Notes: Lehman could be first to get POY on all three tours

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The Champions Tour is idle for a week before heading to San Francisco for the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship at TPC Harding Park Oct. 31-Nov. 6. The purse is $2.5 million and the winner will receive $440,000 and 880 Charles Schwab Cup points. Last year, John Cook defended the title he won in 2009 outlasting Michael Allen, who opened the event with a tournament-record 61.

LAST WEEK

• All four members of the Champions Tour at last week's Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic on the PGA TOUR made the 36-hole cut. Tom Pernice, Jr. was best of the four with a T3 finish, Micahel Allen was T37, Tom Lehman posted a T46 and Mark Calcavecchia was T59. Pernice, who began the week as the fifth alternate before making it into the event, advanced from No. 143 on the money list to No. 121 and is now fully exempt on both Tours in 2012.

• Wake Forest University named its new state-of-the-art practice facility on campus for Arnold Palmer during a get-together of Wake Forest golf stars last week, including Webb Simpson and Bill Haas.

• The Dick's Sporting Goods Open will be contested the week of Aug. 13-19 in 2012. This year's tournament, won by Champions Tour rookie John Huston, was played in the last week of June. The new date, implemented for one year only, is a result of the major flooding damage sustained from Tropical Storm Lee that caused the Susquehanna River to overflow at record levels last month and almost completely cover the course. Tournament officials agreed moving the tournament to a later date will allow the En-Joie Golf Club more time to recover and return to championship form.

• Jay Haas Jr., son of Champions Tour player Jay Haas and brother and caddie of FedExCup champion Bill Haas, failed to advance through the first stage of PGA TOUR National Qualifying School. Haas was 6-over at Stonebridge Ranch CC in McKinney, Texas and finished tied for 49th. Josh McCumber, the nephew of former Champions Tour professional Mark McCumber, tied for 65th at Grasslands G&CC in Lakeland, Fla. also failing to advance out of the first stage.

CHARLES SCHWAB CUP

• With one tournament remaining, only five players have a mathematical chance of winning the 2011 Charles Schwab Cup -- Lehman, Calcavecchia, Peter Senior, John Cook and Russ Cochran.

• Lehman leads the current race with 2,338, followed by Calcavecchia with 1,956 (382 points behind). Senior is third with 1,782 points and Cook fourth with 1,726 points. Cochran is a distant fifth with 1,508 points.

• If Lehman wins, or finishes solo 2nd at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at TPC Harding Park, no one else can win the Charles Schwab Cup.

• In the previous 10 years, the only player to overtake the leader coming into the final event of the season was Tom Watson in 2005.

• A total of 880 points is available to the winner of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship while the player finishing 30th will earn 48 points.

COMING UP

• Heading into the Charles Schwab Cup Championship Peter Senior has earned $1,388,119 and is No. 6 on the Champions Tour money list. If Senior fails to win at TPC Harding Park, but still manages to finish 2nd, 3rd or 4th he will pass Tom Kite ($1,549,819 in 2003) as the player to win the most money in a season without a victory.

• Lehman is bidding to make history. The current leading money-winner and top points producer in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race, Lehman is bidding to become the first player ever to claim Player of the Year honors on each of the Tours. A three-time winner this year, Lehman was the Nationwide Tour's Player of the Year in 1991 and was the PGA TOUR Player of the Year in 1996.

• Cook will try to become the first player to win the Charles Schwab Cup Championship three consecutive times and the first since Jim Thorpe (2003, 2006 and 2007) to win the season-ending event three times overall. Tom Watson also won the Schwab Cup Championship three times (2000, 2002 and 2005).

• Four players are scheduled to make their first appearances in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. That group includes Jay Don Blake, Kenny Perry, John Huston and Chip Beck, who joined the Champions Tour in 2006.

• Hale Irwin, the Champions Tour's all-time winner with 45 career victories is, at age 66, the oldest ever to qualify for the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship. Before this year, Gil Morgan was the oldest to compete at 63.

• The Champions Tour has had eight playoffs this year. In 2002, there were an all-time record nine playoffs. There have only been two playoffs in the previous 21 Charles Schwab Cup Championships and none since 1994.

• This year's Charles Schwab Cup Championship field includes four members of the World Golf Hall of Fame: Nick Price, Bernhard Langer, Tom Watson and Hale Irwin. This year's field also includes 10 major championship winners on the PGA TOUR.

NUMBERS

10 -- The number of players to earn more than $1 million on the Champions Tour so far this season. Tom Lehman is the only player to surpass $2 million with just one event remaining.

58 -- The number of consecutive holes Peter Senior has played bogey-free coming into the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

DID YOU KNOW?

• The winner of the last nine Champions Tour events has played in the final grouping on Sunday (since Senior British Open).

• Bob Gilder (31st), Mark McNulty (32nd) and Brad Faxon (47th) were the three winners this season to finish outside the top 30 on the money list and were unsuccessful in advancing to the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship. Faxon turned 50 on August 1 and only played seven events.

ON THIS DATE

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.

10/30/05 -- Watson shoots a final-round 8-under-par 64 to win the Charles Schwab Cup Championship as well as the season-long Charles Schwab Cup.

QUOTES TO NOTE

"I'm aware that I've had that yellow jersey since the second week. It would be nice to finish the last week with it, but a lot can happen in one week, especially at a small field event with a big purse." -- Charles Schwab Cup points leader Lehman explains it's not a done deal until the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship is in the books at TPC Harding Park.

"I'm not a big Thanksgiving/Christmas guy anymore the older I get. I just want December to get by. I always look forward to January 2...well, actually January 3. It takes a couple of days for the hangover to calm down. Then I can start focusing on what I'm going to do on January 3 for the year." -- Mark Calcavecchia shares his plans for the off-season.

"You know, we're not dead yet. We can still play." -- Champions Tour professional Michael Allen voices his opinion while near the lead after the first round of the PGA TOUR's Children's Miracle Network Classic at Disney last week.