Bernhard Langer and Fred Couples fighting it out for top spot on Champions Tour
Season finale
This week’s Champions Tour event marks the end of the season for the tour. The Charles Schwab Cup Championship will be played from the 4-7 November at the historic 7,135 yard, par-71 Harding Park Golf Course.
Just like the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship is an elite event that only accepts the top-30 on the Charles Schwab Cup ranking. The top-30 this year includes golf legends Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer and Nick Price among
others.
Langer vs. Couples
Langer is currently ranked number one and carries a 582-point lead into this week’s season finale. Couples sits in second while Russ Cochran, John Cook and Fred Funk round off the top-five.
Langer sits atop the ranking thanks to five tour wins this season but Couples is not far behind in his rookie year with four of his own. The only person with a mathematical chance of catching Langer for the top spot is Couples.
Langer would have to finish in a tie for fourth or better to clinch the number one title and the one million dollar bonus. He is coming off a tie for ninth at last week’s AT&T Championship in San Antonio where he saw his point lead diminish.
The German golfer’s last win came back at the Boeing Classic in late August. Since this win Langer has performed consistently enough to record four top-10 finishes. His season was highlighted by back-to-back major titles at the Senior British and Senior
U.S. Open.
Couples finds himself in a do or die situation with the only scenario that will allow him to overtake Langer this week being a win.
Couples play of recent has been equally consistent with four top-10 finishes in his last six events. Couples did not play at last week’s tour stop opting to rest his back for the season-ending finale. Couples won two weeks ago at the Administaff Small Business
Classic with a final round 63.
The American goes into this week’s event feeling good about the venue. Couples captained last year’s victorious American team at President’s Cup which was held on this course.
Couples, besides having the opportunity to overtake Langer, also has the opportunity to set the record for the low scoring average on tour. He currently averages 67.89 which is well below the 68.59 record set by Hale Irwin in 1998.
The course and event
Harding Park is set to host the Charles Schwab Cup Championship for the next two years. Since the tournaments inception in 1990 the event has been hosted at numerous different courses. Last year’s event was played at Sonoma Golf Course.
Last year’s champion John Cook won by five-strokes and shot a final round 69 to finish at 22-under for the tournament. Cook is in good position to defend his title this week having finished tied for third at last week’s AT&T Championship. Cook is winless
so far this season but has recorded 12 top-10 finishes in 24 events played.
This week’s Champion’s Tour event has a $2.5m purse with a $442,000 winner’s share.
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