MasterCard Championship at Hualalai preview: Part II
 

Editor's note: This week's season-opening MasterCard Championship at Hualalai is open to winners of Champions Tour majors in the last five years and winners of co-sponsored and official money events over the past two seasons. Over the next three days, PGATOUR.com will take a look at this year's standout field. This is the second installment.

Part I | Part II | Part III

 

MasterCard Championship at Hualalai capsules
Jay Haas
2005 season recap: Everyone knew Haas was going to have an impact on the Champions Tour, and he certainly did in 2005 - winning the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn and SBC Championship two weeks later. Haas narrowly missed a third title in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship as Tom Watson nipped him with a birdie on the final hole. The eventual Rookie of the Year had a streak of 17 straight sub-par rounds, the longest streak on the Champions Tour.
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $996,653; No. 15
2005 victories, top-10s: Two wins; six top-10s
David Eger
2005 season recap: The former PGA TOUR and USGA rules maven won his second Champions Tour title at the inaugural Boeing Greater Seattle Classic. Eger was tied for the 36-hole lead with Craig Stadler and Morris Hatalsky but pulled away from them with four birdies in his first eight holes on Sunday.
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $773,090; No. 24
2005 victories; top-10s: One win, five top-10s
Bruce Fleisher
2005 season recap: Fleisher didn't win in 2005 for the first time in the last seven years but he still managed to crack the top-10 in a third of his 27 starts. He also finished out of the top-10 in earnings for the first time since joining the Champions Tour full-time in 1999. Fleisher finished strong, though, with 21 straight rounds of par or better and four top-10s in his last six starts.
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $820,565; No. 23
2005 victories; top-10s: None, nine top-10s
Wayne Levi
2005 season recap: Levi started the 2005 campaign on a hot streak - posting seven top-10 finishes in his first eight starts and earning nearly $700,000 in the process. Among those were ties for fifth in the MasterCard Championship and Turtle Bay Championship. Although Levi didn't win a tournament in 2005, he was still well within the top 30 on the money list at 12th and his personal best of 79.3 percent in driving accuracy placed him fifth on the Champions Tour.
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $1,074,509; No. 12
2005 victories; top-10s: None, eight top-10s.
Mark McNulty
2005 season recap: Wins at the Bank of America Championship and Administaff Small Business Classic helped propel McNulty to third on the Champions Tour money list and Charles Schwab Cup Championship. His scoring average of 69.41 was the lowest on Tour and earned him the Byron Nelson Trophy. McNulty's final round scoring average of 68.95 also was the best. He broke 70 in 39 of his 73 rounds, second to Dana Quigley's 42.
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $1,791,452; No. 3
2005 victories; top-10s: Two wins, 15 top-10s.
Bob Gilder
2005 season recap: With Dana Quigley's "ironman" streak ending at the Senior British Open, Gilder was the only Champions Tour player to compete in all 28 official events. His win at the Constellation Energy Classic was the eighth of his Champions Tour career and ended a victory drought of 2 years, 4 months and 28 days. He credited his success there to a switch to the "claw" grip.
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $925,952; No. 18
2005 victories; top-10s: One win, four top-10s
Des Smyth
2005 season recap: Smyth started the season with conditional status on the Champions Tour but promptly changed that when he won two of his first five starts - the SBC Championship and the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf. The Irishman doubled his earnings from 2004 and hit seven figures for the first time since joining the Champions Tour in '03.
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $1,238,878; No. 10
2005 victories; top-10s: Two wins; seven top-10s
Mike Reid
2005 season recap: Reid made his first Champions Tour victory - which came in just his 17th start - a memorable one when he captured the Senior PGA Championship in sudden death. Reid made an eagle on the final hole of the season's first major championship and reached the playoff when Jerry Pate two-putt for bogey. Reid then won the title with a birdie on the first hole of sudden death.
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $863,006; No. 21
2005 victories; top-10s: One win, six top-10s
Tom Kite
2005 season recap: Kite use his one-time exemption as a top-50 career money winner to split time on the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour. He made just 18 starts on the Champions Tour as a result, but still managed a pair of runner-up finishes and solo third at the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship. Kite, who was 56 at the time and bidding to become the oldest champion on the PGA TOUR, nearly won the Booz Allen Classic, taking the lead into the final round before closing with a 75.
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $887,202; No. 20
2005 victories; top-10s: None, seven top-10s.
Ron Streck
2005 season recap: Streck played his first full season on the Champions Tour in 2005 and picked up his inaugural victory in the 18th start of his career. Streck's win at the Commerce Bank Championship came 24 years, 2 months and 1 day after his last PGA TOUR win and made him the first player to win on all three Tours. (Streck also won the 1993 Yuma Open on the Nationwide Tour.)
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $467,647; No. 36
2005 victories; top-10s: One win, one top-10
Lanny Wadkins
2005 season recap: Wadkins, who played a limited schedule on the Champions Tour due to his job as an analyst for CBS, received a sponsor's invitation to the MasterCard Championship. His two top-25 finishes on Tour came early in 2005 in a tie for 13th at the SBC Championship and a share of 20th a week later at the Toshiba Senior Classic.
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $86,957; No. 85
2005 victories; top-10s: None; none
D.A. Weibring
2005 season recap: Weibring won for the third straight year when he beat Tom Kite and Tom Jenkins by two strokes at the Bruno's Memorial Classic. He hit all but three fairways and 46 of 54 greens in regulation that week while posting three rounds in the 60s - the only player in the field to do so. The win in Birmingham sparked a streak that saw Weibring post eight top-10s in nine starts.
2005 earnings and rank on the money list: $1,550,030; No. 4
2005 victories; top-10s: One win, 13 top-10s.
 
 
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