Notebook: Round 4, Transitions Championship

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Mar. 21, 2010
By Mark Williams, PGA TOUR Staff

Weather: Cloudy with showers and thunderstorms in the morning. SE winds at 10-20 mph gusting up to 40 mph. Temperatures in the high 60s. Cooler temperatures in the afternoon with winds from the west at 10-20 mph, gusting to 25 mph.

Jim Furyk posted four rounds in the 60s for a 13-under total and a one-stroke victory over two-time past champion K.J. Choi at the weather-delayed Transitions Championship. Choi also shot four rounds in the 60s. Bubba Watson was third at 11-under, Nick Watney was fourth at 9-under and defending champion Retief Goosen was fifth at 8-under.

• Sunday's final round was scheduled to begin at 7:45 a.m. ET from both the first and tenth tees in groups of three. Play was delayed for 1 hour, 15 minutes due to lightning in the area. Play began at 9:00 a.m. before being suspended at 11:02 a.m. due to more lightning, with all but the leading group (Jim Furyk, K.J. Choi, Retief Goosen) having teed off. Play resumed at 2:45 p.m. and was completed in fading light at 7:35 p.m.

• The Transitions Championship is the eighth of 13 tournaments in 2010 to have some form of delay or suspension of play.

• Last week, both PGA TOUR events suffered suspensions of play. The WGC-CA Championship was suspended during round two because of dangerous weather while the Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular was completed on Monday after multiple stoppages.

• A total of 71 players contested Sunday's final round after the 54-hole cut reduced the field from 86 players.

• Three players finished in double-digits under-par this year, the second-most in tournament history. In 2004, seven players finished double-digits under-par.

• Jim Furyk has now won in 12 different years on the PGA TOUR, with multiple wins in 2003 and 2006.

• After playing the par-3 holes 4-under through the first three rounds, Jim Furyk was 2-over on the par-3s in the final round with bogeys at 4, 13 and 15, a birdie at No. 8, and a crucial one-putt par at the 17th.

• It is 2 years, 7 months, 21 days since Jim Furyk's last win, the 2007 Canadian Open -- or a period of 59 starts on TOUR. However, it is not his longest period between victories. Furyk, after winning the 1996 United Airlines Hawaiian Open, made 77 starts before posting his next victory at the 1998 Las Vegas Invitational -- or 2 years, 8 months.

• Jim Furyk advances two spots on the Official World Golf Ranking, from No. 9 to No. 7.

• Jim Furyk becomes the ninth former Nationwide Tour player to win on the PGA TOUR this season, collecting the 269th title by a former Nationwide Tour player.

• Jim Furyk and K.J. Choi are the only two players with four rounds in the 60s this week. Only three players have previously shot all four rounds in the 60s in the history of the Transitions Championship (K.J. Choi/2002/Won, Vijay Singh/2004/Won, Jesper Parnevik/2004/T2).

• K.J. Choi, with four top-10s in nine starts, now has the most in tournament history at the Transitions Championship.

Jonathan Byrd, with five top-20s in eight starts, now has the most in tournament history at the Transitions Championship.

• Bubba Watson (3rd) posted the best finish by a left-hander in tournament history. Before this week, Steve Flesch, who finished 7th last year, was the only left-hander to record a top-10 at the Transitions Championship. This week, Bubba Watson (3rd), Nick O'Hern (T8), Greg Chalmers (T16), Tim Wilkinson (T46) and Steve Flesch (T63) all made the cut.

• Bubba Watson (3rd) has yet to win on the PGA TOUR but does have four career runner-up finishes on TOUR -- one in each of the last four seasons (2007 Shell Houston Open, 2008 Buick Open, 2009 Quail Hollow Championship, 2010 Bob Hope Classic).

• Bubba Watson ranked No. 2 in Driving Distance in 2009 with a 311.4-yard average (Robert Garrigus, 312 average), breaking a streak of three years leading that statistical category. Watson ranked third in Driving Distance this week.

• Nick Watney recorded his best finish of the 2010 season with a 4th at the Transitions Championship. Watney has one missed cut in eight starts this year (Northern Trust Open) but has not finished outside the top-27 in his seven other starts.

• Nick Watney has paid close attention to the Copperhead course at Innisbrook with each visit. Watney has improved his finish in each start at the Transitions Championship.

Year Finish
2010 4th
2009 T12
2008 T23
2007 T48
2006 T58

• Nick Watney posted 65-67 -- 132 on the weekend to equal the lowest final 36 holes in tournament history, joining John Huston (67-65)/2000, Vijay Singh (67-65)/2004 and Mark Calcavecchia (62-70)/2007.

Stephen Ames final-round 67 is one stroke higher than his lowest final round this year, 66 at the Sony Open in Hawaii where he finished T16, his previous-best result this season.

• Stephen Ames (T6) posted his first top-10 of the year. Ames has gone 12 consecutive years on TOUR with multiple top-10s each season, including a career-best 11 in 2004.

Steve Stricker (T8) regained the No. 1 position on the 2010 PGA TOUR money list and is now just over $20,000 ahead of second-placed Ernie Els.

• Only three players have competed in all 10 Transitions Championships -- Brian Gay (T63), John Huston (MDF) and Lee Janzen (MC).

• Retief Goosen, 2009 champion, finished fifth. Below is a chart of how past champions have fared in this event the following year:

Year Champion Next year
2000 John Huston T13 (2002)
2002 K.J. Choi T40
2003 Retief Goosen T20
2004 Vijay Singh m/c
2005 Carl Pettersson m/c
2006 K.J.Choi T6
2007 Mark Calcavecchia T14
2008 Sean O'Hair m/c
2009 Retief Goosen 5th

• Bogey-free rounds: Stephen Ames (67), Kris Blanks (69).

Scoring averages for the week:

Round Front 9 Back 9 Total
Round 1 36.340 35.847 72.188
Round 2 36.310 35.289 71.599
Round 3 36.058 35.058 71.116
Round 4 35.873 35.887 71.761
Cumulative - - 71.222
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