Round 3 Notes: Administaff Small Business Classic

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Weather: Mostly sunny with highs in the mid-80s and winds from the SW at 10-20 mph.

• Final Leaderboard: 1 -- Fred Couples (-17/199); 2 -- Mark Wiebe (-10/206); T3 -- Brad Bryant (-9/207), Dan Forsman (-9/207); T5 -- John Cook (-8/208), Corey Pavin (-8/208); T7 -- Jay Don Blake (-7/209), Tom Pernice, Jr. (-7/209)

Related

Final Leaderboard
Results, money
Win was Vintage Fred
Round 4 Wrap-up
Video
Schwab Cup

• Fred Couples shook off a double-bogey on the front nine (No. 8) by playing the back nine in 7-under-par 29 to steamroll past a faltering Corey Pavin for the Administaff Small Business Classic title. Couples' final-round 9-under 63 today was the low round since the event moved to the Tournament Course at Woodlands Country Club in 2008. Trailing Pavin by two strokes after the 10th hole, Couples birdied Nos. 11 and 12 to temporarily tie for the lead. However, the tournament swung on the par-5 13th hole when Pavin hit his tee shot up against the lip of a fairway bunker and eventually bogeyed that hole. Couples, on the other hand, drained a 20-foot eagle putt on the hole and after making birdies at Nos. 14 and 16, his margin was suddenly five shots over Mark Wiebe.

• Couples wins his fourth Champions Tour event of the 2010 season (ACE Group Classic, Toshiba Classic, Cap Cana Championship), the first time he's ever claimed four TOUR-sponsored events in the same year.

• Couples wins for the first time since the Cap Cana Championship in late March, ending a victory drought of 11 starts since his last title. He becomes the second Administaff Small Business Classic winner to have also won a PGA TOUR title in Houston (Jay Haas-1987 Independent Insurance Agent Open, 2007 ASBC).

• Couples' fourth Champions Tour victory today on the Tournament Course at Woodlands Country Club also makes him the first player since Tom Watson at the 2007 Senior British Open (Muirfield) to win events on both Tours in the same city. Couples claimed the last of his 15 PGA TOUR wins at the 2003 Shell Houston Open at Redstone Golf Club.

• Couples wins his third TOUR-sponsored event in the state of Texas. In addition to today's victory and his win on the PGA TOUR in Houston in 2003, Couples also claimed the 1987 Byron Nelson Golf Classic.

• Here's some other interesting tidbits about Fred Couples victory today: For the second time this year, he shot 16-under 128 over the last 36 holes (Cap Cana Championship)...He's the first to survive a double-bogey and win since Tom Lehman did so earlier this year at the Senior PGA Championship...He's the first winner of the Administaff Small Business Classic to start with a round in the 70s...Couples played the par-5s this week in 10-under...His two eagles in the final round today marked the 20th time that's happened in a round on the circuit this year...His 63 matched the lowest finish by a winner (Jay Haas/2006) in this event...His seven-stroke winning margin was the second largest in tournament history and also matched David Frost's seven-stroke victory margin at this year's 3M Championship as the largest on the Champions Tour this year.

• Couples earned 255 Charles Schwab Cup points for his win today and sliced Bernhard Langer's lead to 535 points with two events to go. Langer finished T14 this week. Points are only awarded for a top-10 finish next week and at the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, double points will go to all 30 players in the field. At the end of the official season, the player with the most Schwab Cup points will earn a $1 million payout.

• Couples increased his 2010 earnings on the Champions Tour to $2,271,894, the most he's ever earned in any TOUR season as a professional.

• Several players made strong bids to get into the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in two weeks. Mark Wiebe's runner-up finish earned him $149,600 and vaulted him up 10 places from 40th place into the 30th spot ($582,546). It was Wiebe's best finish in a Champions Tour event since his win in 2008 at The Cap Cana Championship. Brad Bryant came into this week in 33rd place on the 2010 earnings list and his T3 performance at this year's Administaff event moved him up into the 29th position ($582,800).

• If not for his rough start to the event, Dan Forsman might have finished higher in the overall event. Forsman was 3-over after his first four holes but played his last 50 holes in 12 under par to finish T3. It was his best outing on the Champions Tour since a T3 at the Montreal Championship in July.

• There were 14 rounds in the 60s today, four fewer than yesterday. Here are the round-by-round scoring averages for each year of the Administaff Small Business Classic.