NEWS

Bob Hope Chrysler Classic: Final-Round Notebook
 
Jan. 22, 2007
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By Joe Chemycz
PGA TOUR Media Official
Charley Hoffman
A high winning score didn't dampen Charley Hoffman's joy. (Marc Feldman/WireImage)
BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC
HIGHEST WINNING SCORES
Score Player Year
353 (-7) Tommy Jacobs 1964
349 (-11) Doug Sanders 1966
349 (-11) Tom Nieporte 1967
348 (-12) Billy Casper 1965
348 (-12) Arnold Palmer 1968
345 (-15) Billy Maxwell 1961
345 (-15) Jack Nicklaus 1963
345 (-15) Billy Casper 1969
344 (-16) Bob Rosburg 1972
344 (-16) Johnny Miller 1976
343 (-17) Arnold Palmer 1973
343 (-17) John Mahaffey 1979
343 (-17) Craig Stadler 1980
343 (-17) Steve Jones 1989
343 (-17) Charley Hoffman 2007
• Bob Hope Chrysler Classic Home Page

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Sunday's final round weather was mostly sunny and windy during the afternoon. High of 63 degrees. Winds were light to start the round before increasing NNW 15-25 mph with gusts to 40 mph.

  • Sunday's final-round scoring average of 74.763 made it the toughest final day in the 48-year history of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. The previous high of 74.202 came at the 1964 Palm Springs Golf Classic at Eldorado Country Club, where Tommy Jacobs fired a final-round 70 and beat Jimmy Demaret in a playoff. The final round of the 1961 Palm Springs Golf Classic had a scoring average of 74.08. More recently, the 1987 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic final day at the Stadium Course at PGA West had a scoring average of 73.971.

  • Sunday's final-round scoring average of 74.763 made it the toughest final round on the PGA TOUR since the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship last year, when the scoring average 75.378 (par-72).

  • Charley Hoffman becomes the first player to win the BHCC on his initial try since Arnold Palmer in 1960. Hoffman and Palmer are the only two players to accomplish that feat in the 48 years of the tournament.

  • With Charley Hoffman's win (30 years/25 days), David Duval (1999) remains the only player in his 20s to win the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic since 1988. The youngest winner of the BHCC was Jack Nicklaus in 1963 at the age of 23 years/13 days. (Incidentally, today is Jack's 67th birthday.)

  • Sunday's playoff between Charley Hoffman and John Rollins was the 17th in the 48-year history of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and the first since 2004 when Phil Mickelson defeated Skip Kendall.

  • Charley Hoffman's first win on the Nationwide Tour also came in a playoff. Hoffman won the 2004 Permian Basin Charity Golf Classic in Midland, TX when he birdied the third extra hole to beat Craig Lile and LaQuinta, CA resident Jeff Gove.

  • Tournament winner Charley Hoffman (-17), Harrison Frazar (T8/-13) and Will MacKenzie (T18/-11) were the only players in the field of 127 professionals to shoot below-par scores in each of the five rounds.

  • Jeff Quinney became the second player to ace the par-3, 17th hole this week when he dunked a 4-iron from 178 yards. Ryan Palmer aced the same hole during Thursday's second round. The hole-in-one moved Quinney from 13-under to 15-under par at the time, one shot back of co-leaders Justin Rose and John Rollins. The last player to make a hole-in-one while winning a tournament was Mark Hensby at the 2004 John Deere Classic (round 1). For their efforts, both Quinney and Palmer receive a 2007 Chrysler Sebring.

  • Charley Hoffman's winning score of 343 is the highest winning score at the BHCC since Steve Jones shot a 343 to win the 1989 Bob Hope Desert Classic.