Stewart Cink shot a final-round 3-under-par 67 to finish at 18-under par for a one-stroke victory over defending champion Hunter Mahan and 48-year-old Tommy Armour III at the Travelers Championship. Cink earned 4,500 FedExCup points and moved to third in the regular season standings with 15,039 points for the year. Cink's 72-hole total score of 66-64-65-67--262 is a new personal best. His previous low-total score for 72 holes was 266 which he recorded at this event in 1998 and at the 2003 Valero Texas Open.
Cink recorded the first of his four PGA TOUR victories in 1997 at the Travelers Championship and nearly defended his title with a tie for second in 1998. The 35-year-old Georgia Tech graduate is now the fourth player in tournament's 58-year history to win multiple times.
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Cink is the first player since Peter Jacobsen to hold the second-round lead at the Travelers Championship and go on to victory. He is the 12th second-round leader in 26 stroke-play events to win and the 14th third-round leader to win on TOUR this season.
It is the 10th time that Cink has held or shared the third-round lead in his career. He has now gone on to victory in two of those events. In addition to winning the Travelers Championship, Cink also was victorious as the wire-to-wire winner of the 2004 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.
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Winners on the PGA TOUR this year -- Nine winners in 20s: D.J. Trahan, J.B. Holmes, Sean O'Hair, Andres Romero, Johnson Wagner, Trevor Immelman, Adam Scott, Anthony Kim, Sergio Garcia; 11 winners in 30s: Tiger Woods (4), Phil Mickelson (2), Daniel Chopra, K.J. Choi, Brian Gay, Ernie Els, Geoff Ogilvy, Boo Weekley, Ryuji Imada, Justin Leonard, Stewart Cink; Three winners in 40s: Steve Lowery, Greg Kraft, Kenny Perry; Oldest: Kenny Perry (47 years, 9 months, 22 days); Youngest: Anthony Kim (22 years, 10 months, 15 days).
With his runner-up finish this week, Hunter Mahan has now made five straight cuts at the Travelers Championship with his 2007 victory sandwiched between tie for second finishes in 2006 and 2008. Mahan remains the leading money-winner in Travelers Championship history with $2,046,918. With his victory, Stewart Cink is now the second-leading money winner in tournament history with $1,891,243.
Tommy Armour III also finished at 17-under par. His tie for second is his best since ending the 2004 Chrysler Championship tied for second. Armour has made six consecutive cuts and now has four top-10 finishes this season on the PGA TOUR, the most in a single season since he recorded five top-10 finishes in 1999. Armour has now earned $1,128,026 this year, eclipsing the $1 million mark for the first time in his 20-year PGA TOUR career.
The scoring average of 69.117 (-0.883) is the lowest in relation to par at this event since official statistics started being kept in 1983. The previous low was 70.332 (-0.668) in 1989 when the course played as a par 71. TPC River Highlands played to the lowest scoring average of any par-70 course so far this year on the PGA TOUR. Waialae Country Club was the previous low at 70.123. In total, it is the seventh easiest course on TOUR this year.
With the 296-yard par-4 15th hole reachable off the tee, players were able to record nine eagles for the week and make it the easiest hole for the week playing to a 3.663 average at -0.337 under-par.
Cink's score of 18-under-par 262 is the lowest winning score at the Travelers Championship since Notah Begay III won in 2000. Four players finished the tournament over par for the week, this is the fewest number of players to finish the event at over par since the tournament moved to a par-70 course in 1990.
Kevin Streelman hung on for his first top-10 finish of his career with a par at the final hole to finish tied for 10th. Streelman, who shared the lead after the first round of the U.S. Open, rebounded from a tough 3-over-par 73 opening round at the Travelers Championship with rounds of 63-62-70 to finish at 12-under par. The consecutive second and third rounds of 63-62--125 set a new tournament record for consecutive rounds (36 holes) and were one shot off the PGA TOUR record for consecutive rounds set by Mark Calcavecchia (60-64) at the 2001 Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale during rounds two and three.
Brad Adamonis, 35 year-old-rookie from Cumberland, R.I., also scored his first top-10 finish of his PGA TOUR career finishing at 13-under par for the tournament for a tie for sixth finish.
In his 20th appearance at the Travelers Championship, Kenny Perry also finished tied for sixth for his sixth top-10 finishe at this event.
Due to expected afternoon thunderstorms, players were be paired in groups of three on Sunday and started their rounds on both the first and 10th tee for their final round beginning at 7:30 a.m. with the leaders teeing off at 9:30 a.m. Play was suspended from 12:57 p.m. to 1:58 p.m. due to a dangerous situation.
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