Round 2 Notebook: SAS Championship

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Sep. 26, 2010

Weather: Players off both the first and 10th tees. Sunny and unseasonably hot with highs in the mid-90s and winds out of the SW at 5-15 mph in the afternoon.

• Round 2 Leaderboard: 1 Russ Cochran (-13/131); 2 Ted Schulz (-9/135); T3 John Cook (-8/136),Tom Pernice, Jr. (-8/136), Nick Price (-8/136); T6 Dan Forsman (-7/137), Bob Gilder (-7/137)

• Russ Cochran's birdie-birdie finish propelled him to a 5-under 67 on Saturday and, more importantly,gave him a four-stroke advantage over fellow Kentuckian Ted Schulz after 36 holes of this year's SAS Championship. Cochran is the only player in the field without a bogey this week and his streak is now 44 holes dating back to the final round of the Posco E&C Songdo Championship in Korea.

The Final Grouping On Sunday...
Player Russ Cochran Ted Schulz John Cook
Last Win 2010 Posco E&C Songdo Championship 2010 Home Care & Hospice First Tee Open At Pebble Beach 2009 Charles Schwab Cup Championship
Times In Final Group In 2010 (stroke-play events) 3/Last at Posco E&C Songdo Championship (win) 1/Last at Home Care & Hospice First Tee Open At Pebble Beach (win) 1/Last at Montreal Championship (second)
2010 Top-10s 8 1 9 including three seconds and two thirds
Champions Tour Wins 1 1 4
PGA TOUR Wins 1-1991 Centel Western Open 2-1989 Southern Open, 1991 Nissan Los Angeles Open 11
Residence Paducah, KY Louisville, KY Windermere, FL
Did You Know? Cochran is bidding to win a second consecutive event and become the first person to win both the event prior to the SAS Championship and the SAS tournament. Played at Prestonwood at the 1996 NIKE Carolina Classic but missed the cut. All four of his career victories on the Champions Tour have come in the fall season.

• Russ Cochran's 13-under 131 total equals the tournament record for best 36-hole score. Mark Wiebe posted 13-under 131 in 2007 and went on to win. Cochran's four-stroke margin after two rounds at Prestonwood also ties the largest lead in SAS Championship history after 36 holes. Craig Stadler enjoyed a four-shot margin after two rounds in 2004.

• Tomorrow marks the second time in his Champions Tour career that Russ Cochran has been leading/co-leading after play on Saturday. At the 2009 AT&T Championship in San Antonio, Cochran was tied for the 36-hole lead and eventually finished T10 at Oak Hills CC. On the PGA TOUR, Cochran was 1-4 when leading/co-leading after play on Saturday.

• In shooting 64 today, his low stroke-play round of the 2010 season, John Cook got off to a fast start with four birdies and two eagles over his first nine holes. Cook's 8-under 29 today on the par-37 back nine at Prestonwood was a new 9-hole record at the SAS Championship and the fourth 29 on the Champions Tour this year. Tom Kite (2003) and Dave Eichelberger (2002) had 30s on the back nine at Prestonwood and eight other players had posted 30 on the front nine at this course. Cook's birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie (Nos. 12-15) run not only equaled the best eagle-birdie streak this year but he also was the 15th different player to post two eagles in a round on the Champions Tour in 2010.

• After posting 75 yesterday, Keith Fergus also had an 8-under 64 today that included a stretch where he was 8-under-par over seven holes (Nos. 16-4) and he moved up 40 spots in the standings into a T14, the biggest jump of any player in the field. Fergus holed a 3-iron second shot from 210 yards at the par-5 17th hole for the first double-eagle of the year on the Champions Tour. It was the first double-eagle on the circuit since Jay Haas made an albatross at last year's Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf. It was the 35th double-eagle in Champions Tour history.

• Fergus on his double-eagle: "I hadn't done much up until then. I was 2-under going into 17. I had hit a good drive and my 3-iron was right at it. You hope it's going to end up good and all of a sudden, it's in. I couldn't see it but you could tell by the crowd that it went in. That's the first one I've ever made on a par-5."

• Thus far in 2010, there have been 12 Saturday leader/co-leaders that have gone on to win out of the 20 events played. Second-round leaders/co-leaders have won this event five times in the nine-year history of this tournament, including three of the last four years.

• A total of 315 Charles Schwab Cup points will go to the winner of the SAS Championship tomorrow.

Bernhard Langer currently leads Fred Couples by 575 points and both players are currently T9 in this week's event through 36 holes. Russ Cochran, the tournament leader, is seventh in the current Schwab Cup standings and could conceivably move up into fifth position with a win tomorrow. At the end of the official season, the player with the most Schwab Cup points will earn a $1 million payout.

• After playing to a stroke average of 72.545 yesterday, Prestonwood Country Club had a stroke average of 72.079 today, the highest for a second round at this event since 2006. Through 36 holes this year, the hardest hole is the par-3 3rd (3.288), yielding just eight total birdies.

• This and That: Through two rounds, Sonny Skinner leads in fairways hit with 27 out of 30 (90%)...Bernhard Langer has hit 31 of 36 greens in regulation (86.11%)...David Eger had averaged just 24 putts per round, the fewest needed by a player in the field.

• Mark O'Meara withdrew after nine holes into the second round with an injury. O'Meara had 6-over 41 on his first nine and was 5-over for the tournament at the time of the withdrawal. Loren Roberts withdrew with back problems after his round. Roberts was 7-over for the tournament through 36 holes.

• Because of expected inclement weather on Sunday, final-round tee times have been adjusted.

• Players will now go off both the 1st and 10th tees at 9 a.m. with the final groups teeing off both sides at 11 a.m.

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