Bernhard Langer is on course to reclaim his influential position as the pre-eminent player on the US Champions Tour as the season in the United States enters the final two weeks.
The 55 year old German, with two victories under his belt in 2012, competes in the AT & T Championship over the next three days holding a 69-point lead over Tom Lehman in the annual season-long points race for the Charles Schwab Cup.
Langer, who has won 16 times on the Champions Tour, claimed the Charles Schwab Cup in 2010 after a superb season in which he won the Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie and the US Senior Open at Sahalee in consecutive weeks.
Now, although eight players can conceivably still land the spoils and the £1 million annuity, Langer remains favourite with 2250 points to the 2139 accumulated by Lehman and the 1756 gathered by England’s Roger Chapman, the Senior US PGA Champion and the Senior US Open Champion in 2012.
Langer, who made a valiant attempt to win a second Senior Open Championship Presented by Rolex at Turnberry in July – only to be denied by Fred Couples – has accumulated $9,762,327 during his first seasons in the Champions Tour and is clearly dedicated to capturing another Charles Schwab Cup.
Victory in the recent SAS Championship put him in pole position to take the Number One slot back from Lehman, who ended last season with a fine victory in the European Senior Tour’s MCB Tour Championship in Mauritius.
