
PALM COAST, Fla. -- With his victory, Bernhard Langer won for the third time in 11 starts on the Champions Tour and earns a check for $375,000, largest of his brief Champions Tour career. In those 11 starts, Langer has averaged $148,657 per start with seven top-10 finishes.

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Langer's victory moved him into a commanding lead in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race. Langer's 375 points increased his point total to 851, a margin of 363 points over Scott Hoch (488). Fred Funk is third with 435 points followed by Brad Bryant (427) and Jay Haas (423). At the conclusion of the season, the winner receives a $1 million annuity.
Langer's victory ends an 0-90 drought in the state of Florida in official Tour events for Langer. It was also his second win in his last three starts. He won the Toshiba Classic in a seven-hole playoff with Jay Haas earlier this month.
Langer's eight-stroke victory was the largest on the Champions Tour since he posted an eight-stroke victory at the Administaff Small Business Classic last October near Houston, his initial Champions Tour title. It was also the largest winning margin in 2008.
Langer joins Scott Hoch as the only multiple winner on the Champions Tour in 2008. Langer also takes over the lead in the 2008 money race with $860,627 and leads Hoch by $294,358.
Loren Roberts shot a 3-over-par 71 on Sunday, ending his streak of consecutive rounds par/better at 20. That was the longest streak in that category on the Champions Tour this year.
The 77-man field battled a constant 25 mph wind with higher gusts on Sunday and the scores reflected the difficult conditions. The scoring average soared from 72.584 on Saturday to 76.571 on Sunday. That is the highest single-round scoring average this year on the Champions Tour, surpassing the previous high of 76.078 in the final round of the Turtle Bay Championship. It was also the highest average for a round since the second round at last year's Senior British Open (77.200).
The most difficult hole on Sunday was No. 9 with an average score of 4.883 (+.883). There were no birdies and just 24 pars. It was also the most difficult for the three rounds at 4.397. That would make it the second most difficult hole on the Champions Tour to No. 6 at Valencia CC (4.451) for the AT&T Champions Classic. Hole No. 7 ranked as the second most difficult on Sunday with an average score of 4.545 (+.545). The only birdie on that hole was by Jim Dent.
Only three players posted rounds under par Sunday -- Fuzzy Zoeller (69), Bruce Summerhays (71) and Bernhard Langer (71). Zoeller was 5 under par with two holes remaining before making bogeys on his final two holes.
Tim Simpson's tie for second was his best effort on the Champions Tour. His previous best efforts were a trio of fifth-place finishes, including the 2006 Senior British Open (fifth), 2006 Greater Kansas City Golf Classic (tied for fifth) and the 2007 Senior PGA Championship (tied for fifth).
Lonnie Nielsen's runner-up finish was his best finish since winning the Commerce Bank Championship last summer. Nielsen led all players with 17 birdies, one more than Larry Nelson.
Joe Ozaki made one of the best turnarounds in the 77-man field. After opening with a 2-over-par 74 (tied for 41st), Ozaki jumped 37 spots in the next two rounds to finish tied for fourth.
Ian Woosnam tied for 51st in his Champions Tour debut. Defending champion Keith Fergus tied for 31st. David Eger (tied for seventh), Fred Funk (tied for fourth) and Ozaki (tied for fourth) earned top-10 finishes for the second consecutive year.
Ozaki had the fewest putts of any player in the event with 77. Ben Crenshaw, Boonchu Ruangkit, David Eger and Bruce Fleisher led all players in driving accuracy at 78.57%, while Crenshaw also led in greens in regulation at 68.52%. Crenshaw had come into the event ranked 47th in that category on the Champions Tour.