Update: Playoffs record within reach; SAS preview

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The Champions Tour heads to Prestonwood CC in Cary, N.C. for the SAS Championship,. The purse is $2.1 million and the winner will receive $315,000 and 315 Charles Schwab Cup points. Last year, Russ Cochran was victorious at the SAS Championship, his second consecutive win following his victory in Korea.

LAST WEEK

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• The Regions Tradition, the first major championship of the 2011 season won by Tom Lehman in a playoff over Peter Senior at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Alabama, was voted the "Best Charity Event in Birmingham" by readers of Birmingham Magazine. Lehman currently leads the Champions Tour money list and the Charles Schwab Cup points race. Attached is a link to the online list of achievers which is also included in this month's print issue.

• Jay Don Blake returned to his St. George, Utah home and celebrated his Songdo IBD Championship victory with a party last Friday at the Newby Buick car dealership, to which the public was invited. Blake was on hand to sign autographs, talk to fans, and pose for pictures with the trophy he won in South Korea.

• 2011 3M Championship winner Jay Haas was at East Lake in Atlanta last week to watch his son, Bill, win the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola and capture the season-long $10 million FedExCup in the process.

• Spaniard Juan Quiros defeated Irishman Des Smyth on the second hole of a play-off in the Cannes Mougins Masters to capture his first European Senior Tour title in three seasons. Champions Tour professional Bruce Vaughan finished one stroke out of the playoff in third at 9-under.

• Champions Tour professional Dick Mast shot a 6-under-par 210 to win The Patriot Sunbelt Senior Tour event held at National Golf Club last weekend. Mast posted rounds of 69-72-69 on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course to win by six strokes over runner-up James Mason, also a member of the Champions Tour. The win was worth $8,500 to Mast, while Mason earned $6,000.

CHARLES SCHWAB CUP

• Tom Lehman maintains the lead in the Charles Schwab Cup and now has 2,135 points and leads runner-up Mark Calcavecchia (1,684) by 451 points. Peter Senior is third with 1,645 points. John Cook is now fourth with 1,570 followed by Olin Browne with 1,370.

• Lehman has won Player of the Year honors on both the Nationwide Tour (1991) and PGA TOUR (1996). Should he go on to earn similar honors on the Champions Tour, he would become the first player in history to accomplish that feat.

COMING UP

• With an appearance at the SAS Championship, Tom Kite will become just the 12th player in history with at least 1,000 official PGA TOUR/Champions Tour starts in his career and first since Hale Irwin hit 1,000 events at the 2010 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. Two years ago, Leonard Thompson made his 1,000th combined-career start at the SAS Championship.

• This year's SAS Championship field boasts 20 professionals who have won at least one major championship on the PGA TOUR. The SAS Championship field currently has 26 of the top 30 on last year's final money list and nine of the top 10 on the current Champions Tour money list.

• Tom Kite owns the 18-hole tournament record at Prestonwood C.C. (61/Rd. 3/2003) and has finished second in the SAS Championship in 2003 and 2008.

• There have been three straight playoffs and the all-time Champions Tour record for most consecutive playoffs is four in a row, established in 2005 and matched earlier this year. However, there has never been a playoff at the SAS Championship, the only current event that has played the first 10 years without an overtime session.

NUMBERS

35 -- The number of double eagles recorded in Champions Tour history, the most recent coming from Keith Fergus at the par-5 17th hole in the second round of the 2010 SAS Championship, holing a 3-iron shot from 210 yards.

4 -- The number of players who have teed it up in every SAS Championship -- Jim Dent, Bob Gilder, Tom Jenkins and Larry Nelson.

DID YOU KNOW?

The last four Champions Tour events have been won with a birdie on the last hole and the winner of the event has come from the last group in the last six events.

ON THIS DATE

• 9/26/04 -- Craig Stadler makes its three straight wins in three starts when he wins the SAS Championship by six strokes over Tom Jenkins near Raleigh.

• 9/27/97 -- Isao Aoki sets a new Champions Tour scoring record when he shoots a 10-under-par 60 in the 2nd round at the Emerald Coast Classic.

• 10/1/95 -- Playing bogey-free golf over 54 holes, Hale Irwin wins his second title on the Champions Tour, claiming the Vantage Championship by four strokes over Dave Stockton.

• 10/2/05 -- Two weeks after winning the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, Hale Irwin wins the SAS Championship near Raleigh and becomes the first player to claim multiple titles in a season after turning 60.

QUOTES TO NOTE

"Honestly, you get nervous, you get tense, you get worried, you get stressed ... I'd like to be stress-free sometime and see what happens." -- Jay Don Blake made this comment after his first year on the Champions Tour when he had limited status. He will get his wish to be stress-free now that he has full status after winning the Songdo IBD Championship presented by Korean Air.

"I collect 20s, 50s and 100s and my wife likes to trade them for things we don't need." -- John Huston's response, when asked if there is anything that he collects.

"You'd have thought he was the worst golfer in Atlanta -- or all of Georgia, maybe." -- Jay Haas shares his thoughts on his son, Bill, who was seething at dinner on Saturday night after dropping three strokes on the last two holes at the third round of the TOUR Championship. Bill went on to win the tournament and the season-long $10 million FedExCup the next day.