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Thursday Mar 18 – Sunday Mar 21, 2010

Round 4 Notebook: PODS Championship

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Mar. 9, 2008
By John Bush, PGA TOUR Staff

• 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.

Young Guns
Player Age Wins
Sergio Garcia 28 6
Adam Scott 27 5
Charles Howell III 28 2
Aaron Baddeley 26 2
D.J. Trahan 27 2
J.B. Holmes 25 2
Sean OHair 25 2

• 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).

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Stewart Cink (WireImage)

• 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 Score 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
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