Rd. 4 Notes: Constellation Energy Senior Players

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Fred Couples made a three-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole to defeat John Cook for his first senior major championship. Couples trailed Cook by one stroke with three holes to play in regulation, but Cook opened the door for Couples at the par-3 16th by making bogey after a poor pitch shot from short of the green. Couples was over the green on the 225-yard hole, but he managed to save par and force a tie by holing a 15-foot putt just after Cook missed his par effort from 25 feet. After both players made routine pars on the final two holes of regulation and the first playoff hole, Couples appeared to have the advantage when he hit the par-5, 18th hole in two. However, he squandered the opportunity to win by three-putting for par from 70 feet. The duo went back to the par-4 17th hole and, after Cook pulled his wedge shot from the fairway 18 feet left of the hole. Couples, just barely in the right rough, launched a sand wedge shot that stopped just three feet from the hole. After Cook missed his birdie putt, Couples tapped in for the victory.

Playoff Information:

• The playoff between Fred Couples and John Cook was the sixth on the Champions Tour this year.

• Sunday's playoff was the fourth in the 29-year history of the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship and the second consecutive. Last year, Mark O'Meara defeated Michael Allen in overtime.

• Couples is now 1-1 on the Champions Tour in playoffs. He lost in a three-way playoff to Tom Lehman at last year's Senior PGA Championship.

• Cook is now 1-5 on the Champions Tour in playoffs. Earlier this year, Cook defeated Jay Don Blake in a playoff at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.

• Today's playoff was the longest in the history of this championship. All three of the other playoffs at this event went only one hole.

Winner Notes: Fred Couples, 68-66-68-71 -- 273, 11-under

• He claims his first major championship on the Champions Tour in his fifth appearance in a senior major and joins Jack Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd as just the third player to claim both a Players Championship title and a Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship crown.

• He wins his fifth career title on the Champions Tour, his first since last year's Administaff Small Business Classic (10/24/2010).

• Previous-best finish on the PGA TOUR in 21 appearances at Westchester Country Club was a T4 at the 2004 Buick Classic.

• He becomes the 15th different winner in 18 official events played thus far on the Champions Tour in 2011.

• He claims his second career title in New York -- 1991 B.C. Open

• He earns 810 Charles Schwab Cup points and moves into 11th place in the season-long standings (880 total points).

• He earns a check for $405,000 and jumps from 66th to 22nd on the 2011 money list -- $522,032.

• He insures himself of an exemption into the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai on the Big Island of Hawaii for the next five years.

• He earns an exemption back into next year's PLAYERS Championship.

Couples' 72-hole stats:

Miscellaneous Notes:

• John Cook's playoff loss today was the third time he's lost an overtime session in a major championship on the Champions Tour. Cook fell to Bruce Vaughan at the 2008 Senior British Open at Royal Troon and also lost to Mike Reid in a playoff at the 2009 JELD-WEN Tradition at Crosswater near Bend, Oregon.

• Cook is now 0-20 in major championships on the Champions Tour. On the PGA TOUR, Cook was 0-62 with his best finishes being a T2 at the 1992 British Open and second at the 1992 PGA Championship.

• Peter Senior's third-place effort today made him the only player to finish among the top-10 in four of the Champions Tour's five majors this year. Senior lost in a playoff at the Regions Tradition, was T5 at the Senior PGA Championship and was fifth at the U.S. Senior Open.

• The hardest hole at Westchester this year was the par-4 12th hole, playing to a stroke average of 4.421 which ranks it as the fourth hardest hole on the 2011 Champions Tour. Only 10 birdies were made on the hole during the four days of competition.

Bogey-free rounds:
Round 1 -- Peter Senior (66), John Cook (69)
Round 2 -- Tom Kite (68)
Round 3 -- Joe Ozaki (65), Bernhard Langer (66), John Cook (66), Bob Tway (67), Mark Calcavecchia (67), Bruce Vaughan (67), Loren Roberts (67), Mark Wiebe (68), Fred Couples, (68)
Round 4 -- Chip Beck (65), Kenny Perry (67), Tom Lehman (68)

• Scoring Averages:

• Here's how the former winners at Westchester did this week?Scott Simpson (1984)/T45 , Bob Tway (1986)/T17, Hale Irwin (1990)/T45, David Frost (1992)/T55

• Bernhard Langer, the Champions Tour's Player of the Year the last three years, is rounding back into form after being out of action for four months with thumb surgery. Langer was T40 after the first 36 holes, but carded scores of 66-67 on the weekend to finish T6 at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, his best effort on the Champions Tour since winning The ACE Group Classic in late February in Naples, Fla.

• Chip Beck's final-round 65 was the low score on Sunday and matched the low round of the championship (Jeff Sluman/Rd. 1, Joe Ozaki/Rd. 2). The score propelled Beck up 21 spots into a T6, his first top-10 finish in a major in his Champions Tour career. Beck's previous-best in a major on the Champions Tour was T11 at the 2010 Senior PGA Championship.

• Tom Lehman, the current Charles Schwab Cup leader, finished fourth this week and earned 324 Charles Schwab Cup points. Through 18 events and all five major championships now completed, Lehman now has 1,985 points and Peter Senior sits in second place with 1,420 points. Olin Browne did not earn any Schwab Cup points this week and is in third place with 1,370 points. At the end of the official season, the player with the most Schwab Cup points will earn a $1 million payout. Last year, Bernhard Langer led by 790 points after the final major was played and went on to win the Schwab Cup.

• Defending champion Mark O'Meara finished solo fifth this week, the best effort by a defender since Tom Watson was third at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.

• Gil Morgan withdrew while playing his 14th hole (No. 5) with a sore elbow.