ENDICOTT, N.Y. -- R.W. Eaks won his first Champions Tour title last year when he captured the inaugural Dick's Sporting Goods Open at En-Joie Golf Course. Eaks opened with a 1--under 71 then recorded his career-low Champions Tour score with a second-round 62. His final-round 66 was good enough for him to cruise to a three-stroke win over Bruce Vaughan.

Eaks was one of three players to record a 10-under 62 on the Champions Tour. And like Hale Irwin at the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai and Bernhard Langer at the Administaff Small Business Classic, Eaks was victorious. Eaks' low PGA TOUR round was a 63 at the 1998 United Airlines Hawaiian Open.

The victory was the highlight of what turned out to be a career year for the Colorado native. Eaks finished ninth in the Charles Schwab Cup and passed the $1-million earnings mark for the first time. He pocketed $1,534,098, doubling his previous-best earnings season.

In 2008, Eaks has battled injuries, recording only one top-10 finish. He tied for eighth at the Regions Charity Classic in Alabama.

After competing for more than 20 years at the PGA Tour's B.C. Open, area pros Joey Sindelar and Mike Hulbert will make their Dick's Sporting Goods Open debuts this week. Sindelar, a two-time winner of the B.C. Open (1985 and 1987), played in the event 22 times, making 17 cuts and earning $411,218. He had seven top-10 finishes. Hulbert also made 22 starts and won the event in 1989. His career earnings of $237,705 came on the strength of his win and 15 other made cuts.

Open qualifiers turned in some strong performances at last year's tournament, with three earning top-10 finishes, including a second-place effort by Bruce Vaughan. In addition, Boonchu Ruangkit tied for sixth and Jack Ferenz tied for ninth. Three others finished in the top 20. Rod Spittle and Tim Conley (tied for 11th), and Steve Thomas (tied for 18th).

En-Joie Golf Club served as host of the PGA Tour's B.C. Open from 1971 until 2005, when floods forced the event to move to the Turning Stone Resort in Vernona, N.Y. This year's includes seven former winners of the event: Joey Sindelar (two wins), Mike Hulbert, Gil Morgan (first PGA Tour win), Wayne Levi, Richie Karl, Jeff Sluman and Craig Stadler.

Stadler holds the distinction of winning the PGA Tour event in 2003 while already a member of the Champions Tour. He is just one of three players to win a PGA Tour event and a Champions Tour event in the same year. The others were Raymond Floyd and Fred Funk. When Stadler prevailed at En-Joie, he came from eight strokes back, the best come-from-behind victory in B.C. Open history.

The field for the 2008 Dick's Sporting Goods Open will certainly have an international flavor. Players from nine countries are in the field. In addition to the United States, there are players from Argentina (Vicente Fernandez, Eduardo Romero), South Africa (Fulton Allem), England (Mark James), Ireland (Des Smyth), Germany (Bernhard Langer), Australia (Wayne Grady), Zimbabwe (Denis Watson, Mark McNulty) and Japan (Isao Aoki, Joe Ozaki and Massy Kuramoto).

Jimmy Powell is the oldest competitor in the field at age 73, while the youngest is Mike Hulbert at age 50. In 2007, Powell bettered his age by five strokes in the final round when he shot a 5-under-par 67.

Three of En-Joie Golf Club's 18 holes ranked among the 50 most difficult on the Champions Tour in 2007. The par-4 15th ranked 12th overall, with an average score of 4.423, while the par-4 13th ranked 32nd. It had an average score of 4.316. The other hole in the top 50 was No. 7, a par 3, which ranked 46th overall, with an average score of 3.274. The course ranked 11th out of 30 courses in terms of difficulty in 2007.

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