Children's Miracle Network Classic: Final-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR Staff LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Stephen Ames carded a final-round 68 in the Children's Miracle Network Classic Sunday and claimed his third career PGA TOUR win. Ames' final-round 68 is the highest final-round score by a winner in this event since Jose Coceres closed with a 68 in 2001.  Stephen Ames stepped out of the shadows Sunday to earn his third career PGA TOUR victory. (Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
• With his win Sunday, Ames (43 years, 6 months, 7 days) becomes the second-oldest winner of the Children's Miracle Network Classic. The oldest winner wass Raymond Floyd in 1986 (44 years, 1 month, 15 days). • Ames' 72-hole winning score of 17-under 271 is the highest winning score at the Children's Miracle Network Classic since 1999, when Tiger Woods won with a total of 17-under 271. • With his tie for third Sunday and check for $239,200, Scott Verplank exceeds the $3 million mark for a single season for the first time in his 21-year PGA TOUR career. • Tim Clark's runner-up finish is his fourth top-10 finish in five starts at the Children's Miracle Network Classic (tie for 10th in 2005, tie for sixth in 2004, tie for sixth in 2002). • Always the bridesmaid, not yet the bride. Sunday's finish marks Tim Clark's fifth runner-up finish in his last three years on the PGA TOUR, and his third of the 2007 season. Clark was the only player on Sunday to record a bogey-free round. • Craig Kanada's final-round 72 left him at No. 128 on the money list, three spots shy of securing his card for the 2008 season. Kanada was as high as No. 25 on the 2007 money list after the Buick Invitational, but fell outside the top 125 after missing the cut at the Frys.com Open this fall. • Bryce Molder's final-round heroics pushed him into a tie for the lead briefly on the back nine before a double bogey at the par-4 16th dropped him out of contention. This marked Molder's first top-10 finish since the 2002 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Molder's best PGA TOUR finish came at the 2001 Reno-Tahoe Open, where he finished solo third. • One of the better performances this week came from first-round leader J.P. Hayes, who had slid from No. 113 to No. 123 on the money list during the Fall Series before a tie for ninth moved him up to No. 114 and secured his PGA TOUR card for the 2008 season. • The par-4 fifth played as the most difficult hole on the Magnolia Course this week with a scoring average of 4.239. • Kevin Stadler was the only player originally outside the top 125 on the money list (not otherwise exempt) to climb into the top 125 this week. He started the week ranked No. 127 and ended up 125th. Ted Purdy had entered the week 125th, but finished up 127th. • Jeff Gove and Robert Gamez were the only players to climb from outside the top 150 to inside the top 150 this week. Gove's tie for 15th allowed him to move up 10 spots from No. 153 to No. 143 on the money list, while Gamez's tie for third took him from No. 152 to No. 132. Both players are now exempt into the final stage of PGA TOUR Qualifying School. • Eric Axley withdrew prior to the start of the final round due to sickness. |
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