Round 4 Notes – PODS Championship
The third round concluded Sunday morning at 10:05 a.m., with 71 players at
7-over 220 or better making the 54-hole cut. Under the recently-revised PGA
TOUR cut policy, a second cut was necessary this week as a result of more
than 78 players advancing to the weekend. The eight players who did not
advance to the final round received their share of FedExCup points and
official prize money based on their respective finish positions at the
conclusion of the third round.
With the victory, Sean O’Hair collects 4,500 FedExCup points to move from
No. 162 to No. 13 in the points standings, with 4,681 points. Tiger Woods
maintains the top spot with 9,225 points. The win was worth a career-best
$954,000 for the two-time PGA TOUR winner, eclipsing the $720,000 he earned
in winning the 2005 John Deere Classic.
At 25 years, six months and 28 days, Sean O’Hair becomes the youngest
player to win the PODS Championship. Through the 2008 PODS Championship,
there are only seven players younger than 30 with two or more wins on the
PGA TOUR. This group is led by 28-year-old Sergio Garcia, who has six
victories.
Player Age W List of victories
Sergio Garcia 28 6 2001 Bank of America Colonial, 2001 Buick
Classic, 2002 Mercedes-Benz Championship,
2004 EDS Byron Nelson Championship, 2004
Buick Classic, 2005 Booz Allen Classic
Adam Scott 27 5 2003 Deutsche Bank Championship, 2004 Players
Championship, 2004 Booz Allen Classic,
2006 TOUR Championship, 2007 Shell Houston
Open
Charles Howell III 28 2 2002 Michelob Championship at Kingsmill, 2007
Nissan Open
Aaron Baddeley 26 2 2006 Verizon Heritage, 2007 FBR Open
D.J. Trahan 27 2 2006 Southern Farm Bureau Classic, 2008 Bob
Hope Chrysler Classic
J.B. Holmes 25 2 2006 FBR Open, 2008 FBR Open
Sean O’Hair 25 2 2005 John Deere Classic, 2008 PODS
Championship
The top 10 players on the FedExCup points list are all exempt into the
World Golf Championships-CA Championship in two weeks. Among the current
top 10, Ryuji Imada was the only one to play himself into the tournament
through this category with his performance at the PODS Championship. Imada
entered the week ranked No. 15, but moved all the way to No. 7 with his
runner-up finish on Sunday.
While international-born players dominated the PODS Championship from
2002-2006, evidenced by a winner’s roster which includes two-time victor
K.J. Choi (South Korea), Vijay Singh (Fiji), Retief Goosen (South Africa)
and Carl Pettersson (Sweden), Americans have now claimed the last two PODS
Championships (Mark Calcavecchia in 2007, Sean O’Hair in 2008).
Four-time PGA TOUR winner Stewart Cink, who began the final round with a
two-stroke lead, notched the 10th runner-up finish of his career. Cink has
held at least a share of the 54-hole lead nine times, with his lone victory
in those tournaments coming at the 2004 WGC-NEC Invitational.
With Ernie Els and Sean O’Hair winning the past two weeks with 6-under and
4-under winning scores, respectively, the PGA TOUR has produced
single-digit winning scores in back-to-back weeks for the first time since
the 2007 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship – both won by
Tiger Woods with matching 8-under 272 totals.
The round of the day was turned in by Steve Stricker with a 5-under 66,
propelling him 48 spots from T62 to T14.
2006 John Deere Classic champion John Senden posted a 4-under 67 on Sunday
to finish T2. It was the second runner-up finish of his career, with the
first coming at the 2007 PODS Championship. Last year he recorded a 5-under
66 on the final day to finish just one stroke behind Mark Calcavecchia.
Sean O’Hair’s come-from-behind win is the first at the PODS Championship
since John Huston won the inaugural tournament in 2000.
With his T8 finish, Rod Pampling joins K.J. Choi (2002, 2006-07) and Joe
Durant (2000, 2004, 2006) with a tournament-leading three top-10 finishes
at the PODS Championship. Pampling finished T4 in 2002 and T6 in 2006.
Eight players have now participated in all eight PODS Championships, with
four making the cut this week (Billy Mayfair – T2, Lee Janzen – T10, Robert
Gamez – T52 and Billy Andrade – T61). Brian Gay, Tim Herron, John Huston
and Shaun Micheel all missed the cut this week in their eighth start.
Speaking of Lee Janzen (T10), he played this week on a sponsor’s exemption
and in the process posted his first top-10 finish on the PGA TOUR since the
2006 Frys.com Open (T5).
Ryuji Imada’s runner-up finish was the third of his career and the second
of the season – to go along with his showing at the Buick Invitational.
Among the other five runner-up finishers, Billy Mayfair now has 14 career
second-place finishes, followed by Stewart Cink (10), John Senden (2), Troy
Matteson (2) and George McNeill (1).
The par-71, 7,340-yard Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club
played to an average of 72.970 this week, the highest since the
tournament’s inception in 2000. It also ranks the course as the toughest of
the season after 11 events. Since 2000, Copperhead has ranked among the
TOUR’s top-15 toughest courses six times. A year-by-year breakdown is as
follows:
Year Average Rank
2000 71.731 13th
2001 No event ------
2002 72.087 10th
2003 72.351 10th
2004 71.278 26th
2005 72.229 11th
2006 71.812 13th
2007 72.005 15th
2008 72.970 currently 1st
The final-round scoring average was 72.507. The par-4 16th hole ranked as
the toughest hole this week with an average of 4.419, while the par-5.
opening hole was the easiest at 4.646.
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