The annual Fund A Cushy Retirement For Bernhard Langer Series comes to a season finale this week out in Phoenix.
It’s also known as the Charles Schwab Cup race, the elderly and a lot less wealthy uncle of the FedEx Cup over on the regular PGA Tour.
The season comes to a glorious end starting Thursday at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship and surprise, surprise, Langer is the points leader coming into this finale.
Langer leads the Champions Tour in six statistical categories but the most impressive is his 69.09 scoring average.
Okay, here’s where it gets interesting. The guy in second place, the guy pushing him is someone you never heard of — Scott Parel. The reason is simple. Scott Parel never made it on the PGA Tour. Yes, he did manage to get into five events, missing the cut in four of them but he spent 10 years at a computer programmer. But Parel left his nerd-life behind, qualified for the Champions Tour after winning a Web.com event and this season he racked up two wins and four runner-up finishes.
He’s the closest guy to Langer in the points race, checking in at No. 2.
No. 3 is the well-traveled and highly recognizable Miguel Angel Jimenez. Jerry Kelly is fourth and Scotty McCarron rounds out the top five points-winners.
If either Langer or Parel win this week at the Phoenix Country Club, they win the overall cup.
There are a bunch of scenarios for Langer, he basically stands the best chance of winning this thing yet again.
So at age 61, Langer shows not sign of slowing down. He’s won the Schwab Cup four times.
