Notes: Couples enjoying first four-win season of career

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Fred Couples won last week at the Administaff Small Business Classic.

The Champions Tour stays in Texas for the AT&T Championship at Oak Hills CC in San Antonio. The tournament is the 25th of 26 Charles Schwab Cup events and carries a purse of $1.75 million with $262,500 going to the winner. 263 Charles Schwab Cup points are also available to the winner this week. Last year, birdies on five of his first six holes on Sunday were the catalyst for Phil Blackmar's first Champions Tour title when he beat Andy Bean and Russ Cochran by a stroke.

LAST WEEK

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• Fred Couples' seven-stroke win over Mark Wiebe at the Administaff Small Business Classic was his fourth Champions Tour victory of the 2010 season (ACE Group Classic, Toshiba Classic, Cap Cana Championship), the first time he's ever claimed four TOUR-sponsored events in the same year.

• Couples' seven-stroke winning margin at the Administaff Small Business Classic matched David Frost's seven-stroke victory margin at this year's 3M Championship as the largest on the Champions Tour this year.

• Couples earned 255 Charles Schwab Cup points for his win in Houston and sliced Bernhard Langer's lead to 535 points with two events remaining. Even if Langer wins the AT&T Championship (Couples is not playing), the Charles Schwab Cup will be decided at the final tournament of the season, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Harding Park in San Francisco.

• Mark Wiebe's runner-up finish at the Administaff Small Business Classic earned him $149,600 and vaulted him from 40th to 30th on the money list with $582,546. The top 30 players after this week's AT&T Championship earn a spot into the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. It was Wiebe's best finish in a Champions Tour event since his win in 2008 at the Cap Cana Championship.

• Thai legend Boonchu Ruangkit is assured of a place in the final stage of the Champions Tour Qualifying Tournament on Nov. 16-19 after winning his fourth European Senior Tour title of the season at the Benahavis Senior Masters in Spain recently.

• Michael Allen and Tom Pernice Jr. are battling to finish in the top 125 on the PGA TOUR money list to earn exempt status for next year. Allen, who withdrew from the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open after a first-round 76, is No. 124 while Pernice is No. 137. Both players are ranked inside the top-15 on the Champions Tour money list and the top 20 on the Charles Schwab Cup points list.

• Representatives from area organizations were on hand last week to receive a total of $81,000 in donations from the 2nd Annual Wendy's Walk for Kids, which took place in June at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open in Endicott, N.Y.

• Greg Norman announced the field for The Shark Shootout at Tiburon GC at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla., on Dec. 8-12. Joining Norman in the 24-player field will be fellow Champions Tour professionals Mark Calcavecchia and Kenny Perry.

• Ken Green will join LPGA star Meg Mallon as inductees into the Palm Beach County Hall of Fame on March 27 next year.

COMING UP

• Although admission is free for the week of the tournament, organizers have instigated a unique "charity challenge" for 20 local charities to participate and benefit from being involved with the event. Each of the 20 organizations has 1,500 tickets to distribute. The one having the most tickets collected at the tournament gate after the three days of competition will receive a donation of $15,000 from the AT&T Championship. Another $15,000 will be distributed to the other 19 charities dependent on their finishing position in the challenge.

• In three appearances at the AT&T Championship, John Cook has back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008, and a fifth last year. Of his nine rounds at Oak Hills, Cook has posted eight rounds in the 60s (71, Round 2, 2009) and has averaged 66.7 strokes per round at the course.

• Jay Haas' victory in the 2005 AT&T Championship made him the sixth player to capture both a Champions Tour and PGA TOUR event in San Antonio. John Mahaffey, Don January, Bruce Crampton, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Lee Trevino are the other double-winners in the Alamo City.

• Currently in its 26th year in San Antonio, the AT&T Championship holds the distinction as the longest running event in one city on the Champions Tour. The ACE Group Classic (Naples) and Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am (Tampa) are second at 23 years.

• The AT&T Championship held a unique contest to give away two Monday pro-am spots at their event this week. Contestants submitted a paragraph to the tournament website on why they love golf. Four finalists then participated in a long-drive competition with the two longest-drivers set to earn spots in the pro-am. As it turned out, all four contestants eventually got to play.

• Five players celebrate birthdays this week -- Mark McNulty, Jay Don Blake, Mark James, Ted Schulz and Russ Cochran.

• Reckless Kelly, the Austin-based band, will play a free concert after play on Saturday of tournament week.

• Active and retired military can take advantage of the military VIP tent during the three tournament days where lunch, compliments of AT&T, will be served.

ON THIS DATE

• 10/26/08 -- John Cook makes it two straight wins at the AT&T Championship at Oak Hills CC in San Antonio when he defeats Texan Keith Fergus by three strokes.

• 10/27/02 -- Hale Irwin finishes fourth at the Senior Tour Championship at Gaillardia but wins $176,000 to become the first Champions Tour player to eclipse $3 million in one season.

• 10/28/01 -- Allen Doyle wins the inaugural Charles Schwab Cup by 216 points over Bruce Fleisher. Doyle later donates the entire $1 million annuity to six different charities.

QUOTES TO NOTE

• "I think anybody who's won their first tournament has pretty good memories of it. It was my rookie year out here. So it was great to win here. It was something that -- you know, a dream of mine to have won on the PGA TOUR. To have done that my first year on TOUR was pretty special" -- Corey Pavin, a rookie on the Champions Tour, who returned to The Woodlands CC in Houston for the Administaff Small Business Classic after capturing the 1984 Houston Open there in his rookie year on the PGA TOUR. Pavin held the lead heading into the final round last week and finished tied for fifth.

• "All the guys I looked up to my whole career and who made me the player that I am, they're all here playing. It's going to be fun. It's going to be totally different from the PGA TOUR. I can kind of sense that from all the guys. They're very relaxed, very laid back, and they're all out having a good time" -- Kenny Perry, before his first Champions Tour event, the Administaff Small Business Classic. Perry finished T35.