Adams will be well-known at SAS event

CARY -- Mitch Adams began the year as an unknown on the Champions Tour, as a rookie in the truest sense.

"Guys would give me strange looks, like, 'Who is that?' " he said.

Nine months later, Adams has made himself known to those on the 50-and-older tour. He nearly won a tournament, has earned respect and may be one of the players to watch this week in the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club.

Tom Jenkins is the defending champion in the $2 million tournament. The field also includes past winners such as D.A. Weibring, Hale Irwin and Bruce Lietzke, who have proven they can master Prestonwood.

But few know Prestonwood like Adams. He has been a club member for 12 years and lives within walking distance. "I've got a courtesy car this week," Adams said Tuesday with a growing smile. "I've never driven anything to the club other than my golf cart."

Adams knows every dogleg, every green, every nuance of the three courses at Prestonwood. He has shot a 62 on the Fairways layout and 63s on both the Highlands and Meadows layouts.

"I bet I've played every hole a thousand times," he said.

But never like this week. Never with this much at stake.

Adams does not have exempt status on the Champions Tour and is playing this week on a sponsor's exemption. He was 13th in last year's Qualifying Tournament -- or "Q-School" -- but that gained him only a slot in the Monday morning qualifiers before tournaments, when he has to fight it out for a handful of spots in the field.

"When you look in the dictionary under 'impossible,' it lists how you try to get on the Champions Tour," veteran Joe Inman said.

Raleigh native Scott Hoch, who notched his first Champions Tour win this year, said the "deck is stacked" against the qualifiers.

"I think something has to be changed," he said. "It's too hard to get rid of people who are on the tour and it's too hard to get on for the people who don't come through the PGA [Tour]."

Hoch knew little about Adams until early August. In the final round of the 3M Championship outside Minneapolis, he noticed the name "Adams" zipping up the leaderboard -- at 13-under par, 14 under, 15 under.

Funny thing, but Adams was trying his best not to look at the leaderboards on the TPC Twin Cities course.

"I had everything working," Adams said. "I was concentrating, not thinking of the surroundings or consequences. I just wanted to stay in the moment."

Adams' 30 on the front nine equalled the tour's lowest nine-hole score this year. Then, at the 12th, he inadvertently caught a glimpse of the leaderboard.

He was in the lead. Two holes later, a Golf Channel crew rolled up as he was about to play.

"I knew something was happening but I wasn't nervous," Adams said. "At the 18th, I thought, 'It's my destiny to win.' "

But Adams couldn't quite pull it off. He and his playing partner, Jay Haas, tied the course record with 63s, but Weibring birdied the final three holes to beat Haas by a shot and Adams by two.

Before the tournament, Adams was 102nd on the money list with $29,888. His tie for third was good for $115,500, lifting him to 61st.

Adams said Hoch was one of the first to seek him out and congratulate him the next week.

"It's good to see some of the names you're not familiar with play well," Hoch said. "He was great that last day."

Adams, who is from Martinsville, Va., never played the PGA Tour. He was club pro at Gates Four Golf & Country Club in Fayetteville, later worked for Izod apparel and was content to compete in PGA Section events and, later, Carolinas Golf Association tournaments after being reinstated as an amateur.

But Adams' wife, Gail, urged him to take a run at the Champions Tour. He turned pro in 2005, won 15 mini-tour events, went to Q-School and here he is.

Adams now is 67th in money with $157,880. The top 30 players on the 2007 tour money list will be exempt next year, and Nos. 31 to 50 have conditional status.

"My goal is the top 50," Adams said. "I would get in six to eight tournaments without having to Monday qualify."

Adams guesses it will cost him about $60,000 in travel costs this year to chase his dream.

"And I'm cheap," he said, laughing. "I'll stay in a Super-8 and eat at McDonald's. If I qualify for a tournament, I might treat myself."

No telling what he might do if he were to win this week.