Final-Round Notebook: Charles Schwab Cup Championship  PGA TOUR Staff Jim Thorpe's 20-under-par total of 268 tied the Charles Schwab Cup Championship tournament scoring record. Thorpe had originally set the mark in 2003 when he was a three-stroke victor over Tom Watson.  Thorpe • The win was Thorpe's third in this event and all three have come at the Sonoma Golf Club. With the win, Thorpe matches Tom Watson with three wins in the event. Watson's victories came in 2000, 2002 and 2005. • With his win, Thorpe claims a Champions Tour title for the eighth year in succession, the longest current streak on the Tour. • Thorpe enjoyed great success all week on the course's final three holes. He registered eight birdies, two pars and one double bogey on those stretch of holes, including successive birdies on 16-17-18 in the first and final rounds. • Thorpe's earns $442,000 for his victory, the largest of his career and it increases his 2007 earnings to $1,047,038. It marked the eighth consecutive year he had reached the $1 million level for season earnings. • Thorpe led all competitors in Greens in Regulation at 83.3% (60/72) and was T6 in Driving Accuracy at 73.2 percent (41/56).  Roberts • Loren Roberts is the 2007 Charles Schwab Cup champion and earns a $1 million annuity as the winner of the season-long event. Roberts finishes with 2,716 points, 165 in front of last year's champion Jay Haas (2,551). Haas' second-place finish earned him a $500,000 annuity. Denis Watson (2,177), Brad Bryant (2,167) and Tom Watson (2,032) rounded out the top five. Denis Watson will receive $300,000, Bryant $200,000 and Tom Watson $100,000 annuities, respectively. • In addition to winning the Charles Schwab Cup, Roberts also won the Byron Nelson Award for the lowest scoring average on the Champions Tour. Roberts averaged 69.31 for the year and it marked the second year in succession he had won the award. He had come into the event, averaging 69.31 and trailed Jay Haas at 69.30. However, Haas finished five strokes behind Roberts in the tournament and had a final average of 69.36.  Kite • Tom Kite had another strong performance in this event. He shot a 7-under-par 65 on Sunday and finished T7. It was his fifth consecutive top-10 finish since the event moved to the Sonoma Golf Club in 2003. It was also Kite's 20th consecutive round of par or better in the tournament. Kite's finish was also his seventh top-10 in the event. • Mark McNulty turned in a strong performance, finishing fourth. After an opening-round 2-over-par 74 on Thursday, McNulty fired rounds of 66-65-67. McNulty's finish earned him $177,000 and pushed his season earnings to $978,736. That total was an improvement of more than $300,000 in 2006 when he earned $646,459. • The field averaged 69.534 for the tournament, a drop from last year's average of 70.422. • Jay Haas won his second consecutive Arnold Palmer Award as the Champions Tour's leading money winner. Haas finished with $2,581,001, a career best for him on the Champions Tour. He earned $2,420,207 in 2006. • A total of 15 players finished the year with over $1 million in earnings, three more than did so in 2006. • Fred Funk and Denis Watson both had nice showings in their first appearances in the event. The two shared second place with Funk posting back-to-back rounds of 66 on the weekend. He narrowly missed becoming the 16th player to reach $1 million in earnings for the season, finishing with $997,964 (16th on 2007 list). • Hale Irwin finished T7, his ninth top-10 finish in the tournament, the most by any player in tournament history. • Loren Roberts finished the year as the Champions Tour's putting champion for the second straight year with an average of 1.712. That was the second-best average in Tour history. The best year was turned in by Hale Irwin in 1998 when he averaged 1.700. • Tom Purtzer led the Champions Tour in two categories, Greens in Regulation (76.24%) and Driving Distance (297.6). • David Edwards is the 2007 leader in Driving Accuracy at 80.52%. He was the 2006 leader as well. |
