Final-round notebook – The TOUR Championship
* Vijay Singh won the PGA Tour’s Playoffs for the FedExCup on Sunday with a T22 finish. Singh entered the week at No. 1 on the points list and was assured the title as long as he completed 72 holes. Singh entered the Playoffs at No. 7 on the points list and quickly moved to No. 1 after his win at The Barclays. A win the following week at the Deutsche Bank Championship gave him a 12,225-point lead over Sergio Garcia heading into the BMW Championship. A T44 finish in St. Louis was enough to provide Singh with a large enough cushion to assure himself of the title.* Following a missed cut at the FBR Open in February, Singh was at No. 48 on the FedExCup points list, which was his lowest ranking at any point in the 2008 season. A T3 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational pushed him into the top 10 on the points list at No. 8, and after that he never fell out of the top 10.
* Camilo Villegas carded a final-round 66 to win THE Tour Championship presented by Coca-Cola in a one-hole playoff over Sergio Garcia. The win is the second of Villegas’ career and came in his first PGA Tour start after claiming his first title at the BMW Championship three weeks ago. Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson each finished one shot out of the playoff at 6-under-par 274.
* This marked the eighth playoff in Tour Championship history and first since 2001, when Mike Weir defeated David Toms, Sergio Garcia and Ernie Els on the first extra hole.
* The winning score of 7-under 273 is the highest winning score at THE Tour Championship since 1998, when Hal Sutton won with a score of 6-under 280 at East Lake Golf Club.
* This was the second playoff of Villegas’ career and the ninth of Garcia’s career. Villegas lost to Mark Wilson in a playoff at the 2007 Honda Classic. This was Garcia’s third playoff of 2008. He defeated Paul Goydos in a playoff to win THE PLAYERS Championship in May, and lost a three-man playoff to Vijay Singh at The Barclays.
* After recording 13 birdies over the first two rounds at East Lake Golf Club, Anthony Kim only managed three more over the final 36 holes. Kim hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation on Sunday but could only convert birdies at Nos. 2 and 11. After the birdie at 11, he finished with six pars and his lone bogey on the day at No. 14.
* Sergio Garcia held a three-shot lead over Kim and Mickelson heading into Sunday’s final round. By failing to capitalize on his overnight lead, it marks the fourth consecutive time that Garcia has held at least a share of the 54-hole lead and not won the Tournament on the PGA Tour.
* This marked the 76th top-3 finish of Mickelson’s PGA Tour career in 384 career starts.
* At the start of the PGA Tour’s Playoffs for the FedExCup, Dudley Hart was ranked No. 68 on the FedExCup points list, thus earning him the designation of lowest ranked player to make it through to THE Tour Championship. Hart carded a final-round 69 Sunday to finish T10 and finish at No. 12 on the final FedExCup points list.
* Hart entered the 2008 season on a Major Medical Exemption after his wife was diagnosed with non-smokers lung cancer in May of 2007. Hart entered the season with 15 Tournaments to make $485,931 and receive fully exempt status for the remainder of 2008. With his T12 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in March came a $110,825 paycheck, giving him the needed money.
* After two years of the PGA Tour’s Playoffs for the FedExCup, four players managed to finish in the top 10 of the final points standings each year: Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, K.J. Choi and Phil Mickelson.
* Justin Leonard carded the low round of the day on Sunday with a 3-under 67 to move from T17 to T10. This is Leonard’s first top-10 finish at THE Tour Championship since 1998. Leonard finished in the top 10 at this event in each of the first four years he played (1995-1998), but had not done so in six starts since.
* Ben Curtis fired an even-par 70 on Sunday to finish solo fifth and was one of only five players to finish the Tournament under par. Curtis entered the PGA Championship at No. 66 on the FedExCup points list and used a T2 finish to move up to No. 26. A T4 finish one week later at The Barclays moved Curtis up to into the top 10 at No. 8.
* At the 2007 Tour Championship, an impressive 25 players finished the Tournament under par. In 2008, only five players carded a 72-hole score under par.
* East Lake Golf Club seemed to play easier after a difficult opening round in which only five players managed to break par. After that, 11 players broke par on Friday and Saturday, while 14 players were able to do so on Sunday.
* Phil Mickelson was the only player in the field this week who managed to card all four rounds in the 60s: 68-68-69-69—274.
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