Power Rankings: SAS Championship

Putting the wild in "Wildcard Weekend" since 2016, the final PGA TOUR Champions Regular Season event will be contested at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, North Carolina, to determine the 72 players who will tee it up next week in the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.

Defending champion Lee Janzen needed a playoff last year to hold off Miguel Angel Jimenez and he returns to defend his title. Prestonwood CC will host for the 22nd consecutive season.

Nobody has more wins this season than Steve Stricker. He picked up his fourth in just 12 events last week in Jacksonville but isn't in the field this week.

It's another "Steve," Steven Alker, who leads the Charles Schwab Cup Money List entering the final event. The others on the outside looking in will need a big weekend to continue the season next week in Richmond, Virginia.

Read all about who's in and who's out here.

The field of 79 will compete for a purse of $2.1 million with the winner taking home $315,000.

Power Rankings

Just Missed: Gene Sauers, Justin Leonard, John Huston, Retief Goosen and Darren Clarke.

The 22nd edition at Prestonwood Country Club will present the final regular season challenge for 2022. Tom Jackson's 1988 designs combine to provide the hybrid layout. Nine holes each from the Meadows and Highland courses combine to make the Par-72 (35-37). Stretching to 7,237 yards as it has since the 2017 edition, the course provides three Par-5 holes, three Par-3 holes and 12 Par-4 opportunities. Champion Bermuda greens at 6,400 square feet on average will roll at tournament speed. Water penalty areas lurk on 14 of the 18 holes while 66 bunkers protect the greens and line the fairways. Just two inches of 419 Bermuda sits off the fairways and greens.

The last two seasons have crowned a champion at 12-under, two of the three highest winning scores since the 2001 inception of the event. The last two seasons have crowned former US Open champions (Janzen, Els) as well. Bernhard Langer owns the tournament scoring record at 22-under, the best winning total by four shots. Tom Kite set the course record of 61 in 2003.

Mother Nature provided drought-like conditions in the month of September before Hurricane Ian dropped almost 4.5 inches of rain to start the month. Cool temperatures, barely into the 70s, and sunshine will be on the menu this week.

Just Missed: Brett Quigley - T19, Vijay Singh - T43, Lee Janzen - T7, Rod Pampling - T63, Mario Tiziani - T14 and Doug Barron - T19.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out through Twitter or email me mikeglasscott@gmail.com.