Out of the Rough: SAS Championship (2026)

In the final regular season event before the three-week Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, the PGA Tour Champions heads to Cary, North Carolina for this week’s SAS Championship.

This season marks the 26th edition of one of the Tour’s longest standing non-major events.

The Prestonwood Country Club will once again play host, just as it has since the tournament's inception in 2001. SAS Institute continues on as the event’s title sponsor, again, just as it has since the tournament's inception.

As previously mentioned, next week begins the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, where the top 72-golfers of the season-long standings will take to the Stifel Charity Classic.

From there, the top-54 will advance to the Simmons Bank Championship before the final 36 take to the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

The Field

Each of the top three (Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Steven Alker) within the Charles Schwab Cup Money list will not be in attendance this week 

However, that does not mean the field in North Carolina is weak for this week’s event.

Padraig Harrington comes in as the top-guy within the Charles Schwab Cup Money list at fourth.

He’ll be joined by Retief Goosen (fifth,) George McNeill (seventh,) Ben Crane (eighth) and Ernie Els (ninth) as those within the top ten to be playing this week.

Other notable names teeing it up this week include Alex Cejka, Darren Clarke, Y.E. Yang, Jerry Kelly, Soren Kjeldsen, Tommy Gainey, Richard Green, Tag Ridings, Freddie Jacobson and fan favorite, Michael Block.

Cejka comes in as the defending champion of this event, winning by three strokes over Els a season ago.

Other former winners of this event playing this week include Kelly (2019 and 2024,) Rod Papling (2023,) Els (2020,) Bernhard Langer (2012 and 2018,) Colin Montgomerie (2017,) Kirk Triplett (2014) and Tom Pernice Jr. (2009.)

The Course

This week’s SAS Championship will be played at a combination of both the Meadows and Highlands courses at Prestonwood Country Club.

The course will consist of 13 holes from the Highlands and just five from the Meadows.

It’ll play as a par-72 at 7,237 yards.

The venue itself is best known for its significant elevation changes and undulating fairways.

Its main line of defense is water. Water comes into play on 14 holes this week. None more notable than the eighth (Highlands’ 17th) par-three that is much like that of TPC Sawgrass. It features an island green.

Along with the water, the rough is deep here at Prestonwood. Missing the fairway and into the rough will make a recovery extremely difficult.

The greens are fast and true but many do feature multiple-tiers. These tiers make for difficult lag putting.

To go along with the course’s TPC Sawgrass-style par-three eighth, the ninth also has a TPC Sawgrass feel to it with a par-four with a dramatic dogleg wrapping around water.

It is also worth noting that this course used for the SAS Championship features just three par-fives and three par-threes for a par-72. That is different. That means there are 12 par-fours to be played around this golf course.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, Friday is calling for a 25-percent chance of precipitation with Saturday calling for a near zero-percent chance and Sunday a five-percent chance. Temperatures will be drastically different between rounds. Friday is calling for a high of 89-degrees as Saturday is slated for 65-degrees. Temperatures are set for 66-degrees on Sunday. Winds will be at the highest on Friday as some gusts could reach 20 miles-per-hour. Winds will settle down to 15 miles-per-hour on Saturday before finishing the week at ten miles-per-hour on Sunday.

Key Stats

• Total Driving

• Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)

• Putting Average

• Three-Putt Avoidance

• Par-Four Average Scoring

• Scrambling

• Birdie or Better Percentage

Betting Card

Alex Cejka (+1500)

Cejka is the defending champion of this event for a reason. He also placed 24th here in 2024, 27th in 2023, fifth in 2022 and third in 2021. He also comes into this week in good form. He was the runner-up a week ago at the Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS. Cejka also placed 12th at the Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic and 17th at the PURE Insurance Championship. On Tour, he is currently fourth in total driving, tenth in both GIR% and three-putt avoidance, 17th in putting average, 20th in par-four average scoring, 24th in birdie-or-better percentage and 30th in scrambling. 

Y.E. Yang (+3500)

Across his last six outings, Yang has a runner-up and three top tens. He placed 25th last week at the Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS. He also placed seventh at the Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic, sixth at the PURE Insurance Championship, 44th at the Sanford International, 32nd at The Ally Championship and was the runner-up at the Rogers Charity Classic. Yang has also been rather consistent at this event and golf course across the past four seasons. He placed 28th in 2025, 11th in 2024, 35th in 2023 and 13th in 2022. On Tour he is currently fourth in scrambling, 12th in par-four average scoring, 15th in putting average, 18th in GIR%, 19th in birdie-or-better percentage, 20th in total driving and 30th in three-putt avoidance. 

Angel Cabrera (+4000)

My ‘long-shot’ this week is Cabrera. He is currently second on Tour in three-putt avoidance, fifth in total driving, 22nd in putting average, 35th in scrambling, 40th in both GIR% and birdie-or-better percentage and 49th in par-four average scoring. He too has found some good form as of late. He placed fourth last week at the Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS. Prior to that he placed 36th at the Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic, sixth at The Ally Championship, 25th at the Boeing Classic and 14th at the Kaulig Companies Championship across his last five outings. Cabrera has also been great here at Prestonwood Country Club across his last two outings. He placed 17th a season ago and fourth in 2024.

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