Two PGA Tour major winners are among a group of four players who shot a 4-under-par 68 on Friday to finish tied atop the leaderboard after one round of the PGA Tour Champions’ SAS Championship in Cary, N.C.
And none of them finished hotter than Stewart Cink, who finished with three consecutive birdies and played the back nine in 4-under 37 at Prestonwood Country Club.
Ireland’s Padraig Harrington wasn’t as clean as Cink down the stretch, bogeying the par-4 15th before getting that shot back with a birdie on the par-5 17th. Those two are joined by Chad Campbell and Sweden’s Robert Karlsson in first place, one shot better than a trio of golfers.
The SAS Championship is the final event before the Champions’ three-event playoff to determine the winner of the Charles Schwab Cup. The top 72 players in the Charles Schwab Cup points standings after this weekend will advance to the first playoff event, the Dominion Energy Charity Classic next weekend in Richmond, Va.
Cink and Harrington combined to win The Open Championship in three consecutive years, with Harrington winning it 2007 and ’08 before Cink won it in 2009 in a famed playoff with then-59-year-old Tom Watson.
Echoing the sentiments of most of the field, Harrington quickly pointed out the biggest challenge on the course: the greens.
“I think they’re as fast as you could possibly get them,” said Harrington, seeking his 12th career Champions win. “Yeah, no, they’re the fastest greens, I’d say as fast as I’ve ever putted on anywhere at any stage at any time.”
He added, “The goal today was hit as many fairways and as many greens as you could. Obviously just eliminate the stress of those 3- or 4-footers with the pace of the greens.”
Putting wasn’t a problem for Cink down the stretch, as he one-putted each his final three holes to make his birdies — twice making the green from the rough. He needed only one putt on five of the final nine holes.
Cink has three career wins on the Champions tour, including two this year. Campbell and Karlsson, on the other hand, have yet to win on the Champions circuit. Both sit outside the top 50 in the Schwab Cup standings entering the event.
“It’s day one, but I’m looking more on the long term,” Karlsson said when asked about his spot in the Schwab Cup standings. “You can’t get too caught up in that, the whole thing is to try to play as good as I can ever shot, every hole, every round.”
Two-time Masters winner Bernhard Langer of Germany, who bogeyed the par-4 18th, is among the players at 3-under 69. He owns an all-time-record 47 Champions victories. Langer is joined at 3 under by Billy Andrade and New Zealand’s Steven Alker.
