Wyndham Championship: Final-round notebook
By John Bush, PGA TOUR Staff
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- North Carolina State graduate and local favorite Carl Pettersson posted a 2-under 68 on Sunday to claim his third career win on the PGA TOUR, adding the 2008 Wyndham Championship to his previous victories at the 2005 Chrysler Championship and the 2006 Memorial Tournament. At 21-under 259, Pettersson topped Scott McCarron by two strokes.
| PGA TOUR All-Time | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Low 72-Hole Scores | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
• The previous lowest winning score at the Wyndham Championship was Jesper Parnevik's 265 total in 1999 (Forest Oaks CC). At Sedgefield Country Club, the previous lowest winning score was 267, set by George Archer in 1967, Billy Casper in 1968 and Chi Chi Rodriguez in 1973.
• Making his 172nd career PGA TOUR start, Carl Pettersson earned 4,500 FedExCup points to move to No. 13 in the FedExCup standings, with 9,821 points. He has now won the final regular season event on the PGA TOUR twice in his career, doing so at the 2005 Chrysler Championship and this week at the Wyndham Championship.
• This week represented the last of 37 Regular Season events on the 2008 schedule, with the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup beginning next week at The Barclays. The top 144 players on the FedExCup points list on Sunday qualified for the Playoffs, with five players playing their way in this week at the Wyndham Championship.
• The list includes Justin Bolli (from No. 153 to No. 141), Lee Janzen (154 to 144), Martin Laird (164 to 128), Rich Beem (166 to 114) and JJ Henry (177 to 135). As a result, the following players dropped out of the top 144: Marco Dawson (from No. 144 to No. 150), Brett Rumford (143 to 149), Todd Hamilton (141 to 148), Tag Ridings (140 to 147) and Gavin Coles (138 to 146).
• Carl Pettersson's victory marks the ninth time out of the last 10 Wyndham Championships that the 54-hole leader/co-leader has gone on to victory. The only year since 1999 that the 54-hole leader didn't win was 2007, when Brandt Snedeker rallied for his first career victory. In all, the 54-hole leader/co-leader at the Wyndham Championship has gone on to win 33 times since 1950.
• Scott McCarron posted his sixth career runner-up finish and first since the 2005 FBR Open. His last victory came at the 2001 BellSouth Classic. The three-time PGA TOUR winner has now finished inside the top five in two of his last three starts (tie for fifth at the RBC Canadian Open, second at the Wyndham Championship). McCarron moves to No. 77 on the FedExCup points list as a result.
• Amateur Danny Lee, who won the Western Amateur in late July, finished tied for 20th for the best finish by an amateur at the Wyndham Championship since Ryan Moore finished tied for 24th in 2004. Prior to that, Gary Pinns finished tied for 76th in 1980.
• The round of the day was turned in by J.J. Henry with an 8-under 62, equaling the best final-round score in the history of the Wyndham Championship (62, Davis Love III, Forest Oaks CC, 1992) and falling just one stroke shy of the tournament record (61, 2nd round, Carl Pettersson, 2008). Henry's bogey-free effort helped him jump from No. 177 on the FedExCup points list to No. 135, earning a spot in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
• For J.J. Henry (tied for fourth), it was his first top-10 finish since a tie for sixth at the 2007 Valero Texas Open. Other players inside the top 10 this week in Greensboro with their first top-10 finish of the season were Rich Beem (third), Bob Sowards (tied for ninth) and Shane Bertsch (tied for ninth).
• Martin Laird, a member of the Nationwide Tour's graduating class in 2007, posted his second consecutive tie for fourth (Legends Reno-Tahoe Open).
• The Atlantic Coast Conference was well represented in the top 10 at this week's Wyndham Championship. Joining former N.C. State standout and tournament winner Carl Pettersson near the top of the leaderboard were Tim Clark (tied for sixth, N.C. State), Kevin Streelman (tied for sixth, Duke) and Mark Wilson (tied for ninth, North Carolina).
• There were eight rounds of 63 or better recorded this week at Sedgefield Country Club, including Carl Pettersson's tournament-record 9-under 61 on Friday. The others came from Briny Baird (third-round 62), J.J. Henry (fourth-round 62), Martin Laird (first-round 63, Bob Heintz (first-round 63), Rich Beem (third-round 63 and fourth-round 63), and Martin Laird (fourth-round 63).
• Kent Jones posted a 1-under 69 on Sunday to finish T20. Playing well at Sedgefield Country Club isn't unfamiliar territory for Jones. In 2000, he won the Nationwide Tour's Greensboro Open at Sedgefield, firing rounds of 66-66-67-64 for a three-stroke win over amateur Charles Howell III and Jay Hobby.
• Tournament winner Carl Pettersson (64-61-66-68) was one of 31 players to post all four rounds in the 60s this week.
• With Pettersson's win, the third-round leader has now gone on to win 20 of 36 stroke-play events on the PGA TOUR in 2008.
• Rich Beem, who made the cut on the number (3-under 137) this week, posted matching career-record-tying 7-under 63s on the weekend to finish in solo-third place. Beem, who entered the week No. 166 on the FedExCup points list, easily made it into the PGA TOUR Playoffs in the 114th spot.
• Dating back to his bogey on the first hole of the second round, Bob Estes (tied for 30th) played the final 53 holes without a bogey this week. Scott Sterling (tied for 15th) had the second-best streak to finish the tournament with 41 consecutive bogey-free holes.
• Bogey-free rounds during the final round were turned in by J.J. Henry (62), Zach Johnson (64), Shane Bertsch (64), Bob Estes (66), Vaughn Taylor (67) and Scott Sterling (68).
• The cumulative scoring average this week as the par-70 Sedgefield Country Club was 68.753.
Shop your favorite brand name golf equipment and accessories at SHOP.PGATOUR.COM
PLAY NOW
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network