AT&T Champions Classic: Final-round notebook

text size

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. -- One year after Denis Watson rallied from seven strokes back to win the AT&T Champions Classic, Dan Forsman carded a final-round 66 on Sunday to come from five strokes back and eventually defeat Don Pooley in a playoff for his first win on the Champions Tour.

Dunn/Getty Images

Don Pooley made just two bogeys, the fewest of any player in the field.

Inside the Numbers

Final Leaderboard

Player Score 1. *Dan Forsman 205 -11 2. Don Pooley 205 -11 3. Jay Haas 206 -10 T4. Fulton Allem 207 -9 T4. Ben Crenshaw 207 -9 T4. Joey Sindelar 207 -9 7. Ken Green 208 -8 T8. Tom Purtzer 209 -7 T8. Bernhard Langer 209 -7 10. Jeff Sluman 210 -6

Note: * = won in sudden death.

• Forsman's comeback marked the fourth time in the last five years at this event that a player has come from three strokes or more off the pace on Sunday to win. On the first hole of the playoff, the third consecutive overtime session at Valencia, Forsman holed a 10-foot birdie putt at the 18th and then watched as Pooley's birdie bid to tie lipped out from six feet.

• Forsman's most recent of five wins on the PGA TOUR came at the 2002 SEI Pennsylvania Classic. Forsman was making his 12th career start on the Champions Tour this week. He became the seventh player to claim his first Champions Tour title at this event, joining John Brodie (1991), John Bland (1995), Gil Morgan (1996), Joe Inman (1998), Tom Purtzer (2003) and Des Smyth (2005). Forsman didn't claim his first of five PGA TOUR career titles until his 81st career start (1985 Lite Quad Cities Open) on the circuit.

• The AT&T Champions Classic has now had six playoffs in its 20-year history and this was the first overtime session on the Champions Tour since last year's Senior British Open in late July.

• Forsman's playoff victory means all five official events on the Champions Tour in 2009 have been decided by a single stroke or in overtime.

• Forsman became the fifth different player to win this year and also is the second first-time winner on the 2009 Champions Tour, joining Mike Goodes (Allianz Championship).

• Forsman's five-stroke comeback in the final round was the largest come-from-behind win on the Champions Tour since Denis Watson came from five back to win last year's FedEx Kinko's Classic in Austin.

• Forsman became the first winner on the Champions Tour to shoot a lower score each day over 54 holes since Eduardo Romero did so at the 2008 SAS Championship.

• Pooley made just two bogeys in the tournament, the fewest of any player in the field, and his playoff loss to Forsman still was his best effort on the Champions Tour since he finished tied for second at the 2006 Constellation Energy Classic near Baltimore. Last month, Pooley was one stroke off the 36-hole lead at The ACE Group Classic and contended on the back nine on Sunday before eventually finishing tied for third at the TPC Treviso Bay in Naples.

• Forsman earned a check for $240,000 for winning this week's Champions Tour event. More importantly, he earned 240 points in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race. Bernhard Langer, picked up 48 points for his tie for eighth and remained the points leader in the Schwab Cup competition (617). Loren Roberts is still second with 305 points and Goodes is third with 304 points. Forsman's victory moved him up into fourth place in the Schwab Cup standings with 290 points. At the end of the official season, the player with the most Schwab Cup points will earn a $1 million payout.

• Tom Purtzer's final-round 69 Sunday moved him up into a tie for eighth, his seventh overall top-10 finish in this event. A two-time winner at Valencia (2003, 2007), Purtzer's worse performance at this course is a tie for 14th in 2005.

• Ken Green registered the best performance of his brief Champions Tour career when he finished solo seventh this week. Green made his first start on the Champions Tour at last year's Senior British Open. It was his best effort since a tie for third at the 2002 BMW Charity Pro-Am at The Cliffs on the Nationwide Tour. On the PGA TOUR, Green's last top-10 finish was a tie for seventh at the 1996 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills.

• Even though he didn't win, Joey Sindelar was the only player to post top-5 performances in both Champions Tour events in Southern California. Sindelar tied for second at the Toshiba Classic and tied for fourth at the AT&T Champions Classic.

• Michael Turner, an open qualifier this week from Sherman Oaks, made the ninth hole-in-one in tournament history when he aced the 176-yard, par-3 seventh hole with a 6-iron. The ace was the third at Valencia (Purtzer/16th, Rd. 1; Hugh Baiocchi/3rd, Rd. 2) and the second on the Champions Tour this year.

• Jerry Pate's 1-under 71 Sunday gives him 12 straight rounds of par/better at Valencia.

• There were just nine rounds in the 60s Sunday compared with 12 sub-70 scores on Saturday and 17 sub-70 rounds on Friday. The field scoring average Sunday was 72.571 compared to 72.253 on Saturday and 72.481 on Friday. Overall, the cumulative field scoring average 72.434 compared to 73.567 last year. The most difficult hole for the week was the par-4 No. 6 (4.340), which yielded just 17 birdies for the week. Overall, there were 22 eagles and 769 birdies made this week compared to 18 eagles and 666 birdies made last year.

• Defending champion Denis Watson finished tied for 68th after a final-round 79 Sunday. Last week's winner, Eduardo Romero of Argentina, tied for 30th.

• Hubert Green withdrew from the tournament prior to his third round with a sore knee. Green was at 10-over 154 at the time of the withdrawal.