Notes: Haas' ace and win, Perry's best finish so far

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Jay Haas' win at the 3M Championship, his 15th, ties him with Bernhard Langer for 16th all-time.

The Champions Tour is idle for a week before heading to Westchester CC in Harrison, N.Y., for the fifth and final major championship of the season, the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, Aug. 15-21. The purse is $2.7 million and the winner will receive $405,000 and 810 Charles Schwab Cup points. Last year, Mark O'Meara defeated Michael Allen on the first extra playoff hole at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm to claim his first individual Champions Tour title.

LAST WEEK

• Jay Haas birdied the final hole to post a one-stroke victory over Kenny Perry, Peter Senior and local favorite Tom Lehman at the 3M Championship.

LAST WEEK

Haas wins on 54th hole
Results, money
Round 3 notebook
Video: Highlights
Fuzzy's fish story

• The win at the 3M Championship was Haas' 15th career victory, tying him with Bernhard Langer on the all-time list for Champions Tour victories. The pair is tied for 16th on the list.

• Haas made an opening-round ace at the 3M Championship and became the first player since Jeff Sluman to make an ace and go on to win the event. Sluman did so at the 2009 Walmart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach.

• Perry had his best individual showing in a Champions Tour event with his T2 finish at the 3M Championship.

• Hale Irwin matched his age for the second consecutive week and the third time in his career when he fired a 6-under-par 66 in the final round of the 3M Championship. Irwin also added another top-10 finish (T8) to his record career total and now has 205 for his career.

• Champions Tour professional Tom Pernice Jr. finished T21 at the Reno-Tahoe Open on the PGA TOUR.

• Russ Cochran was the Champions Tour Player of the Month for July. The lefthander was out of action for the two previous months with a wrist injury and also missed the Montreal Championship in the first week of July before returning with a T10 at the Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach. Two weeks later he captured his first major championship, winning the Senior British Open by two strokes at Walton Heath. He followed up the victory with a T17 finish at the U.S. Senior Open at Inverness Club.

• In a contest conducted via Facebook, the Dick's Sporting Goods Open was determined the winner of the 2011 Fan Favorite Champions Tour Event.

• World Golf Hall of Fame Member Nick Price received the 2011 Ambassador of Golf Award last week at Firestone Country Club. The Ambassador of Golf Award is presented annually to a person or persons who have fostered the ideals of the game on an international level and whose concern for others extends beyond the golf course.

• World Golf Hall of Fame member Tom Watson was guest speaker at last week's Junior PGA Championship. Watson addressed more than 400 people including Junior PGA Championship participants, parents, volunteers and Fort Wayne residents. Established in 1976, the Junior PGA Championship brings together the best junior golfers from around the country to compete for the Jack Nicklaus Trophy in the Boys' division and the Patty Berg Trophy in the Girls' division.

• Curt and Tom Byrum will be inducted into the South Dakota Golf Hall of Fame during a ceremony on Aug. 8 in Sioux Falls. The brothers become the 40th and 41st members of the South Dakota Golf Hall of Fame, which was established in 1977. Curt Byrum is currently a Golf Channel analyst covering the Nationwide Tour, PGA TOUR and Champions Tour. Tom Byrum has played three Champions Tour events this year, most recently posting a T23 finish at the Senior British Open. They won one PGA TOUR event each in 1989 -- within 50 days of each other.

CHARLES SCHWAB CUP

• The Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, with double Charles Schwab Cup points available, figures to have a significant impact on the current Charles Schwab Cup race. At the start of July, Tom Lehman enjoyed a 480-point lead over Nick Price. Tom Watsonwas in third place, 683 points back. However, Lehman did not earn any points in either the Senior British Open or U.S. Senior Open and heading into August, he's now just 291points ahead of Olin Browne and 383 points in front of Mark Calcavecchia.

• Although Tom Lehman increased his lead to 291 points over Olin Browne, none of the top-15 players in the Charles Schwab Cup standings changed positions after the 3M Championship. 3M Championship winner Jay Haas jumped from 21st to 16th in the standings while joint runner-up Kenny Perry moved from 26thto 20th.

COMING UP

• World Golf Hall of Fame member Larry Nelson will receive the highest honor accorded by the PGA of America when he will be awarded the Distinguished Service Award in a ceremony on Aug. 10 in conjunction with the 93rd PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club. The award coincides with the 30th anniversary of Nelson's first major championship win at the same venue. Mark Brooks, the 1996 PGA Championship winner, will join Nelson as the two Champions Tour professionals in the field at this week's championship.

• The Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship is the fourth-oldest event on the Champions Tour, being contested for the 29th consecutive season this year. Only the Senior PGA Championship (72 years), Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (34 years) and the U.S. Senior Open (32 years) are older.

• With 10 top-10 finishes in 15 appearances, including a win in 1999, Hale Irwin has earned more money at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship than any other player in tournament history -- $1,544,435.

• Last year's playoff between Michael Allen and Mark O'Meara was just the third overtime session in the previous 28 Constellation Energy Senior Players Championships. Ironically, all three playoffs have ended quickly with each going only one extra hole.

• O'Meara will attempt to become the second player in event history to repeat as Constellation Energy Senior Players champion. Arnold Palmer was the first player with consecutive Senior Players in 1984-85.

• There has not been a hole-in-one at the Constellation Senior Players Championship since 2006.

NUMBERS

70.333 -- The scoring average for the field at last week's 3M Championship, the same exact average as in the 2010 3M Championship.

104 -- The number of rounds in the 60s at last week's 3M Championship, the same number as in the 2010 3M Championship.

3 -- The number of aces on the Champions Tour this season (Olin Browne/Allianz Championship, D.A. Weibring/U.S. Senior Open & Jay Haas/3M Championship). Last year, five aces were recorded on the Champions Tour, including two by Bob Tway.

DID YOU KNOW?

• No player has ever won the Senior British Open and Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship in the same season. Russ Cochran is the 2011 Senior British Open champion.

• A head cover shaped like a cartoon bomb with a flaming wick and the words "Time Bomb," was made available to the public last week. The head cover was developed to commemorate Champions Tour rookie Steve Pate's 50th birthday (his birth date, 05:26, is in red numerals replicating a clock counting down). It can be purchased for $25 at www.abgolfdesigns.com. Pate's nickname throughout his career was "Volcano" due to his temper.

ON THIS DATE

8/9/81 -- Larry Nelson is a four-stroke winner at the PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

8/9/87 -- Nelson added his second PGA Championship to his resume when he came from three strokes off the pace to earn a spot in a playoff with Lanny Wadkins at PGA National GC. Nelson became the 15th multiple winner of the event when he makes par on the first extra hole to defeat Wadkins.

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. Tway's major championship is his fourth title of the season and he goes on to be named the PGA Player of the Year.

8/14/77 -- For the first time ever, a major championship was decided in sudden death when Lanny Wadkinsm ade a six-foot par putt to defeat Gene Littler on the third extra hole at the PGA Championship at Pebble Beach.

QUOTES TO NOTE

"I just feel like it's a matter of time but when you get to our age, time is important. It's of the essence." -- Corey Pavin, who has yet to win on the Champions Tour after 15 victories in his PGA TOUR career, shares his thoughts on the possibility of capturing his first win. Pavin has finished T4-T3-T7 and T17 in his last four starts on the Champions Tour.

"They ask me why my hair is so long, I ask them why they don't have any." -- Newcomer Brad Faxon's response to his peers' ribbing upon joining the Champions Tour. Faxon missed 17 consecutive cuts on the PGA TOUR before making his debut at the 3M Championship last week where he finished T53 with rounds of 68-72-74.

"We can still make a heck of a lot (money) playing at a later age in life. All other sports, all other athletes, there is no such arena." -- Tom Watson agrees that the Champions Tour is the greatest 'mulligan' in life.

"I had a nun in first grade who called me Frank, and I never answered. Nobody called me Frank. In second grade, I figured it out." -- Frank Urban Zoeller (aka Fuzzy) thinks his life may have been different if he went by Frank instead of Fuzzy.