Mercedes-Benz Championship: Final-Round Notebook
By Stewart Moore, PGA TOUR Staff
KAPALUA, Hawaii -- Daniel Chopra's victory Sunday gives him 4,500 FedExCup points and pushes him into first place on the 2008 FedExCup points list. Steve Stricker earned 2,700 points this week and in turn finds himself in second place on the season-long points list. Stephen Ames (third) and Mike Weir (fourth) collect 1,700 and 1,200 points, respectively.
| Inside the Numbers | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Scoring Avgs. This Week | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sunday's playoff marked the 12th in Mercedes-Benz Championship history and the fourth since the event moved to Kapalua in 1999. The four-hole playoff is the longest in tournament history.
Daniel Chopra's win Sunday marks the 218th PGA TOUR win by a Nationwide Tour alumnus.
The Plantation Course at Kapalua likely set up perfectly for Chopra after he finished 189th on the 2007 PGA TOUR in Driving Accuracy. The Plantation Course was the fourth easiest course in terms of Driving Accuracy on the TOUR in 2007 with an average of 76.39 percent of the fairways being hit for the week.
Chopra becomes the seventh consecutive foreign-born winner of the Mercedes-Benz Championship: Vijay Singh in 2007; Stuart Appleby in 2004-2006; Ernie Els in 2003; and Sergio Garcia in 2002.
Stricker was even par for the tournament through his first 31 holes before playing the remaining 41 in 18 under par.
After recording only three top-10 finishes from the start of 2002 to the end of 2005, Stricker has now notched 17 top-10s since the start of the 2006 season.
Ernie Els (2003) is the only player to successfully capture titles at the Mercedes-Benz Championship and the Sony Open in the same year to open the PGA TOUR season. Back-to-back Hawaii wins for Chopra would result in 9,000 FedExCup points and at least a 3,600-point lead.
Four first-time participants finished among the top-10 this week: Daniel Chopra (third), Hunter Mahan (tie for fifth), Nick Watney (tie for fifth), and Brandt Snedeker (tie for 10th).
Jim Furyk's tie for fifth gives him his sixth top-10 finish at the Mercedes-Benz Championship since the event moved to Kapalua in 1999. He is tied with Tiger Woods for second on that list, two shy of Vijay Singh, who has eight.
Winning the Mercedes-Benz Championship has traditionally sparked an outstanding season -- the last 16 winners at the Mercedes-Benz Championship have been eligible for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, the fourth and final event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
Steve Stricker's and Hunter Mahan's final-round 64 is one shot off the low final round score at the Mercedes-Benz Championship since the event moved to Kapalua. Jonathan Byrd set the low with a final-round 63 in 2003.
Mahan's front-nine 30 on Sunday was the low front-nine score for the week, while Stricker's back-nine 31 was the low for the week on that side.
Beginning with his win at the 2007 Travelers Championship, Mahan has now carded nine rounds of 65 or better in his last 11 starts on the PGA TOUR, four of which have come in the final round.
Defending champion Vijay Singh carded a final-round 70 en route to a tie for 12th. Singh has now recorded 30 of his past 36 rounds at Kapalua under par
Bogey-free rounds: Daniel Chopra, Steve Stricker, Stephen Ames, Jim Furyk, Charles Howell III, Justin Leonard, Mark Calcavecchia, Vijay Singh, and Henrik Stenson.
Boo Weekley was the only player this week to record multiple eagles (2). Mark Calcavecchia, Charles Howell III, Hunter Mahan, Steve Stricker, and Mike Weir recorded one each.
The most difficult hole at Kapalua this week was the par-3 eighth, which played to an average of 3.121.
Shop your favorite brand name golf equipment and accessories at SHOP.PGATOUR.COM
FAN ZONE
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network