CARY, N.C. (AP) — Charles Schwab Cup leader Tom Lehman is skipping the SAS Championship, giving second-place Bernard Langer a chance to catch up a bit in the race for a $1 million annuity.

“I need to be aggressive every week I play,” the 55-year-old Langer said Thursday, a day before the start of play at Prestonwood Country Club. “Whether he plays or not has no bearing on my game. Obviously, with him not here, it gives me a chance to catch up. But if I finish 11th, then I get nothing.”

Players only receive points for top-10 finishes.

Defending champion Kenny Perry also is chasing Lehman.

“Tom’s built a pretty good lead,” Perry said. “And he knows that, and that’s probably why he’s not here. But he’s probably in pretty good shape.”

Perry, who admittedly has not put an emphasis on golf this year like he did in the past, still has played well enough to make it into 10th place in the Schwab Cup standings.

He took the past four weeks off, something he’s never done in his 30-year golf career. His son got married, and his daughter is expecting Perry’s second grandchild.

“There are other things in my life more important than golf,” Perry said.

But even with a more relaxed approach this year to the game, the 52-year Perry still has some drive left — especially as he pushes toward the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship tournament in Arizona.

“There’s nothing like winning,” he said. “There’s nothing like the feeling of winning and coming back to that place you’ve won at, and I love it here.

“(The SAS Championship) is very important. I told somebody I need to win two of the three (tournaments) before I get to Phoenix to even get near him to have a chance to put any pressure on him.”

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