SUNRIVER — Bruce Vaughan’s professional golf career might never be the same after he won the Senior British Open in July.

But the Hutchinson, Kan., resident, who spent the majority of his career on the developmental Nationwide Tour, won’t be changing anytime soon.

“They asked me when I got home, ‘Did things change,’” Vaughan said on a picture-perfect Wednesday morning at Crosswater Club. “I said, ‘No, I still have to go and mow the yard.’ It ain’t changed.”

Vaughan is playing this week at another major championship: the Jeld-Wen Tradition, which starts today at Crosswater Club. It is his first tournament since he came from behind to beat John Cook in a playoff at Scotland’s Royal Troon golf course.

The Senior British Open win was Vaughan’s first of any kind on the Champions or PGA tours.

“I’m just a country boy from western Kansas,” Vaughan said. “To come out here and beat the names that I beat — it was a strong field and some good players — it was satisfying.”

After years of chasing exemptions on various tours (he played one full year on the PGA Tour in 1995), the biggest change for Vaughan will be with his schedule.

He was partially exempt on this year’s Champions Tour until the Senior British win, and he will be exempt in 2009 as well as having access to all the Champions majors.

“I’m still the same guy,” Vaughan said. “I still want to work hard and I still want to win. It’s just opened up a few more doors, and I am going to be able to get into a lot more tournaments and stuff. Plus, I can plan my schedule. I know I am going to be in (the field) that week. It just makes life a little easier.”

Ryder Cup

Bernhard Langer, who has played on 10 European Ryder Cup teams and has captained the team once, offered a few clues Wednesday afternoon on why Europe has dominated the United States in recent years in the biennial tournament.

Langer did not have a definitive answer, but said he thought that the European team’s unity was a factor, which comes as a surprise to the German star.

“You would actually think it was the other way around because Europeans are not one nation; America is one country,” Langer said. “We are a bunch of countries and we don’t always get along. History doesn’t show we get along. But at the Ryder Cup it all changes.”

Nike Junior Day

Recent Bend High School graduate Andrew Vijarro and Sisters High student Lindsay Reeve finished third Wednesday in the Nike Golf Junior Shootout.

Playing with Champions Tour golfer D.A. Weibring, the Central Oregon duo finished behind Gary Hallberg’s team of Portland’s Avery Sills and Eugene’s Robbie Pitts, and Mark McNulty’s team that included Albany’s Nick Sherwood and Tualatin’s Seshia-Lei Telles.

Saying goodbye

A crowd of more than 50 gathered on the 18th green at Crosswater Wednesday evening for a memorial honoring Orville Moody.

A bagpipe player whistled somber tunes and Champions Tour officials spoke fondly of the 1969 U.S. Open Champion.

Moody, who won one PGA Tour tournament and won 11 times on the Champions Tour, died Friday in Texas at age 74.