Insider: Volatility opportunity exists in final four events

text size

Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

John Cook has three wins on the year and will be the favorite at the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

Four ... three ... two ... one.

That's what is left on the 2011 Champions Tour schedule - four events.

The final countdown to the season and the Charles Schwab Cup Championship begins next week at the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, N.C., where Russ Cochran will defend the title.

From a competitive standpoint, it's been a fascinating sequence of events on the Champions Tour. There have been 17 winners. Tom Lehman and John Cook have each won three titles and 15 golfers have won once.

What that means for the remaining weeks of the season is that there is much at stake - including the Charles Schwab Cup -- and plenty of opportunity for volatility.

The Champions Tour has produced five different major champions this year. They are Lehman (Regions Tradition), Tom Watson (Senior PGA Championship), Cochran (Senior British Open), Olin Browne (U.S. Senior Open) and Fred Couples (Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship).

In addition, there have been three first-time Champions Tour winners in the last five events: Browne, Marke Calcavecchia and Jay Don Blake. It wouldn't surprise anyone if there was another or two in the final few weeks with the likes of Peter Senior, Corey Pavin and Kenny Perry waiting for breakthroughs.

Lehman has a 451-point lead in the race over Calcavecchia in the Charles Schwab Cup race, with Senior in third place, 490 points behind the leader. Cook is next, followed by Browne, Mark O'Meara and Cochran, all within 796 points of the leader.

There's a serious race on for the Charles Schwab Cup title and the $1 million annuity that goes to the winner, and that promises to make the journey through the first week of November a classic.

Here's a look at the four remaining events:

SAS Championship, Sept. 30-Oct. 2.

Cochran completed his back-to-back victories at Prestonwood Country Club last year, winning by 2 strokes over Tom Pernice Jr. Cochran made the trek from Songdo City, Korea, where he posted his Champions Tour breakthrough victory, to North Carolina and, still soaring, went wire-to-wire at Prestonwood.

Cochran entered the final round with a 4-stroke lead after opening rounds of 64-67 and admitted later, "I'm still learning how to win right now."

Consider it a lesson well learned. Cochran has gone from a contender to a major winner on the Champions Tour. That's called stepping up in class and except for some time off to nurse an injury to his right wrist he has been a factor all season. Cochran won the Senior British in his second event back from the injury.

It's a model Jay Don Blake, winner last week in Songdo City, would love to recreate. Blake had several near-misses this year, including a playoff loss to Cook at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, before his playoff victory in Korea.

Insperity Championship, Oct. 7-9

Fred Couples had a spectacular start as a Champions Tour rookie, winning three of his first four starts. But while he contended regularly, there wasn't another victory until he returned to The Woodlands for the Administaff Small Business Classic, now the Insperity Championship.

At The Woodlands, Couples put on a dazzling final-round display, shooting a tournament record 63, including 29 on the back to turn a 2-shot deficit into an unlikely 7-shot victory.

Runner-up Mark Wiebe put the Couples performance into perspective. "If this was a car race, Fred would have had two laps on me," Wiebe said.

It was the seventh time in 2010 that Couples shot 17 under or better.

Couples won the Senior Players Championship at Westchester Country Club in August. He appears ready to put together a big finish and another victory at The Woodlands would certainly tighten the Charles Schwab Cup race even more.

AT&T Championship, Oct. 14-16

The victory at the AT&T Championship changed Rod Spittle's view of things. The affable Canadian outlasted Jeff Sluman in the final full-field event of 2010. Spittle and Cook matched final round 67s to tie at 12-under at TPC San Antonio.

With his playoff victory Spittle became the 11th player to win on the Champions Tour after qualifying on Monday, and the first in six years to do it. Spittle got into the playoff in impressive manner, making birdies on the 15th, 16th and 17th holes.

Schwab Cup

John Cook jumped a spot from fifth to fourth in the season-long points race with his runner-up finish at Songdo. Standings

The victory changed Spittle's professional life. It gave him a spot on the Champions Tour and all that goes with it -- the opportunity to play on a regular basis, set a schedule and plan in a way that's conducive to success. Spittle is capitalizing on the opportunity. He's 17th on the Money List.

This year, the AT&T Championship moves to a Pete Dye-designed TPC course.

Charles Schwab Cup Championship, Nov. 3-6

John Cook will be looking for a three-peat when he arrives at TPC Harding Park for the season-ending championship. Harding Park, once the home course of his mentor, Ken Venturi, was the perfect place for Cook to raise his game and make an enduring statement. Cook won his first Charles Schwab Cup Championship in 2009 at Sonoma Golf Club.

Afterwards, Cook made it clear his goal was to use his second straight victory in the event to make the 2011 season his most meaningful yet on the Champions Tour. He hasn't disappointed. Cook got off to a fast start this year and has three victories, joining Lehman as the only multiple winners.

Joining Cook in the winner's circle last year at TPC Harding Park was Bernhard Langer, the three-time Player of the Year, who won the Schwab Cup points race and the $1 million annuity. At Harding Park, the Schwab Cup points race was down to two players last year -- Langer and Couples.

The way things have unfolded this year on the Champions Tour, the list of potential winners promises to be longer when the Champions Tour returns to TPC Harding Park in November.