Update: Playoff record nears; flooding closes En-Joie GC

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The Champions Tour is idle for a week before heading to Prestonwood CC in Cary, N.C., for the SAS Championship on Sept. 26-Oct. 2. The purse is $2.1 million and the winner will receive $315,000 and 315 Charles Schwab Cup points. Last year, Russ Cochran was victorious at the SAS Championship, his second consecutive win following his victory in Korea.

LAST WEEK

• Jay Don Blake earned his first Champions Tour at the Songdo IBD Championship when he birdied the fifth extra hole to defeat John Cook in a five-hole playoff that started with two other players -- Mark O'Meara and Peter Senior. O'Meara and Senior were eliminated with bogeys on the third extra hole. Blake's win earned him a bit of revenge since Cook had beaten him in a playoff earlier this year at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.

• Blake's Songdo IBD Championship win came in his 424th start since his last victory at the 1991Shearson Lehman Brothers Open in San Diego.

• The playoff at the Songdo IBD Championship was the third in succession as well as the eighth of the season -- one shy of the all-time Champions Tour record of nine in 2002.

• Chien Soon Lu aced No. 17 during round two of the Songdo IBD Championship with an 8-iron from 156 yards. It was his first on the Champions Tour and the fifth of his career.

• Champions Tour professionals John Cook and Bernhard Langer returned from Korea on Monday morning after competing in the Songdo IBD Championship. The duo, who finished T2 and T16 respectively, immediately headed to TPC Harding Park for the 2011 Charles Schwab Cup Media Day. Cook is the Charles Schwab Cup Championship defending champion, while Langer clinched the season-long Charles Schwab Cup in San Francisco and earned the Champions Tour Player of the Year Award.

• For the second time in five years, En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott  site of the Champions Tour's Dick's Sporting Goods Open  has sustained major flooding damage and has been closed indefinitely. The recent Tropical Storm Lee caused the Susquehanna River to overflow at record levels and almost completely cover the course.

• At the European Senior Tour's Casa Serena Open in the Czech Republic, Barry Lane won by two strokes over Peter Fowler. It was lane's second win of the year and Fowler's sixth consecutive top-10 finish.

• Casie Cathrea was seven years old when she first met World Golf Hall of Fame member Ben Crenshaw while he and Dave Stockton were conducting a putting clinic in 2002. Earlier this year, Cathrea and Crenshaw teamed to win the pro-junior competition at the Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach. Crenshaw, an Austin native and Texas alum, is probably happy to hear that Cathrea has verbally committed to play at Texas and will likely enroll in the first month of 2013.

CHARLES SCHWAB CUP

• Tom Lehman maintained his lead in the Charles Schwab Cup and now has 2,135 points and leads runner-up Mark Calcavecchia (1,684) by 451 points. Peter Senior's T2 finish bumped him to third place with 1,645 points. John Cook is now fourth with 1,570 followed by Olin Browne with 1,370.

COMING UP

• The SAS Championship runs from Sept. 26-Oct. 3.

NUMBERS

670 -- The record number of volunteers who have registered for the SAS Championship. Over 670 volunteers will assist with operating the annual Champions Tour event. Volunteers will include SAS employees, Prestonwood Country Club members, and many residents of the surrounding communities. Together, this group will account for over 10,000 hours on the course over seven days.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Bob Gilder finished T47 at the Songdo IBD Championship in what was his 300th career start on the Champions Tour.

ON THIS DATE

9/19/93 -- Gary Player celebrates his 40th year as a professional, claiming his 38th TOUR victory, a three-stroke win over Dale Douglass at the Bank One Classic in Lexington.

9/19/99 -- In just his second Champions Tour start, Tom Watson wins the Bank One Championship in Dallas by five strokes over Bruce Summerhays.

9/20/92 -- One week after his Champions Tour debut, Raymond Floyd outguns Mike Hill for the GTE North Classic. The victory makes Floyd at the time the only player to win both a PGA TOUR and Champions Tour events in the same year. Floyd then donates his winnings to the Hurricane Andrew Relief Fund.

QUOTES TO NOTE

"It's going to be a very tall order to beat Jack's record now." -- Nick Price expresses his opinion on Tiger Woods' chances of reaching Jack Nicklaus' record 18 major championship victories.

"I support whatever you need to do to make putts. Putting is an art. There is no sure-fire way to get the ball in the hole." -- Tom Lehman, who has used both the short and long putter, shares his thoughts on the current popularity of the long putter.

"With the long putter I can drink coffee in the morning -- the short putter, I can't." -- First-round co-leader in Korea last week, Michael Allen comments on the long putter.

"You don't miss it until it's gone." -- Champions Tour professional and Chicago native Jeff Sluman comments on the possibility of having zero professional golf events in Chicago.

"You know, there is accountability....hey if I'm going to say it, I better walk it. It's definitely a two way street and it benefits both people." -- Tom Lehman discusses his role as a friend and mentor to Kevin Streelman in the 'Mentor Project' which can be viewed at www.SchwabFilms.com

"We can still play golf pretty well, but we can entertain better than before." -- Nick Price explains the Champions Tour.