Jeff Sluman and Peter Senior have something in common this season. Both players have played a bogey-free tournament and failed to win -- Sluman, T6 at the 3M Championship and Senior, T2 at the Regions Charity Classic.
Champions Tours Rules Official Gene Smith captured video on his iPhone of two 3M Championship staffers rescuing a young fox from a pond during Wednesday's pro-am. The video was aired several times on CNN Headline News the following morning.
2009 SAS Championship winner Tom Pernice Jr finished tied for 52nd at the Turning Stone Resort Championship on the PGA TOUR last week. John Morse and Dick Mast missed the cut.
Tournament officials at both the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship and the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship recently announced they will participate in the Tickets Fore Charity initiative. Tickets Fore Charity enables participating charities to receive contributions based on the number of tickets sold in their name. For more information, click here.
The First Tee has its first-ever auction item on the charity website, CharityBuzz.com. Thanks to assistance from the TOUR, the opportunity to bid for a spot playing alongside Champions Tour players in the Home Care & Hospice First Tee Open at Pebble Beach is now available. The auction is open until August 19, 1:00 p.m. ET. For more information, click here.
COMING UP
Jay Haas has a busy start to this week. Haas will attend media day on Monday, Aug. 9 for the Ensure Classic at Rock Barn Golf & Spa before heading to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm for the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship Media Day the following day. Haas won both events in 2009.
A recent MRI has determined Peter Jacobsen will have surgery on a disc in his lower back on Monday, Aug. 9. The surgery will be performed by Dr. Michael Weiss at the Laser Spine Institute in Scottsdale, Ariz. Jacobsen's recovery time is undetermined but there is a chance he could return to competition in 2010.
Several Champions Tour players teed it up for a worthy cause on Monday following the 3M Championship. Graham Marsh, along with Bruce Fleisher, Morris Hatalsky, Dave Stockton, Curt Byrum, Frost, Senior and Tom Byrum ventured to Westward Ho CC in Sioux Falls, S.D., for the Hot Stuff Foods Challenge. Since the inaugural event in 1996, the Hot Stuff Foods Challenge has raised more than $3 million for the Children's Home Society which serves over 2,000 children each year. The majority of these children are victims of severe abuse or neglect.
Kenny Perry turns 50 on Tuesday, Aug. 10. Perry shot an opening-round 66 at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational last week then announced to the assembled media that he was going to become a grandfather. His oldest daughter told him she was pregnant on Sunday before tournament week.
ON THIS DATE
8/10/86 -- Bob Tway holes a bunker shot on the final hole to win the PGA Championship at Inverness after a tense duel with Greg Norman.
8/11/85 -- Hubert Green bests Lee Trevino down the stretch for his second major title, claiming the PGA Championship at Cherry Hills.
8/12/90 -- Australian Wayne Grady is a three-stroke winner over Fred Couples at the PGA Championship at Shoal Creek.
8/14/77 -- For the first time ever, a major championship was decided in sudden death when Lanny Wadkins made a six-foot par putt to defeat Gene Littler on the third extra hole at the PGA Championship at Pebble Beach.
8/15/93 -- Paul Azinger shoots a final-round 68 at the PGA Championship to tie Greg Norman and then wins playoff for his first major title at Inverness.
QUOTES TO NOTE
"When you're going that good, I think you're so focused and you get in this euphoric frame of mind. I would venture to say that you have no idea what you're shooting up until maybe the last couple holes." -- Bruce Fleisher's thoughts on having the opportunity to break 60. Fleisher, one of six Champions Tour players to shoot 60, posted 10-under 60 at the 2002 RJR Championship.
"I'm looking forward to playing some on the Champions Tour this year. I've got a lot of things that are going to happen that my life is going to change a lot, so I'm looking forward to it." -- Kenny Perry, on turning 50, Tuesday, Aug. 10.
"He's got my number but I'm not expecting a call." -- Langer on his prospects of being one of Captain Monty's picks for the Ryder Cup.
"When I was younger eating alphabet soup, the first letters I put together were G-O-L-F. I'm not ready to retire yet." -- Fuzzy Zoeller, age 58, expresses his enthusiasm for the game.