Round 4 Notes: The Senior Open Championship

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BERKSHIRE, England -- Here is how the final leaderboard stacks up:

1. Loren Roberts/USA (-12)
T2. Mark McNulty/IRL (-12), Fred Funk/USA (-12)
4. Bernhard Langer/GER (-11)
5. Sam Torrance/SCO (-10)

• Roberts wins his second Senior British Open Championship in four years and he claims his fourth senior major championship. Roberts' playoff victory at Sunningdale today, coupled with his playoff win over Eduardo Romero in 2006 at Turnberry, joins him with Gary Player (1988, 1990, 1997), Tom Watson (2003, 2005, 2007), Bob Charles (1989, 1993), Brian Barnes (1995, 1996) and Christy O'Connor, Jr. (1999, 2000) as the sixth player with multiple wins in this championship. By virtue of his win, Roberts earns a spot into next year's British Open Championship at St. Andrews.

• Roberts' win today was his fourth career senior major title. In addition to two Senior British Open Championships, Roberts has also won the 2005 JELD-WEN Tradition and the 2007 Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. Roberts's victory today was also his 10th career win on the Champions Tour, making him the 30th player in the history of the circuit with double-digit career wins.

• Roberts' became the third multiple winner on the Champions Tour this year, joining Langer (4 wins) and Keith Fergus (2 wins). This marks his third season on the Champions Tour with multiple titles. In 2006, Roberts won four times and in 2007, he claimed a pair of titles. Earlier this year, Roberts won The ACE Group Classic in Naples, Fla.

• Roberts' victory (2006, 2009) marks the seventh consecutive year, and eighth time overall (Tom Wargo, 1994), that an American player has won the Senior British Open Championship. In addition to Wargo, Watson (2003, 2005, 2007), Pete Oakley (2004), and Bruce Vaughan (2008) claimed this championship.

• Roberts' win today was his fourth top-five performance in five overall appearances at the Senior British Open. He was fifth in 2005 at Royal Aberdeen, a winner in 2006 at Turnberry, T4 in 2007 at Muirfield and a winner this year at Sunningdale.

• Roberts became just the second player in Senior British Open Championship history to win with four consecutive rounds in the 60s. Watson shot sub-70 scores each day in the 2003 Senior Open at Turnberry and also won in a playoff that year over Carl Mason. Roberts' four-round total of 268 is the lowest winning 72-hole score to win a Senior Open Championship since Watson won in 2003 with 17-under 263.

• Roberts, the 2007 Charles Schwab Cup winner, picked up 631 Schwab Cup points for winning the Senior British Open Championship and moved from fourth into second place with 1,256 total points on the season. Langer finished fourth this week and earned 189 Schwab Cup points. He now leads after 15 of 25 official events with 1,614 points. At the end of the official season, the player earning the most Schwab Cup points will receive a $1 million payout from Charles Schwab.

• Roberts' check for $315,600 increased his 2009 official earnings to $1,019,045 (2nd), the fourth consecutive year he's been over the seven-figure mark in official earnings.

• Funk has now finished second three times in 2009, but has also been among the top-five in six consecutive senior major championships dating back to the 2007 Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship (T3). In 2008, Funk was second at the U.S. Senior Open, a winner at the JELD-WEN Tradition in Oregon, and second at the Constellation Energy Senior Players. Earlier this year, Funk finished T5 at the Senior PGA Championship at Canterbury near Cleveland.

• McNulty's final-round 64 was the low score of the day and propelled him into a three-way playoff with Funk and Roberts. After Funk was eliminated on the first hole, McNulty, an honorary member at Sunningdale who also has a residence nearby, lost out with a bogey on the third extra hole. For McNulty, it was the first time he's lost in overtime on the Champions Tour. McNulty won his first playoff at the 2005 Bank of America Championship near Boston, besting Tom Purtzer and Don Pooley. Earlier this year, he defeated Nick Price and Funk at The Principal Charity Classic in West Des Moines, Iowa.

• Five-time British Open winner Watson, a playoff loser to Stewart Cink in the Open Championship at Turnberry last week, posted a final-round 67 and moved up into a T8 at this week's Senior Open Championship.

• Today's playoff was the first three-way overtime session in Senior British Open Championship history and was the ninth playoff in the championship since 1995. It also was the fifth playoff since the event became official in 2003.

• The field averaged 70.756 (+0.756) today vs. 70.041 (+0.041) on Saturday. Sunningdale played to a stroke average of 72.669 in the second round and 71.751 on Thursday. Overall, the Old Course at Sunningdale played to a stroke average of 71.304. Last year at Royal Troon, the cumulative stroke average after 54 holes was 75.249 (+4.249).

• Tom Kite's T8 finish at this week's Senior British Open was not only his fifth consecutive top-10 finish on the Champions Tour but also was his fifth top-10 performance in seven appearances at this championship. Kite began his current streak of top-10s with a T6 at The Principal Charity Classic in Iowa and then T7 at the Triton Financial Classic in Austin, Texas, his hometown.

• When he eagled the par-5 14th hole on Sunday (driver-4-iron, 12-foot putt), Curt Byrum become just the fifth player in Champions Tour history to record three eagles in his round and the first to do so since Bruce Lietzke in the second round of the 2003 MasterCard Championship in Hawaii. Byrum started his final round of the Senior British Open Championship with an eagle at the par-5 No. 1, chipping in from 60 feet. He then eagled the par-4 No. 11, holing a 60-foot putt from the front fringe. Byrum eventually posted a score of 2-under 68 on Sunday. Others to make three eagles in a round on the Champions Tour are: Don January (1985 Senior Roundup-third round), Jimmy Powell (1985 Greenbrier/American Express Championship-third round) and Rocky Thompson (1992 Kaanapali Classic-third round).