Live notes: Final round of THE TOUR Championship

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Camilo Villegas won the battle (THE TOUR Championship) on Sunday while Vijay Singh won the war (the FedExCup).

THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola is the final stage of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, and PGATOUR.COM's crew is on the scene. We'll provide continuous coverage of Sunday's final round, so check back often.
FINAL ROUND: Leaderboard | PGA TOUR Shot Tracker | FedExCup points projection

PLAYOFF POINTS (7 p.m. ET): A year ago, Tiger Woods won the FedExCup by 12,578 points. On Sunday, Vijay Singh won the FedExCup by 551 points over Camilo Villegas (click here for final FedExCup point standings).

Three things proved to be the difference in Singh's win this year:

1) Regular-season positioning: Singh finished seventh in the regular season in FedExCup points; Villegas finished 42nd. That was a difference of 2,350 points when the points were reset entering the Playoffs.

Villegas

Singh

2) Villegas failed to make the cut at The Barclays by one shot. Had he made the cut, he would have received at least 2,098 points (the total Paul Goydos received by finishing last at The Barclays after making the cut).

"The only thing I can tell you is I was battling hard to make that cut," Villegas said Sunday when asked about The Barclays. "... That's the way this game goes. If I knew that was the case, I don't know what I would have done different. But you've just got to be in the present."

3) Singh won The Barclays after extending the playoff by making a 26-foot birdie putt on top of Sergio Garcia's 27-foot birdie putt. The difference between first and a tie for second (Kevin Sutherland was also in the playoff) at The Barclays was 4,600 points.

In Singh's defense, though, he said had the putt not dropped in New Jersey, his focus for the last two playoff events would have been dramatically different. He finished T44 at the BMW Championship and T22 at THE TOUR Championship.

"It's strange that you brought that up," Singh said Sunday night when asked about the putt. "If I hadn't made that putt, was I going to be more focused for this week? You know, Bellerive (site of the BMW Championship) would have been a different story as well, probably.

"When you win the first two, and everybody starts talking about that you've won it all, all you have to do is show up, it kind of puts you in a very odd situation when you go out there and play. You don't have that much fire left.

"I tried. I tried to play as hard as I can, but for some reason it wasn't there. The intensity that I played golf with at Barclays and at the Deutsche Bank, it was there for BMW and this week."

SERGIO'S REACTION (6:50 p.m. ET): Sergio Garcia had a great Playoffs run, but had little to show for it after losing to Camilo Villegas in a one-hole playoff at East Lake.

Garcia

It's the second playoff loss in the Playoffs for Garcia, who came up short on the second playoff hole against Vijay Singh at The Barclays.

Garcia also finished tied for fifth at the Deutsche Bank Championship. And in his last tournament prior to the Playoffs, Garcia finished tied for second behind Padraig Harrington at the PGA Championship.

"Unfortunately, I lost probably three hard ones late in the year and it's a bit disappointing," Garcia said, "but the only thing you can do is move on. There's always next year, I guess."

Garcia entered Sunday's final round with a three-shot lead but struggled through the first 10 holes, with three bogeys and no pars.

"I don't want to take anything away from Camilo," Garcia said. "I think he played an awesome round. To shoot 66 today was great. But I still felt like I let it go a little bit."

Garcia said he just could not commit to his shots. He left several putts short and hit just 5 of 14 fairways. And then in the first playoff hole against Villegas, his errant drive on the par-3 18th opened the way for Villegas to win with a par.

"I just didn't commit to my shots the way I should have, and then I paid the price," Garcia said.

"The freedome that I had, that I've been having with every part of my game, today early on it wasn't there. I was holding on a little bit and it shouldn't be that way. You should fire away and know that the ball is going to go where you want it to go, and not hope that the ball is going to go where you hope it's going to go."

CAREER PLAYOFF RECORDS (6:30 p.m. ET): Here are the career playoff results for Camilo Villegas and Sergio Garcia following Villegas' win in a one-hole playoff at THE TOUR Championship on Sunday:

VILLEGAS WINS (6:24 p.m. ET): Garcia falls short with the chip-in and Camilo Villegas has won his second consecutive PGA TOUR event. Villegas also finishes second in the FedExCup standings.

JUST SHORT (6:22 p.m. ET): Villegas' birdie putt fell 22 inches short. He has made the par, meaing Garcia must hole out to win.

ADVANTAGE, VILLEGAS (6:20 p.m. ET): Camilo Villegas hit the green with his tee shot on No. 18, while Garcia hit the rough behind the green. Garcia also missed his second shot, getting over the greenside bunker, but still short of the green. Villegas has a birdie putt of 45 feet, 9 inches.

BIG-MONEY PLAYOFF (6:19 p.m. ET): This could be the richest playoff in TOUR history when you consider that the winner will also finishes second in the FedEx Cup standings, worth a hefty $3 million. he tournament win is worth $1.26 million. That's -- a lot of money.

PLAYOFF RECORDS: (6:16 p.m. ET): Sergio Garcia is 4-4 in his career in playoffs, including 1-1 this year. He won THE PLAYERS in a playoff (also on a par-3) over Paul Goydos and he lost to Vijay Singh this year at The Barclays.

Villegas, meanwhile, has been in just one other playoff, losing to Mark Wilson last year at The Honda Classic.

PLAYOFF IN ATLANTA: (6:09 p.m. ET): Garcia missed the birdie putt short, but made par, so he sits at 7 under. Mickelson missed his birdie try meaning Garcia and Villegas will go to No. 18 to start the Playoff.

SERGIO'S GOT A CHANCE: (6:04 p.m. ET): Both Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson are on the green on No. 18, but with lengthy birdie putts. If Garcia makes his, he wins outright. If he misses and Mickelson makes his, Garcia, Mickelson and Camilo Villegas will go to a playoff.

CAMILO IN THE HOUSE: (6:03 p.m. ET): Camilo Villegas finished his Sunday round with a par on 18 for a 66, easily the round of the day, thanks in large part to eight birdies. He sits at 7 under and will now wait.

Anthony Kim missed his birdie putt which wuold have put him at 7 under, settling for a Sunday 69.

So as it stands now, Sergio Garcia is teeing off on 18 at 7 under and Phil Mickelson will need a birdie on No. 18 to get to 7 under..

PLAYOFF POSSIBILITIES (5:58 p.m. ET): If there is a playoff to decide THE TOUR Championship, it will begin on the par-3 18th, then to the par-4 17th, then back to the par-3 18th.

GUESS WHAT? ANOTHER TIE (5:50 p.m. ET): Camilo Villegas drained an 11-foot birdie putt on No. 17 to take a share of the lead back at East Lake at 7 under.

GARCIA TAKES THE OUTRIGHT LEAD (5:45 p.m. ET): The game of hot potato continues at East Lake, as Phil Mickelson's par putt lipped out on No. 16 and Sergio Garcia tapped in for par to stay at 7 under alone.

Mickelson, Camilo Villegas and Anthony Kim all sit one back on Garcia at the moment.

NEW LEADERS: (5:39 p.m. ET): Camilo Villegas has made bogey on the par-4 16th, losing his share of the lead and leaving a tie between Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia.

VIJAY HAS THE CUP (5:35 p.m.): Vijay Singh has been presented with the FedExCup by PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem.

LEFTY AND SERGIO TAKE A SHARE (5:25 p.m. ET): Both Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia made birdie on the par-5 15th, taking a share of the lead.

THE EAGLE DID NOT LAND -- BUT THE LEAD STAYED: (5:18 p.m. ET): Camilo Villegas did not make the long eagle putt, and left himself a lengthy birdie putt, which lipped out. Anthony Kim had a 10-foot birdie putt to take the lead, but he missed to the left.

So Villegas keeps the lead, but Phil Mickelson (one shot back) just hit his second shot on the same hole to the fringe and Sergio Garcia (also one shot back) hit his second shot just short of the green.

VILLEGAS GOING FOR EIGHT -- OR AN EAGLE (5:15 p.m. ET): Leader Camilo Villegas has seven birdies so far during his Sunday round. He now sits on the green in two on the par-5 15th, looking for either an eighth birdie of the day, or a second eagle of the week.

Did we mention that the first vwas on -- you guessed it -- the par-5 15th?

VILLEGAS TAKES LEAD (5 p.m. ET): Camilo Villegas has the lead at THE TOUR Championship after Anthony Kim struggled for bogey on the par-4 14th and Villegas made par. Villegas actually had a chance for yet another birdie, but over hit an eight-footer.

Villegas and Kim both now had to the par-5 15th, a hole that Villegas eagled in Thursday's first round and Kim parred twice and birdied on Thursday.

TIE FOR THE LEAD -- AGAIN (4:45 p.m. ET): The birdie barrage continued for Camilo Villegas on the par-4 13th when he made a birdie putt of 42 feet, 3 inches to grab a share of the lead as he goes for two consecutive TOUR victories.

SERGIO CRAWLING BACK (4:43 p.m. ET): Sergio Garcia is clawing his way back into contention. A birdie on the par-4 12th has put THE PLAYERS champion one shot back of leader Anthony Kim.

SPIDER-MAN SPINNING HIS WEB (4:34 p.m. ET): Camilo Villegas has made his fourth birdie in five holes on the par-4 12th and now sits just one shot back of leader Anthony Kim as closing holes click by at East Lake.

STREAK OVER (4:28 p.m. ET): Phil Mickelson had a string of 137 consecutive holes without a three-putt at East Lake Golf Club -- until the par-4 11th on Sunday. Anthony Kim leads by two.

NEW LEADER: (4:25 p.m.): Anthony Kim has birdied the par-3 11th and has the lead by a shot over Phil Mickelson and two over Camilo Villegas and Sergio Garcia, who made bogey on the par-4 10th.

BACK-NINE HISTORIES (4:04 p.m. ET): Wondering how the back nine may go? Anthony Kim and Sergio Garcia have played the back nine to 3 under through the week wile Phil Mickelson has played it to 2 under.

However, Mickelson birdied five of six on the back during Friday's second round. -- Mark Spoor

THREE-WAY TIE (3:47 p.m. ET): Phil Mickelson just birdied to move into a three-way tie for the lead with Sergio Garcia and Anthony Kim at 6 under.

IT'S OFFICIAL - VIJAY WINS FEDEXCUP (3:35 p.m. ET): Vijay Singh has signed his scorecard to officially end his tournament and his run through the Playoffs as the FedExCup champion. Next up: the silver FedExCup trophy and a $10 million bonus.

Singh shot his best round of the tournament on Sunday, an even-par 70 that included one birdie and one bogey.

"I was trying to make all pars so I couldn't screw it up," Singh said about his scorecard.

NO PLAYOFFS BUT A NICE BONUS (3 p.m. ET): Vijay Singh is the big winner, of course, but everyone who finished 150th or better in the FedExCup standings earns money from the bonus pool.

That means six players -- Y.E. Yang, Gavin Coles, Tag Ridings, Todd Hamilton, Brett Rumford and Marco Dawson -- each will get a $32,000 bonus despite not making the starting field of 144 for The Barclays, which was the first event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

The reason is that the FedExCup payout replaced and supplemented a number of other retirement plans for the PGA TOUR players, and those plans paid through No. 150. -- Helen Ross

TIGHTENING UP (2:55 p.m. ET): Sergio Garcia's bogey at the par4 fourth drops him to 7 under. His three-shot lead to start the day has now been reduced by one, with Anthony Kim moving into second.

Camilio Villegas is 2 under on his round through four holes and is tied with Phil Mickelson at 5 under.

With Dudley Hart another three stokes back, it looks like a four-man race for the rest of the day.

VIJAY UPDATE (2:35 p.m. ET): Vijay Singh has a bogey-free round going through 13 holes and just birdied the par-4 13th with an 18-foot, 3-inch putt. He's now 8 over for the tournament and five holes away from the FedExCup title and the $10 million bonus.

RECORD-HIGH FOR SCORING? (2:30 p.m. ET): Through three rounds, the field scoring average at East Lake is 71.417. If that holds up, it would be the highest scoring average ever at THE TOUR Championship at East Lake.

LEONARD ALSO HOT (2:15 p.m. ET): Justin Leonard has four birdies in his first eight holes. He's now 1 over for the tournament.

GARCIA, MICKELSON ARE OFF (2:08 p.m. ET): The last twosome of the day, Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson, have just teed off in the final round. Garcia drove his tee shot to the right among some trees, while Mickelson's tee shot landed safely in the fairway.

To follow the Garcia-Mickelson twosome on PGA TOUR Shot Tracker, click here.

HART'S FAST START (2:04 p.m. ET): Dudley Hart is the hottest player on the course right now. He has birdied four of his first six holes, including the last three, and is now 4 under for his round and 1 under for the tournament.

SEVEN DAYS LATER (1:57 p.m. ET): What a difference a week makes.

European mainstays Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood didn't win a match at the Ryder Cup. Yet, the Spaniard takes a three-stroke advantage into the final round of THE TOUR Championship and Westwood played well before losing in a playoff Sunday at the Quinn Insurance British Masters.

Think Nick Faldo, who was roundly roasted in the British press after the Americans beat his European Team, isn't wondering why his timing is so bad? -- Helen Ross

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY (1:41 p.m. ET): If Sergio Garcia wins THE TOUR Championship, he'd be $4.26 million richer -- including the first prize and the $3 million bonus that goes to the man who finishes second in the FedExCUp.

Garcia

Obviously, the money is eye-opening. But that's not what drives the Spanish multimillionaire, who won THE PLAYERS Championship earlier this year.

"Winning itself is great," Garcia explained. "This is what we practice for and this is what we do all those hard hours for. Any time you win it makes you feel a little bit better, so it would definitely be nice."

Phil Mickelson, Garcia's playing partner at 1:55 on Sunday, has already won twice this season but both those wins came before May. He has top-10s at the Masters and the PGA, and he posted top-20s at the other two majors.

"I think if I were to be able to come out on top tomorrow it would change the way I look at the year," Mickelson said. "I think a lot of good things would come of it if I were able to get it done, so it's an important round." -- Helen Ross

CURTIS' SUMMER OF LOVE (1:32 p.m. ET): Ben Curtis, who will tee off at 1:45 p.m., admittedly needs a stellar round to catch the leaders. He starts the day at 2 under, tied with his playing partner, Robert Allenby.

The U.S. Ryder Cupper has been playing extremely well this summer, though. He tied for second at the PGA Championship and fourth at The Barclays. In fact, in his last seven starts, he's had three top-10s and two more ties for 13th. -- Helen Ross

SERGIO AND HIS DRIVER (1:10 p.m. ET): Accuracy off the tee has never been a main component of Sergio Garcia's game. He ranks 147th on the PGA TOUR in driving accuracy, hitting less than 60 percent of fairways this year.

At East Lake this week, his percentage is right on average, at 59.5 percent.

In his only win on TOUR this year, THE PLAYERS Championship, Garcia's driving accuracy was much higher. He hit 76.8 percent of fairways that week at TPC Sawgrass, including all 14 fairways in the second round.

"I'm driving it worse," Garcia said when asked to compare this week to THE PLAYERS win. "I had a couple of drives here and there (on Saturday) that I would have liked to hit better, and then a couple of drives that felt good but unfortunately went in the rough.

"I'm driving it well, but I drove the ball so well at the TPC. It's hard to drive it like I did there."

VIJAY'S ON THE COURSE (12:55 p.m. ET): Vijay Singh has completed the first of his two big tasks today -- he arrived on time to tee off Sunday. All he has to do now is complete his 18 holes and sign his scorecard -- correctly -- to win the FedExCup and the $10 million bonus.

Singh, who has yet to break par this week at East Lake, is even par through his first five holes Sunday.

WITH THE LEAD (12:20 p.m. ET): Eleven of the 21 previous winners of THE TOUR Championship have had at least a share of the third-round lead. Sergio Garcia, who owns a three-shot lead going into Sunday's final round, will try to make it 12. -- Mark Spoor

TWO REASONS FOR OPTIMISM (12:06 p.m. ET): If Phil Mickelson needs a couple of reasons to give him hope of catching Sergio Garcia in Sunday's final round, here they are:

Mickelson

1) Of the 21 previous winners of THE TOUR Championship, just five were under the age of 30. Of the top four players on the leaderboard going into the final round, Mickelson, at age 38, is the only one older than 30.

2) Of Mickelson's 34 PGA TOUR wins, 14 have been the come-from-behind variety. - Mark Spoor

THREE-MAN RACE? (12:01 p.m. ET): In the history of THE TOUR Championship, the largest Sunday comeback is four strokes by Retief Goosen in 2004. If that holds true today, then the only players with a chance to win are 54-hole leader Sergio Garcia, and his next closest pursuers, Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim, who each start the final round three strokes back. -- Mark Spoor

ELIAS NOTES (11:55 a.m. ET): From our friends at the Elias Sports Bureau ...

• Sergio Garcia leads the field at THE TOUR Championship through three rounds. He does so in part due to his amazing play from the bunkers. He is a perfect nine for nine in sand saves this week. Only once in his career has he been 100 percent in sand saves through three rounds when he has five or more sand-save opportunities. At the 2002 WORLDCOM CLASSIC, Garcia was seven for seven.

Curtis

• Ben Curtis enters the final round six shots behind Garcia. Curtis has hit 32 of 42 fairways and 41 of 54 greens so far, ranking him first in both categories. This is the first time in his career that he has led in both fairways and greens hit after three rounds at a PGA TOUR event. At the 2007 Memorial Tournament and the 2006 Booz Allen Classic, Curtis led the field in greens in regulation, and in the 2007 FBR Open he led the field in fairways hit.

• Trevor Immelman bogeyed the par-5 15th hole in the second round. So far through three rounds of play he is the only player to bogey this hole. The only time a single hole has surrendered less bogeys to the field in the last 25 years was the 12th hole at the 1994 Mercedes Championship, where there were no bogeys. The 15th hole at East Lake allowed only one bogey in last year's event as well. Just five holes in the last 25 years have allowed one or fewer bogeys through three rounds.

GARCIA-MICKELSON PAIRINGS (11:40 a.m. ET): Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson are paired in Sunday's final twosome, with a 2:05 p.m. ET tee time. It will be the 11th round in which they've been paired at a PGA TOUR event, but the first time they've been paired together in the final twosome of the final round.

In their 10 previous rounds together, Mickelson has had the lower score six times and Garcia three times, with the same score one time.

FINAL-ROUND SCORING AVERAGES (11:33 a.m. ET): Of the players who will enter Sunday's finale of THE TOUR Championship under par for the tournament, K.J. Choi has the best final-round scoring average.

Choi, who is 1 under and seven strokes behind Sergio Garcia, ranks 14th with an average of 70.07. Here's how the leaders look:

And who knows? Maybe Vijay Singh, who will win the FedExCup and its $10 million bonus when he signs his scorecard after the final round, might finally get untracked on Sunday. He has yet to shoot under par in three rounds at East Lake but he ranks 18th on TOUR with a final-round average of 70.19. -- Helen Ross

WEATHER UPDATE (11:30 a.m. ET): Partly cloudly skies are expected to greet the golfers sometime this afternoon, but otherwise, it will be a perfect day for Sunday's final round. No precipitation is expected, and the winds will be out of the northwest between 7-12 mph.