Commerce Bank Championship: Final-Round Notebook
By Phil Stambaugh, PGA TOUR Staff
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. -- Loren Roberts claimed his first victory of the 2008 season Sunday at the Commerce Bank Championship, ending a drought of 16 events dating back to his last year's Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. Prior to winning Sunday, Roberts had finished second three times in 2008 and had registered five other top-10 finishes.
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• Loren Roberts' win Sunday was his eighth overall title on the Champions Tour, equaling his total number of official wins on the PGA TOUR.
• Loren Roberts became the first Commerce Bank champion in the 21-year history of the event to have finished second the year prior to his victory. He became the third player to win in wire-to-wire fashion, joining Bruce Fleisher (both 1999 & 2000) and Ron Streck (2005).
• Loren Roberts earned 240 Charles Schwab Cup points Sunday and gained ground on the three players ahead of him in the season-long race. Jay Haas is the current leader with 1,671 points, 258 points ahead of Bernhard Langer. Scott Hoch is third with 1,026 points. Loren Roberts, the 2007 Schwab Cup winner, is still fourth with 1,003 points. Roberts is bidding to become the first player ever to win back-to-back Schwab Cups. At the end of the official season, the player earning the most points will receive a $1 million payout from Charles Schwab and the Schwab Cup. Points are awarded on a per-thousand basis for top-10 finishes during the year.
• Loren Roberts' check for $240,000 moved his 2008 earnings to $1,151,093 and moved him into third place on the money list. Roberts has now gone over the seven-figure mark in earnings for the third consecutive year.
• Loren Roberts' one-stroke victory over Lonnie Nielsen and Nick Price Sunday means the Champions Tour has now had 11 out of 16 tournaments decided by either a playoff or a single stroke. A total of seven of the last eight Commerce Bank Championships have been decided by a single shot.
• Nick Price finished as a runner-up for the second time in 2008 (FedEx Kinko's Classic) and now has recorded five top-5 performances in his 11 official starts in 2008. Price is the only player among the top-10 on this year's money list who has yet to register a victory in his Champions Tour career.
• Defending champion Lonnie Nielsen made a valiant run at winning the Commerce Bank Championship for a second consecutive year. His tie for second on the Red Course at Eisenhower Park equaled his best finish of the 2008 season (Ginn Championship). Dating back to the final round of the 2006 event, Nielsen has now recorded seven straight rounds in the 60s at this venue on Long Island.
• Open qualifier Gene Jones managed a tie for fourth at this year's Commerce Bank Championship, his best career finish on the Champions Tour. Jones and Mike Goodes (tied for sixth), a sponsor's exemption this week, earned spots in next week's Dick's Sporting Goods Open. Non-exempt players who finish in the top-10 earn a spot in co-sponsored Champions Tour events the following week.
• Over the last 21 years, players leading/co-leading after Saturday have now gone on to win the Commerce Bank Championship 13 times and seven of the last 10 years. Thus far in 2008 on the Champions Tour, only six of 16 36/54-hole leaders/co-leaders have gone on to win.
• Scott Hoch, Nick Price and Leonard Thompson all shot 65s Sunday, the best final rounds of anyone in the field. Hoch's score moved him up 34 places into a tie for 14th while Thompson's score Sunday vaulted him up 35 spots into a tie for 26th.
• After playing to a stroke average of 70.705 on Friday and 70.141 Saturday, the Red Course at Eisenhower Park averaged 70.766 on Sunday. For the week, the Red Course played to a stroke average of 70.536, the lowest since 2005 (69.863). A total of 48 players were under par this year compared to 43 totals under par last year.
• For the second time in the last three years, the par-4 15th hole ranked as the most difficult for the tournament. The stroke average of the hole this year was 4.232 compared to 4.335 in 2006. This year, there were 23 birdies made on the hole versus only 13 when it played the toughest in 2006. The par-5 third hole played as the easiest for the first time since 2005. This year, the hole yielded eight eagles and 102 birdies. In 2005, the hole gave up four eagles and 135 birdies.
• Ronnie Black, a two-time PGA TOUR winner, finished in a tie for 49thn his Champions Tour debut.
• Vicente Fernandez withdrew after hitting his tee shot on the first hole today with a groin pull.
• Andy Bean's final-round 68 gives him nine consecutive sub-par scores at the Red Course at Eisenhower Park. Bean has now finished among the top 15 in four of his last five starts in the Commerce Bank Championship -- tie for second in 2004, tie for third in 2005, tie for 15th in 2007 and tie for ninth in 2008.
• Two-time champion Bruce Fleisher finished tied for 14th this week. His check for $25,668 moved his career earnings in this event to $671,314 and allowed him to retake the lead as the tournament's all-time leading money winner. Jim Thorpe, another two-time champion, is now second with $669,807.
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