The Champions Tour is winding down to our last event on the regular schedule, the ATT Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in San Antonio, Texas. Given that it is the last regular event of the year, the push for the top 30 players to qualify to go the Charles Schwab Tour Championship in Sonoma, CA is on. It's one of the best fields of the year and I think everyone in the top 30 is playing except for Tom Watson. It will be a terrific championship on a classic A.W. Tillinghast golf course that everyone on Tour has enjoying playing for a long time.
Players are focused on that top thirty number which will exempt some for the next year as well as qualify them for the Tour Championship. They're also looking up and down the money list for the wrap-up of the Charles Schwab point race that will conclude in Sonoma with triple points. The top five players win extra annuity dollars to apply to charity projects that they are associated with.
Jay Haas has had an incredible year and his $2.5 million in winnings leads the money list by a half a million dollars, but Loren Roberts, second on the money list, leads in Charles Schwab points. Incredibly, Tom Watson, who played in only about 12 events, still collected enough points for third place. Brad Bryant the winner of the U.S. Senior Open is fourth, Senior PGA Championship Denis Watson is fifth, I finished sixth and R.W. Eaks who won twice this year is seventh.
I feel fortunate. I've had very consistent year with one win and a number of top ten finishes. I'm hoping that I can have a good finish this week in San Antonio to carry me forward to the Charles Schwab Tour Championship in Sonoma next week.
It's been a very successful year for the Champions Tour with some of the outstanding players joining as rookies. A couple of the new guys that made an impact the last few weeks are Bernard Langer with an amazing 25 under par win at the Aministaff Small Business Classic in the Woodlands and Mark O'Meara who finished second. Mark Wiebe also won his first week at the SAS Championship, an outstanding event played in Cary, North Carolina.
Without question, when you add players of the caliber such as Nick Faldo, Nick Price, Mark O'Meara, Jeff Sluman, Mark Wiebe and John Cook and others, the future of the Champions Tour looks to be in good hands for years to come.
