Final-round notebook: Ginn sur Mer Classic

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Ryan Palmer has become the PGA TOUR's election week specialist.
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Nov. 2, 2008
By Mark Stevens, PGA TOUR Staff

PALM COAST, Fla. -- Election week specialist Ryan Palmer has now won both of his PGA TOUR events in Florida days before the United States presidential election. In 2004, Palmer won the Children's Miracle Network Classic 10 days before the election.

• Palmer notched his second career TOUR victory in his 148th career start, one of 13 career top-10 finishes.

• Palmer becomes the 20th second-round leader to have gone on to win out of 46 events.

• Palmer was No. 143 on the money list prior to the Ginn sur Mer Classic. Following the win he moves to No. 73, thanks to a career-best $828,000 paycheck.

• All six of the Fall Series winners this season were at No.125 or higher on the money list prior to their win. The complete list of winners in the Fall Series includes:

Tournament Champion $ prior to win $ after win
Viking Classic Will MacKenzie No. 178 No. 97
Turning Stone Dustin Johnson No. 128 No. 41
Valero Texas Open Zach Johnson No. 125 No. 55
Justin Timberlake Marc Turnesa No. 138 No. 75
Frys.com Open Cameron Beckman No. 175 No. 86
Ginn sur Mer Classic Ryan Palmer No. 143 No. 73

• Scoring Averages at the par-72 Conservatory Course:

Front 9 Back 9 Total Cumulative
Thursday 36.462 36.227 72.689 ---
Friday 37.098 36.652 73.750 73.220
Saturday 36.644 36.027 72.671 73.101
Sunday 36.548 35.740 72.288 72.956

• The par-4 second hole played the most difficult on Sunday, yielding a 4.315 average. The par-5 13th hole was the easiest at 4.630.

David Duval making his first start on the First Coast since THE PLAYERS in 2006 finished T35. The Ginn sur Mer Classic represents the 102nd tournament for Duval since his last top-10 finish at the 2002 Invensys Classic at Las Vegas (T6). Duval has made the cut in five of his last 10 events.

Jeff Overton, who entered the tournament at No. 126 on the money list, shot a 3-under 285 to finish T18 and move up to No. 125 on the money list -- just 12 days after undergoing an emergency appendectomy.

• The winning score in four of the six PGA TOUR events played so far in Florida this year were by single-digit under-par scores, including Ernie Els at the Honda Classic (-6), Sean O'Hair at the PODS Championship (-4), Sergio Garcia at THE PLAYERS Championship (-5) and Ryan Palmer at the Ginn sur Mer Classic (-7)

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Duke

• Palm City, Fla. resident Ken Duke notched his 11th top-25 finish in his last 14 starts. He is No. 31 on the money list.

• A total of 102 players have earned more than $1 million this season to set a PGA TOUR record. Last year, 99 players collected over $1 million, which was the previous record.

Troy Matteson, a native of Rockledge, Fla., finished T7, his fourth top 10 showing of the year. Two of those finishes came in Florida, including a season best runner-up finish at the PODS Championship.

Michael Sim, who has been plagued by injuries and made just his seventh start of the season this week, finished T18 just one week after his season best finish at the Frys.com Open (T7). Last week's finish topped his previous career-best T9 finish at the 2007 Ginn sur Mer Classic.

• Plantation, Fla. native Nicholas Thompson turned in his career-best finish at the Ginn sur Mer Classic with a T2. His previous best finish also came this year at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (T4) and the EDS Byron Nelson Championship (T4).

• In 2008, the 36-hole cut at all five TOUR events held in Florida was over par (Honda 4-over, PODS 3-over, Arnold Palmer 2-over, THE PLAYERS 3-over and Ginn 2-over). The WGC-CA Championship did not have a cut.

Tom Scherrer's T7 finish is his best on TOUR since a sixth-place finish at the 2002 Air Canada Championship.

• Naples, Fla. native George McNeill finished T2 and recorded his best finish since a T2 at the 2008 PODS Championship. McNeill recorded his first TOUR win at the 2007 Frys.com Open. McNeill has made 19 of 27 cuts this season with nine top 25 finishes.

• Three players (Ryan Palmer, Vaughn Taylor and Jeff Overton) were able to jump into the top 125 this week. The list includes:

Player Finish this week Prior $ Rank Current $ Rank
Ryan Palmer 1st 143 73
Vaughn Taylor T2 129 100
Jeff Overton T18 126 125

As a result, Patrick Sheehan (from No. 125 to No. 129), David Toms (from No.124 to No. 128), and Charles Warren (from No. 123 to 127) fell out of the top 125.

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