SONOMA — It’s hard to say good-bye to a golf course as beautiful and historic and challenging as the Sonoma Golf Club. But that is exactly what players did as the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, the final event of the Champions Tour’s 2009 season, wrapped up a seven-year run here Sunday in glorious conditions.

It’s especially hard for John Cook, the tournament winner, who fired a final round 69 for a record-breaking 22-under-par total, earning a first-place check for $442,000, the largest of his Champions Tour career.

Cook, who won by five strokes, won’t be able to defend his title next year in Sonoma, as the Schwab Cup will be moving to San Francisco’s Harding Park in 2010 and 2011.

“Certainly, it’s bittersweet, for sure,” Cook said. “The golf course just set up nice for me this year. It was firm and fast. That’s right up my alley. I can be aggressive. I know the Poa annua greens. I grew up on them.”

Everything was perfect about the Sonoma Golf Club, not only Sunday, but the entire week. The golfers were not only treated to gorgeous weather — sunny and pleasant with highs reaching the mid-70s, but also outstanding conditions, as the fairways, greens and bunkers had a pristine look to them.

Loren Roberts, the winner of the Charles Schwab Cup points title for the second time in three years, will also miss playing Sonoma, a par-72, 7,111-yard layout that is set on 177 acres of rolling terrain that provides players with picturesque views of the surrounding wine country.

“Obviously, it’s a wonderful facility,” said Roberts, who won a $1 million annuity for the year-long program that rewards excellence as well as consistency. “We absolutely love the golf course. I don’t think we play a golf course that’s in better condition than this golf course all year long. The greens are absolutely fabulous here. It’s perfect. This is just a great area to come to.

“Obviously, you know, wine country, Sonoma. It’s beautiful up here. It’s a great place to play. They just do a wonderful job for us here. It’s going be tough to leave. I have a good record here and I’ll miss it when we go to Harding Park next year.”

The Schwab Cup has produced outstanding golf in Sonoma since 2003, crowning Jim Thorpe (2003, ’06, ’07), Mark McNulty (2004), Tom Watson (2005), Andy Bean (2008) and now Cook as champions.

“It’s a beautiful area — and that will be missed,” said Jay Haas. “We enjoy wine country to a man. It’s been a lot of fun here and days like this, it makes you not want to leave. This is pretty sweet. Sonoma has been awfully good to a lot of people here. As tournament director, Leon Gilmore has done an unbelievable job.

“I’ve come to enjoy this golf course. I think everybody’s going to be sorry to go. This course is conditioned as good as any we play. Sonoma is probably the best set of greens that we putt on all year long.”

Opened in 1925, Harding Park recently hosted the Presidents Cup as well as the 2005 World Golf Championships-American Express Championship. There are more tree-lined fairways with stately, towering Monterey Cypress trees.

During an interview following his round yesterday, Haas anticipated wearing a sweater for the event in San Francisco, as the climate can be altogether different.

“It’s certainly a different venue,” said Haas. “Harding Park is a wonderful course. The weather could be different down there next year. The condition of it was very good during the Presidents Cup. Hopefully it will be the same. It’s going to have to go some to get in the condition that Sonoma is in.”

With his victory, Cook wins the fourth title of his Champions Tour career (in his 55th career start on the Champions Tour). It was also his second in his last three starts. He also prevailed at the Administaff Small Business Classic two weeks ago near Houston. Cook was also an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour. He finishes the 2009 season with a career-best $1,798,664. He was third in earnings on the tour.

Cook’s 22-under-par score of 266 shattered the Schwab Cup Championship 72-hole scoring record of 20-under-par 268 set in 2003 by Thorpe and later matched by Thorpe (2007) and Bean (2008). It was the second-largest margin of victory in tournament history.

“Hopefully we get back here, because this area, we love it,” said Cook. “It’s a great, great spot to end your year in a wonderful environment with great people. Hopefully they can duplicate that in San Francisco, which I’m sure they will.”

The field averaged 69.561 for the tournament, the lowest scoring average in the seven-year history at the Sonoma Golf Club. The previous low was 69.534 in 2007.

A total of 15 players finished the year with earnings of over $1 million. Last year, 19 players reached that figure. Roberts and Haas each hit the $1 million mark for the fourth consecutive year, the longest streaks on the Champions Tour.

The big crowd that surrounded the 18th green during the late-afternoon awards program was excited to hear Michael Stevens, president of the Champions Tour, express a desire to want the Schwab Cup to return to Sonoma.

“Even though we’ll be down at Harding Park for two years, I hope that you will leave the welcome mat out for us, because I’m telling you, we would really love to come back,” said Stevens.

Since the Schwab Cup is staying in the region, Stevens doesn’t see the move as a negative.

“If we were moving across the country, back east or something, I think it’s more of a story,” Stevens said. “But since we’re pretty much just going down the road, we’re hoping that the momentum that we built here in Sonoma will migrate down to San Francisco.

“After we finish our run in Harding Park after two years, and if the opportunity were to present itself, we would come back here in a heartbeat. The players love it and we certainly have been treated like kings.”

E-mail Executive Sports Editor Marty James at mjames@napanews.com or call 256-2223.