Stuart Appleby’s six-stroke victory was the largest of his career and one more than the total of strokes (5) he won by in his first seven victories.
1997 Honda Classic -- 1 stroke over Payne Stewart, Michael Bradley • Stuart Appleby became the eighth international winner in 2006 and fourth from Australia (Appleby--Mercedes Championships, Geoff Ogilvy--WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, Rod Pampling--Bay Hill Invitational, Aaron Baddeley--Verizon Heritage). • Stuart Appleby became the 14th player in 16 stroke-play events to hold/share the 54-hole lead and go on to victory. At this point last year, just seven players had converted third-round leads to victory. • The six-stroke victory by Stuart Appleby over Bob Estes ties for the third largest on TOUR in 2006. Phil Mickelson won the BellSouth Classic by 13 strokes. J.B. Holmes captured the FBR Open by seven strokes and Stephen Ames won THE PLAYERS Championship by six. • Mathias Gronberg’s fourth-place finish was the best of his career, topping the tie for sixth at the 2005 B.C. Open. It’s just the fourth top-10 in 75 TOUR starts. • Bob Estes turned in his best performance on TOUR (second) since a solo second at the 2004 FedEx St. Jude Classic. It was his first top-10 of the season. • Tommy Armour III fired a 5-under 67 on Sunday to move up 31 spots from No. 65 into a tie for 32nd, the biggest move of the day. • The par-4 18th hole became one of the fifteen toughest holes on TOUR in 2006 with a scoring average of 4.354. It is tied for 15th with the par-4 first and seventh holes at Torrey Pines Golf Club’s South Course. • Steve Stricker was the first alternate for next week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans but a third-place finish guaranteed him a spot in the field. Stricker, a Sponsor Exemption this week, turned in the round of the day with a 6-under 66. It was his lowest round on TOUR since a 66 during the second round of the 2005 Buick Open. • Jerry Smith missed matching his career-best finish on the PGA TOUR by two places (tie for third at the 2001 National Car Rental Golf Classic Disney) with a fifth-place finish. It was his first top-10 on TOUR since a tie for fifth at the 2002 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. • Mike Weir posted his fourth top-10 of the season with a tie for sixth here in Houston. The four top-10s double his total output for the 2005 season. It also pushed him over the $1-million mark in earnings for the fourth straight season. • Brett Wetterich recorded his first top-10 of the season (tie for sixth) and first since a tie for 10th at the 2005 Deutsche Bank Championship. It was his fourth career top-10 in 78 TOUR starts. • Paul Goydos came into the season on a Major Medical Extension from 2004 due to sinus surgery and hip problems. He played in two events in 2004, 15 events in 2005 and had 12 left at the start of the season to earn $117,534 and match the $623,262 winnings of 2004’s No. 125 player Tag Ridings. His $116,600 check pushed him over that amount and will allow him to play out of the Major Medical Extension category for the remainder of the season. • Redstone Golf Club’s Tournament Course Scoring Averages for the Week: Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Total 72.776 71.805 72.159 72.378 72.290 • Two holes finished with GIR percentages below fifty percent for the week. The par-4 18th hole, the toughest hole on the course, had a GIR of 45.8%, while the par-3 ninth hole came in with a field GIR of 48.0%. • There were two bogey-free rounds on Sunday -- Hunter Mahan and Steve Stricker -- which brings the total for the week to 13.
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