Final Round Notes: Senior Open Championship

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Weather: Sunny with temperatures in the low-70s and winds from the NW at 10-15 mph.

• Final Leaderboard: 1 -- Russ Cochran (-12); 2 -- Mark Calcavecchia (-10); T3 -- Corey Pavin/Tom Watson (-8); 5 -- Barry Lane (-8); 6 -- David Frost (-7)

SENIOR BRITISH

Scores
Rd. 4 Recap
Results
Sunday photos
Complete coverage
Charles Schwab Cup
Leaders discuss race

• Russ Cochran broke away from a crowded leaderboard, making six birdies in his first 10 holes, and then held off Mark Calcavecchia down the stretch to win the 2011 Senior Open Championship by two strokes. The turning point on Sunday came in a span of two minutes on the front 9. Both players were tied for the lead until Cochran holed an eight-foot birdie putt at No. 7 just moments after Calcavecchia four-putted the par-3 9th hole from 18 feet for a double-bogey. With a three-stroke lead all of a sudden, Cochran added a short birdie at No. 8 and his margin increased to five strokes after he made another birdie at No. 10.

• Russ Cochran's win today was his third career victory on the Champions Tour in his 50th start. It was his first win since last years SAS Championship (9/26/10). He claimed his first title on the Champions Tour two weeks earlier in Korea at the Posco E&C Songdo Championship.

• Russ Cochran won his first major championship in his 11th attempt. His previous-best finishes in majors were tied for third at the 2009 U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick and tied for third at last year's Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie. This was his third appearance in the Senior Open Championship.

• Russ Cochran became the first left-hander to win a major on the Champions Tour since Bob Charles claimed his second Senior Open Championship in 1993.

• Russ Cochran became the 17th different player and the sixth different American to win the Senior Open Championship since the event began in 1987.

• Russ Cochran became the 12th different winner on the 2011 Champions Tour out of 15 official events played.

• Russ Cochran's win today earned him 632 Charles Schwab Cup points and he jumped from 10th place into second place in the season-long race with 1,163 total points. After 15 events, Tom Lehman still leads the 2011 Schwab Cup race was 1,533 points. At the end of the official season, the player earning the most Schwab Cup points will receive a $1 million payout.

• Russ Cochran's win today earned him a check for $315,600 and an exemption into the 2012 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.

• For winning the Senior Open Championship, Russ Cochran earned a five-year exemption into the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalal on the Big Island.

• Today marked the first time since 2002 that the Senior Open Championship was decided by more than one stroke or in a playoff. Japan's Noboru Sugai defeated John Irwin by two strokes that year at Royal County Down.

• For the first time since mid-April a Saturday leader/co-leader won on the Champions Tour. Prior to 54-hole co-leader Russ Cochran winning today, John Cook won the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am in a playoff after leading by one stroke heading into the final round in Tampa.

• Corey Pavin registered his second straight top-3 finish in the Senior Open Championship when his 69 on Sunday tied him with Tom Watson for third place at 9-under. Last year, Pavin finished second to Bernhard Langer by one stroke at Carnoustie.

• If not for an opening-round 75, Tom Watson perhaps could have claimed a fourth Senior Open Championship title instead of a tie for third, his best performance in this championship since winning the last of his three titles in 2007. Watson's cumulative score of 12-under 204 over his final 54-holes at Walton Heath tied Russ Cochran for the best among the 76 players who made the cut on Friday. Watson shot 67 on Sunday that included a 3-3-3-3 finish over his final four holes.

• Sunday's low round was turned in by Fred Funk, who used a run of five straight birdies during his round to post a 6-under 66. Funk's score was one of only eight rounds in the 60s today and moved him up 14 spots into a tie for seventh in the final standings.

• For the second consecutive year, Randy Haag from San Francisco was the low amateur and his score of 292 (+4) bested Paul Simson's 295 total (+7) and earned him a spot in next year's Senior Open Championship at Turnberry.

• Defending champion Bernhard Langer shot a second consecutive 3-under 69 today and finished tied for 12th. It was Langer's first appearance on the Champions Tour since he recovered from thumb surgery in March.

• England's Barry Lane (5th) and Mike Goodes (tied for 7th) were the only players in the field with four straight sub-par scores at Walton Heath.

• Perhaps the key to Russ Cochran's success this week at Walton Heath was his scores on the front nine. Cochran was a cumulative 12-under on the first nine holes (15 birdies, 3 bogeys) and even-par on the back nine (7 birdies, 5 bogeys, 1 double-bogey). He became the fourth winner this year to survive a double-bogey and go on to victory -- John Cook (Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am), Tom Watson (Senior PGA Championship), John Huston (Dick's Sporting Goods Open).

• It was quite a week in London for Russ Cochran's two sons. Reed, taking a short break from law school, was on his father's bag for his first major championship. Older son Ryan, a former collegiate golfer at Florida, caddied for Mike Goodes at Walton Heath and they finished tied for 7th. It was Goodes' best finish in a major championship since he was second at the 2008 JELD-WEN Tradition.

• The stroke average for the field at Walton Heath this year was 73.61 (+1.361, front nine -- 36.13, back nine -- 37.48). Last year at Carnoustie the field stroke average on the par-71 layout was 74.587 (+3.587).