Cochran's consecutive wins put him in good company

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Sep. 26, 2010
By Phil Stambaugh, PGA TOUR staff

• Final Leaderboard: 1 -- Russ Cochran (-14/202); 2 -- Tom Pernice, Jr. (-12/204); 3 -- John Cook (-10/206); T4 -- Mark Calcavecchia (-9/207), Bobby Clampett (-9/207), Bernhard Langer (-9/207), Ted Schulz (-9/207).

• After a shaky start with his putter, Russ Cochran managed two birdies and a saving par over the final three holes to hold off defending champion Tom Pernice Jr. for the 2010 SAS Championship title, his second consecutive win on the Champions Tour. Down the strech, Cochran made a key seven-foot birdie putt at No. 16 to build up a three-stroke cushion on Pernice Jr. But Pernice Jr., playing one group ahead of Cochran, rifled a 6-iron second shot to three feet from the flag at the par-5 17th hole and temporarily closed to within one stroke after making his eagle putt. But Cochran answered Pernice Jr. moments later by two-putting from 22 feet for a birdie at No. 17 to increase his lead to two strokes. Cochran then hit his drive at No. 18 up near the front lip of the fairway bunker and could only advance the ball 30 yards down the fairway with his second shot. After watching Pernice make a five-foot par putt at No. 18, Cochran hit a wedge to four feet of the hole and made the putt for the two-stroke victory.

• Cochran won his second career title on the Champions Tour and joined Bernhard Langer (5), Fred Couples (3) and Nick Price (2) as the fourth multiple winner on the circuit this year.

• Cochran became the third player to win consecutive events in 2010, joining Fred Couples (Toshiba Classic, Cap Cana Championship) and Bernhard Langer (Senior British Open, U.S. Senior Open).

• Cochran joined Tom Watson (Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai) as the second wire-to-wire winner on the 2010 Champions Tour. He also becomes the third wire-to-wire winner in tournament history, joining Craig Stadler (2004) and Mark Wiebe (2007).

• Cochran became the first left-handed player to win multiple titles in a season since Bob Charles in 1993 when he claimed three events that season.

• Cochran earned 315 Charles Schwab Cup points and increased his yearly total to 1,352 points, moving from seventh place into sixth position. Bernhard Langer, the 2010 Schwab Cup leader, finished T4 this week and earned 151 points. Fred Couples, Langer's closest pursuer, finished outside the top-10 this week. Langer now has 2,888 Schwab Cup points this season and leads Couples by 672 points in the season-long race for the $1 million payout.

• Cochran had both the lowest start and highest finish by a winner in tournament history. Cochran opened with 64, one stroke better than three other players who won at Prestonwood. His final-round 71 was two strokes higher than Tom Pernice's final-round 69 last year, the previous high finish by a winner at the SAS Championship.

• Russ Cochran has had quite a month of September. He started the month by finishing T6 at the Home Care & Hospice First Tee Open At Pebble Beach and winning the pro-junior portion of the event with Spencer Jones of Shelby, N.C. He then traveled to Korea and won the Posco E&C Songdo Championship in a playoff and triumphed today. For the month, Cochran earned 839 Charles Schwab Cup points as well as $839,400. He was a cumulative 36-under over those three events this month.

• Tom Pernice Jr.'s runner-up finish was not only the best effort by a defending champion this year on the Champions Tour, but also was his seventh straight top-10 performance on the circuit. His seven straight top-10s are the most consecutive since Bernhard Langer reeled off eight straight, ending the 2009 season with five top-10s in a row before adding three more top-10s at the start of the 2010 season. Pernice Jr. is now a cumulative 25-under-par over the last two years at Prestonwood, making 3 eagles and 24 total birdies.

• In eight of the 10 SAS Championships, a player with a first name of Tom has finished either first or second in the event. The only two years it didn't happened were 2001 and 2007.

• After going three years without a champion making an eagle, each of the last two SAS Championship winners has made an eagle en route to victory. Russ Cochran's 15 birdies were three more than Tom Pernice Jr.'s 12 birdies last year.

Wayne Levi holed out his second shot for an eagle at both the par-4 2nd hole (5-iron, 176 yards) and the par-4 4th hole (6-iron, 170 yards) en route to a final-round 68. Before today, the last time there were two eagles in one round on par-4s was when Tom Kite did it in the opening round of the 2006 Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

• Bobby Clampett, a Cary, N.C., resident, carded a final-round 69 to move up into a T4 at this year's SAS Championship. It was Clampett's best finish in his rookie season on the Champions Tour.

• After 13 rounds in the 60s on Friday and 24 sub-70 rounds yesterday, there were just seven scores in the 60s today. Last year, there were 67 total rounds in the 60s. This year, not only was there a double eagle made (Keith Fergus) but there were 24 eagles made, double the number from 2009. The scoring average at Prestonwood Country Club this year was 72.588, the highest since 2006, compared to 71.280 in 2009.

• The hardest hole at Prestonwood Country Club this week was the par-3 3rd (3.259), yielding just 12 total birdies. The easiest hole was the par-5 17th (4,360), giving up a double-eagle, 12 eagles and 128 birdies.

• Two-time Nationwide Tour winner Sonny Skinner finished T20 in his Champions Tour debut this week.

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