AT&T Champions Classic: Final-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR Staff SANTA CLARITA, Calif. -- With his sudden-death victory over Loren Roberts Sunday in the AT&T Champions Classic, Tom Purtzer wins for the fourth time in his Champions Tour and claims this event for the second time. He also prevailed in 2003, which was his first win on the Tour.  Loren Roberts lost Sunday but kept alive his record par-or-better streak. (Steve Grayson/WireImage)
• Loren Roberts increased his record-setting total for consecutive rounds par/better to 35 when he shot a 3-under-par 69 on Sunday. Roberts broke Larry Nelson's mark of 32 on Friday. Roberts will look to push that total even higher when he next plays at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf on April 20-22 in Savannah. • Purtzer earned a check for $240,000 and also picked up 240 points in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race with his victory. The win was also Purtzer's third in California on the Champions Tour. In addition to two victories in this tournament, he won the 2004 Toshiba Classic. He also won the 1977 Glen Campbell-Los Angeles Open on the PGA TOUR. • With his victory, Purtzer moved into third place in the Charles Schwab Cup race with 403 points. Jay Haas continues to lead with 601 points followed by Loren Roberts with 559 points. Hale Irwin is fourth with 356 and Andy Bean is fifth with 286 points. • Purtzer has enjoyed great success at this event. In addition to his two wins, he was T3 in 2002, sixth in 2004 and T7 last year. He has earned $695,100 in six starts. The victory also earns Purtzer a berth in the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai for the next two years. • Purtzer becomes the fourth multiple winner of this event. The others were Gil Morgan, Tom Kite and Joe Inman. • On a lighter side, Purtzer continues a trend of winners whose first names have three letters. It marks the 12th consecutive year the winner's first name had three letters. The last player with a longer name was John Bland in 1995. • Sunday's playoff was the longest on the Champions Tour since the 2002 Lightpath Long Island Classic, a seven-hole affair won by Hubert Green over Hale Irwin. Los Angeles native John Jacobs posted his second straight top-10 finish for the first time since he opened the 2004 season with back-to-back top-10 finishes at the MasterCard Championship and the Royal Caribbean Golf Classic. He finished T9 last week at the Toshiba Classic. • The field scoring average for the tournament was 71.844, the lowest average since the tournament moved to Valencia CC in 2001. The previous low was 72.416 in 2004. • After three rounds, the most difficult hole was No. 7 (par 3) with a 3.289 scoring average. It yielded just 16 birdies. The easiest hole was No. 9 (par 5) with a 4.364 scoring average. There were 16 eagles and 119 birdies through 54 holes. • Joe Ozaki posted his second straight top-10 finish as an open qualifier when he finished T4. He was T3 last week at the Toshiba Classic and has won $173, 967 in two weeks. By virtue of his top-10 finish, he earns a spot in the $2.5 million Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach slated for March 26-April 1 in Palm Coast, FL. Ozaki has won $178,104 this year and is currently 23rd on the money list. • Also earning a spot in the Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach field was David Eger, who finished third, his best finish since he won the 2005 Boeing Greater Seattle Classic. Eger had alternate status for the Ginn Championship. • Defending champion Tom Kite finished T22. Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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