Haas' 2008 season is solid as a rock

Champions Tour star leads Charles Schwab Cup standings, looks to continue stellar play at Rock Barn

Jay Haas has a chance to widen his lead over Bernhard Langer in the Charles Schwab Cup standings with a good finish in the Greater Hickory Classic.

The Champions Tour event begins today at Rock Barn Golf and Spa's Robert Trent Jones course and features five of the top 10 players in the standings.

Tops among them is Haas, who won the Greater Hickory Classic in 2005 and tied for second last year behind R.W. Eaks. Haas leads Langer by 98 points.

Also entered are Fred Funk, currently third in points, Scott Hoch (fifth), last year's tour No. 1 Loren Roberts (seventh) and Jeff Sluman, now eighth in points after winning at Pebble Beach, Calif., two weeks ago.

With Langer -- a two-time winner on the Champions Tour this year -- skipping the event to play in his own PGA European Tour event in Germany, he will slip further behind Haas and could even fall to third in the standings behind Funk.

Haas also could move atop the Champions Tour's money list. He trails Langer by less than $43,000 and would pass him with a top-10 finish.

Haas, however, isn't thinking about the points or money. He's more concerned with how he'll play in this weekend's tournament, as well as the remaining four events before the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in late October.

"There's a lot of guys still with a chance to gather in all the big prizes this year," said Haas, a two-time winner on the Champions Tour this year, including the Senior PGA Championship in May. "Fortunately, I'm one of those guys still in the mix. I have to play well. I have to worry about what I'm doing.

"I'd like to be a million dollars ahead on the money list and 1,000 points or more ahead, but I'm not. I need to play very, very well. I've been playing pretty well, so hopefully that'll continue."

The National Weather Service has forecast showers and thunderstorms for today and early Saturday morning. The weather has affected play in this tournament nearly every year since it was first held in 2003, with showers forcing a suspension of play in three of the past four events.

"We'll just have to see how the weather holds out," said Eaks, who set a tournament record at 17-under 199 in winning last year. "If it stays soft, you can just throw it at the pin. This course is harder to play when its harder, so it helps the drama of the tournament if the fans see more birdies."

SLUMAN SOAKING IT ALL IN: It's been a full year now since Jeff Sluman joined the Champions Tour -- his appearance in the Greater Hickory Classic this week is the official anniversary --and he loves his new golf life.

A year ago, he arrived at Rock Barn having just turned 50 and with a game showing its age. Sluman hadn't played well in the final months of his full-time PGA Tour career and hadn't done the necessary work to be ready for his transition to the Champions Tour.

"I wasn't putting it well. My wedge game wasn't good. I wasn't driving it well. Put that trifecta together and you're not going to have much success," said Sluman, who didn't have a top-10 finish in five starts near the end of last year.

All of that has changed in 2008.

Sluman arrives at Rock Barn as the tour's most recent winner, having won the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, Calif.

It was his second victory of the season, and it jumped him to fifth on the money list, throwing into contention for the season-long Charles Schwab Cup prize.

Like others before him, Sluman has found the Champions Tour to be invigorating, not just for his game and bank account but also for his competitive spirit.

"I knew it was super competitive out here," Sluman said. "Hubert Green told me that almost everybody out here has done it [won or been in contention to win] before, so there's no backing up on Sundays.

"Every time you tee it up, you want to win. You try to beat everyone who's entered. That's all you can do."