Travelers Championship: Final-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR Staff CROMWELL, Conn. -- Hunter Mahan earned his first PGA TOUR victory on Sunday in the Travelers Championship in his 118th career professional start at the age of 25 years, one month and seven days, becoming the youngest player to win on TOUR in 2007. He collected 4,500 FedExCup points to move into 19th on the points list through 26 events, with 6,990 total points.  Hunter Mahan is the 13th player to earn his initial PGA TOUR victory at the Travelers Championship. (Chris Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
• Mahan also earns a two-year exemption on the PGA TOUR that will take him through the 2009 season. He also receives exemptions into several invitational tournaments in 2007, including the AT&T National, PGA Championship and World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. Next season, he earns spots in the 2008 Mercedes-Benz Championship in Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii, PLAYERS Championships and the Masters Tournament. • Brett Wetterich played as a single on Sunday and needed only 2:10 to complete his round. Wetterich shot a 5-under-par 65, 15 strokes better than Saturday's round of 80. Part of the difference for Wetterich today, 27 total putts compared to 37 Saturday. • Jay Williamson is not a member of the PGA TOUR this year and thus did not earn any FedExCup points for this his efforts this week, but he did pick up the runner-up check for $648,000. His check nearly exceeds his single-best money total in any year on the PGA TOUR. Williamson's best year came in 2004, when he earned $660,038 and wound up No. 120 on the money list. • Sunday's playoff was the 19th in tournament history and the first since 2005, when Brad Faxon defeated Tjaart van der Walt with a birdie on the first extra hole. The playoff was the seventh on the 2007 PGA TOUR and the first since Rory Sabbatini defeated Jim Furyk and Bernhard Langer at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. • Bo Van Pelt recorded the second hole-in-one this week when he aced the 171-yard 16th hole Sunday using a 7-iron. It's the first ace on that hole since Glen Day back in 1994. It's also the first hole-in-one in the final round here since Brad Fabel aced No. 8 on the last day in 1999. For his effort, Van Pelt was rewarded with a $50,000 shopping spree of Roberto Coin jewelry at Lux Bond & Green, a Connecticut-based jewelry company. • Van Pelt tied for sixth this week his best finish in 17 starts this year. He had it going on the weekend, shooting 67-64 (9 under) with six official "no putts" after making the 36-hole cut on the number. The former Oklahoma State University standout chipped in twice on Saturday and holed a wedge for an eagle. He also knocked in two putts from off the green in addition to his ace. His previous best finish this year was a T10 at the Verizon Heritage. • David Toms recorded his third consecutive top-10 finish and his seventh this year with his T6 this week. Toms is a perfect 16 for 16 in cuts made this year. Toms collected 837.5 FedExCup points this week and moved from No. 16 to No. 15 in the season-long points race. He also jumped from No. 19 to No. 15 on the money list. • Rookie Steve Marino had another solid week, finishing T13 for his seventh top-25 finish in 18 starts on the 2007 season. Marino has three top-10s on his resume with his best effort a T6 at the AT&T Classic. • Nick O'Hern finished third this week despite a bogey on the final hole. This is O'Hern's best finish in 14 starts this year and his third top-10. His previous best was a T5 at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship • Vijay Singh shot a final-round 65 and wound up fourth this week. This is Singh's third-best finish in 2007, ranking only behind his two victories. Singh is 18 for 18 in cuts made this year. Since winning the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship, he has not ranked below third in either the FedExCup points list or the money list in 2007. Singh picked up another 1,200 FedExCup points and now trails No. 2 Phil Mickelson by only 95 points. • Joey Sindelar, making his 24th appearance at TPC River Highlands, shot a final-round 71 to wind up T36. Sindelar turns 50 next March and will become eligible for the Champions Tour. • Mark Calcavecchia, T54, made his 25th start in this event and became the tournament's all-time leader in appearances. Calcavecchia first appeared in Hartford in 1981, when the event was held at Wethersfield County Club. George Archer, Hubert Green, Jay Haas, Brad Faxon and Joey Sindelar are now tied for second on the list with 24 starts.
• There are only two par 5s at TPC River Highlands, but a total of eight different holes yielded eagles this week. A total of 34 eagles were recorded, with 25 of them coming on the par 5 holes. There were also two holes-in-one and eagle-2s recorded on four different par-4 holes. • B. J. Staten, now in his second year on TOUR, collected his second career top-10 this week. Staten tied for ninth in this, his sixth start this year. Staten's previous best this year was a T55 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic. His career-best is a T5 at the 2006 John Deere Classic. • The best rounds of the day on Sunday were 64s from Arjun Atwal, J. J. Henry and Bo Van Pelt. Kevin Sutherland had the only bogey-free round of the day, a 65. • Hunter Mahan earned his first victory at the Travelers Championship in his sixth appearance at this tournament. He finished T2 in 2006. • Mahan mooves to the top of the all-time Travelers Championship money list, with $1,518,918. He now has recorded 11 rounds in the 60s out of 20 competitive rounds at the Travelers Championship. His first-round 8-under 62 is a career-best for him at the TPC River Highlands. • His $1,080,000 first-place check is the largest of his career, which brings his season earnings on the PGA TOUR to $1,645,722, ranked 21st. He becomes the 49th player to surpass $1 million in season earnings in 2007. • He becomes the seventh first-time winner on the PGA TOUR in 2007, following Angel Cabrera (U.S. Open), Nick Watney (Zurich Classic of New Orleans), Boo Weekley (Verizon Heritage), Mark Wilson (Honda Classic), Henrik Stenson (World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship) and Charley Hoffman (Bob Hope Chrysler Classic). Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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