The Daily Wrap-up: Round 4, Travelers Championship
CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) -- There was no Masters-style meltdown Sunday for Kenny Perry.
Perry shot 63 to finish with a tournament-record 258 and win the Travelers Championship by three strokes over Paul Goydos and David Toms, two other golfers in their 40s, and leap into first place in the FedExCup standings with 500 points.
The 48-year old Perry, whose bogey-bogey finish at Augusta kept him from winning the Masters in April, tied a course record with a 61 Thursday and led after each of the first two rounds here. But he trailed by a stroke to Goydos heading into the final round.
He responded by shooting a 32 on the front nine and was up by five strokes heading to the par-4 15th.
Goydos, 45, made a 20-foot eagle putt from the fringe on No. 15 and birdied the 16th. But he missed his birdie putt on No. 17 to the right.
Perry birdied the 15th and put the tournament away by making birdie on No. 17 after hitting a 164-yard approach to within 8 feet.
"Everyone kind of asks about the Augusta hangover deal," he said. "I guess I kind of shoved that aside a little bit. So that makes me feel pretty good."
Perry acknowledged he was thinking about the Masters as he played the back nine and told himself to play aggressively.
"I knew that I had to keep making birdies," he said. "I wasn't going to let up. I wasn't going to play defensive golf. I learned something from that mistake."
Goydos said he felt he needed to shoot a 63 to win the tournament, but didn't start playing well until the 15th hole.
"I don't want to run and hide from that," he said. "He played like a guy who's won 14 times. I played more like a guy who's won twice, especially early in the round."
Goydos made a 40-foot putt on the seventh hole but gave two shots back when he bogeyed the par-3 eighth. Perry hit his tee shot to within 3 feet of the pin and made birdie.
He went four strokes up by sinking a 16-foot birdie on the 10th, while Goydos had another bogey.
Perry has now won five times in just over a year, the most of any player on TOUR. He has 12 top-10 finishes over that span and has made every cut. His 258 tied the fourth-best 72-hole score in TOUR history. It beats the old tournament record of 259 set by Tim Norris in 1982.
It was his 14th career victory, and he said he's hoping to get 20 wins before he retires. "It's a pretty unrealistic goal," he said. I just kind of threw that number out there to see everyone's eyes roll into the back of their heads."
Toms, 42, shot his third 65 of the tournament to tie with Goydos at 19 under. He missed a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 17, after making birdies at Nos. 15 and 16 to put himself into contention.
"I didn't get off to the kind of start that I felt like needed to put pressure on the guys that were ahead of me," Toms said. "I really felt like I needed to get under par pretty quickly to at least give them something to think about and ultimately just got too far behind on the back nine."
Ben Curtis, Ryan Moore and Hunter Mahan all finished two strokes behind Goydos and Toms to tie for fourth at 17 under.
"You'd probably think that anywhere from 15 to 20 under would probably win it. I watched the scoreboard a little bit. You got to kind of focus on what everybody's doing, to see what kind of shots you have to hit."
Scott Verplank shot the low round of 62 Sunday, one shot off the course record that he shares, and tied for ninth place at 15 under.
"I knew I'd shot 61 here a few years ago," he said. "So obviously, you know, I can get it going on this golf course."
| Sunday's Best |
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The par-4 seventh hole was the toughest with a Sunday scoring average of 4.208.
The par-5 13th hole was the easiest with a Sunday scoring average of 4.403.
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Kenny Perry hit his drive to within inches of the pin on the par-3 eighth on his way to a three-shot victory at 22-under par. 
Scott Verplank rallied in the final round with a bogey-free, 8-under 62 to jump from a T26 to a top-10. INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
PGA TOUR Network correspondent Fred Albers offers these observations from Sunday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146/SIRIUS 209 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
It was quite an introduction to the PGA TOUR for Kyle Stanley. Playing in his first professional event, the Clemson graduate finished 11 under to tie for 19th. He showed his potential on the 576-yard, par-5 sixth. After a drive of 318 yards, Stanley hit an iron from 247 yards just short of the green and two putted for birdie. He averaged 284 yards off the tee for the week and showed tremendous promise.
David Toms went 72 holes and made just a single bogey. That came on the 10th hole of the third round, when his approach landed in a greenside divot. Toms made 20 birdies during the week, tying for second with Paul Goydos. It is the third time this year he has finished second.
Kenny Perry approached this week with a simple philosophy -- "life's too short to be miserable." He hit 14 greens in the final round and putted from chipping areas every time to save par. Perry lost the Masters when he hit a bad chip on the 71st hole.
Hunter Mahan should buy property in Cromwell, Conn. He can certainly afford it. The Oklahoma State graduate has finished second, first, second and fourth in his last four Travelers Championships. A final-round 64 pushed him into a fourth place tie this season, and yes, Mahan has the 2010 Travelers Championship on his future schedule.
| This week's Kodak Challenge hole | |
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| This week at the Kodak Challenge hole | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Round-by-round statistics on the par-5 15th at TPC River Highlands | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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