St. Jude Classic pres. by FedEx: Rd. 4 notebook

text size

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The start of the final round was delayed four hours due to rain. Round four began at 11 a.m. with players in groups of three going off tees 1 and 10.

• Brian Gay's five-stroke victory is his second win of the 2009 season and his third career PGA TOUR victory. The win gives him 500 FedExCup points moving him to fourth in the standings.

• Gay joins Dave Hill (1967), Bob Estes (2001) and Justin Leonard (2005) as the only players in tournament history to earn wire-to-wire victories.

• The victory is Gay's second in his last five starts (Verizon Heritage-4/19) and also qualifies him for next week's U.S. Open Championship. Gay is now the fifth player with a pair of victories in 2009, joining Zach Johnson, Geoff Ogilvy, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. It is his third victory since winning the 2008 Mayakoba Golf Classic.

• In his first 292 career PGA TOUR events, Gay had zero victories. In his last 42 PGA TOUR events, he's won three times.

• Since Gay's win at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, he is one of seven players with three or more victories.

• Gay has now won three out of the four times he has held or shared the 54-hole lead

• Gay has now also gone 170 consecutive holes without a 3-putt and finished the tournament with 100 putts. Gay's led the field in Putts per Green in Regulation with 1.51. Gay's victory also came in a tournament where he finished last (76th) in driving distance.

• Gay's victory marks the 11th consecutive year that a player from the United States has won the St. Jude Classic.

• Gay has the most starts on the PGA TOUR of any player since 2000 with 307.

• No player who has won the week prior has gone on to win the U.S. Open.

• Gay's five-stroke win matches the third-largest margin of victory in tournament history.

• Gay's final-round 66 makes his final-round scoring average 68.75 this year moving him ahead of Tiger Woods into second-place for the season.

2009 PGA TOUR Final-Round Scoring Average:
1 Rory Sabbatini 68.30
2 Brian Gay 68.75
3 Tiger Woods 68.80

• Two-time St. Jude Classic winner David Toms shot a final-round 5-under-par 65 to finish T2 for his sixth top-10 of the year, tying him with six other players for the most on the PGA TOUR in 2009 -- Jim Furyk, Kevin Na, Sean O'Hair, Kenny Perry, Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods. The top-10 finish is also his seventh in Memphis, tying him with Curtis Strange for the sixth most top-10s in tournament history (Gene Littler leads with 11 career top-10s).

• The 65 was Toms best final-round score since a 65 when he won the 2006 Sony Open in Hawaii. With the T2 finish Toms receives 245 FedExCup points and moves to No. 12 in the standings.

• Bryce Molder, a native of nearby Conway, Ark., and playing in his 68th career event on the PGA TOUR secured a career-best T2 finish. Molder's previous best career effort on the PGA TOUR was a third at the 2001 Reno-Tahoe Open in his first start as a professional. Despite the 17th and 18th holes playing as the third and first most difficult holes on the course, Molder played the two finishing holes in a combined 2-under-par.

• With the day's best score of 7-under-63, Graeme McDowell went from T23 at the start of the round to finish the tournament at 11-under-par and T7. The 63 is the Northern Ireland native's lowest career round in a PGA TOUR event. McDowell has made the cut in each of the six PGA TOUR events that he has played this year, his best finish (T17) coming at the Masters. His finish is the fourth top-10 finish on the PGA TOUR in 53 events and his first since a T6 at the 2005 World Golf Championships-CA Championship.

• The top-10 finish makes McDowell eligible to play in the Travelers Championship following the U.S. Open.

• After posting just one top-10 finish in his first two seasons on the PGA TOUR, Jason Dufner added his fourth top-10 of 2009 with a T7. The 32-year-old has made the cut in 13 of 16 events and is 42nd in the FedExCup standings.

• John Senden shot a 6-under-64 to finish at T4 for his fourth top-10 finish of the 2009 season.

• Goydos, Molder, Senden and Toms all tied for first in greens in regulation with 55 of 72 (76.39 %). Each player finished inside the top 4 on the leaderboard, with Toms and Molder tying for second and Goydos and Senden tying for fourth.

• Gay is the17th of 24 third-round leaders/co-leaders who have gone on to win on the PGA TOUR.

• Loren Roberts, making his tournament-record 25th appearance this week, finished T42.

• After going without a top-10 in his first 11 events of the 2009 season, Goydos has finished in the top 5 in two of his last three starts. Goydos shot a 2-under-par 68 on Sunday to finish T4.

• Scoring Averages at the par-70 TPC Southwind:

• The final-round scoring average of 69.88 was the lowest since 1999 when it was 69.70. The overall scoring average of 70.29 for the week is the lowest since 2002 when the scoring average was 70.198. It is more than two strokes lower than 2008's average of 72.534.

• Stat leaders for the week:
Driving Distance: Robert Garrigus 315.6 yards
Driving Accuracy: Brendan Todd and Scott Verplank 44 of 56 (78.57 %)
Greens in Regulation: Paul Goydos, Bryce Molder, John Senden and David Toms 55 of 72 (76.39 %)
Putting Average: Brian Gay (1.51)
Putts per Round: Chris Riley (24.50)