Final-round notebook: Triton Financial Classic

text size

LAKEWAY, Texas (AP) -- Bernhard Langer cruised to a six-stroke, wire-to-wire victory at the Hills Country Club on Sunday. Langer led by just three strokes at the turn, but pulled away from the field on the back nine. His lone bogey came at No. 13, but he countered with a birdie on his next hole then added another at No. 17. His 54-hole total of 201 tied the tournament record set in 2007 by Scott Hoch. The six-stroke victory was also the largest in 2009 on the Champions Tour.

Related

Langer cruises to win
Leaderboard: Final scores
Schwab Cup standings
Results and money

• Langer becomes the first wire-to-wire winner on the Champions Tour in 2009 as well as the first to accomplish that feat in this event. This was also his second wire-to-wire victory on the Champions Tour, having done so at the 2007 Administaff Small Business Classic near Houston.

• With his victory, Langer earns $240,000 to go over the $1 million mark in earnings for the second consecutive year (now has $1,232,886). He won for the seventh time in 36 starts on the Champions Tour.

• Langer also earns 240 points in the Charles Schwab Cup race and opens up a 442-point margin over Michael Allen (1,162 to 720). Larry Mize is third with 672 points, followed by Loren Roberts (625) and Keith Fergus (570).

• Langer also wins his third Champions Tour event in Texas (two-time winner of the Administaff Small Business Classic).

• Langer will miss the Champions Tour's next stop (Dick's Sporting Goods Open in Endicott, N.Y.) to compete in the PGA European Tour's BMW International in Munich. He'll return to compete in the 3M Championship in Minnesota early next month.

• Langer remains perfect when holding sole possession of the lead after 36 holes in 54-hole events on the Champions Tour (4 for 4). His other wins came at the 2007 Administaff Small Business Classic, the 2008 Toshiba Classic and the 2008 Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach.

• Langer led all players with 19 birdies for the week. Mark McNulty led in Putts per Round (25.67) and Tim Simpson led in Greens in Regulation (81.5%). David Edwards was the most accurate off the tee (80.95%) and Phil Blackmar had the longest drive -- 354 yards on No. 17 on Sunday.

• Here is a breakdown of Langer's seven wins on the Champions Tour.

• Mark O'Meara birdied the 18th hole to claim sole possession of second place. It was his third runner-up finish on the Champions Tour in 2009 and his seventh overall.

• O'Meara's birdie at No. 18 dropped Dana Quigley back into sole possession of third place, his best finish in 2009. It was also his best showing since a T3 at last year's Bank of America Championship near Boston.

• The field averaged 72.936 for the tournament, a slight drop from last year's average of 72.987. Sunday's scoring average was 73.449, when a year ago it was 73.263.

• Hole No. 4 was the most difficult for the event with an average score of 4.506 (+.506). That would make it the most difficult hole on the Champions Tour so far in 2009. There were just 13 birdies during the tournament.