Farmers Insurance Open: Round 4 notebook

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SAN DIEGO -- Ben Crane posted rounds of 65-71-69-70?275 (13 under) to win the 2010 Farmers Insurance Open by a stroke over Marc Leishman, Brandt Snedeker and Michael Sim. Four players -- Michael Allen, Alex Prugh, Ernie Els and Rickie Fowler -- tied for fifth at 11 under.

• Crane is the third straight winner to earn an exemption to the Masters in 2010, following Ryan Palmer and Bill Haas. Sim is already exempt into the Masters as top-50 in the Official World Golf Rankings at the end of 2009.

• Crane posted his third PGA TOUR victory in his 194th career start. Crane also owns two Nationwide Tour wins (2000 Wichita Classic, 2001 Gila River Classic).

• The 2010 Farmers Insurance Open was Crane's 98th start since his last victory -- the 2005 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee.

• Crane's previous TOUR wins include the 2003 BellSouth Classic and the 2005 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee.

• Crane earned his 28th career top-10 finish and his first since the 2009 Buick Open (T6) in August.

• This is Crane's ninth year on TOUR. In his previous eight years, Crane has finished 75th or better on the money list all but once. In 2007, Crane was limited to just nine events due to a lower-back injury and finished 180th on the money list.

• Crane's victory represents the third consecutive TOUR victory in 2010 by a former Nationwide Tour player following Ryan Palmer (Sony Open) and Bill Haas (Bob Hope Classic). It also marks the 263rd TOUR win by a former Nationwide Tour member.

• Crane holed 157 feet of putts during Sunday's final round, the most by any player.

• Crane has posted four top-25 finishes in six career starts at the Farmers Insurance Open. A T7 last year was his previous best before Sunday's win.

• Haas leads the 2010 FedExCup standings with 532 points, five points ahead of Ryan Palmer. Ben Crane is third with 517 points.

• Leishman, the 2009 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year, was the only rookie to play in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola last year, finishing T28. He finished 20thin the FedExCup standings at season's end.

• Leishman made his second start at the Farmers Insurance Open having finished T26 here last year in his second career TOUR start. He made his 30th career TOUR start this week.

• Leishman earned his second runner-up finish on TOUR and his fourth career top-10 finish (T5/2009 Valero Texas Open, T8/2009 HP Byron Nelson Championship, T2/2009 BMW Championship).

• Snedeker has seven top-10 finishes in his last 15 starts, dating to the 2009 AT&T National at Congressional CC.

• Snedeker earned his 18th career top-10, and 30th career top-25, in his 94th career start on TOUR.

• Snedeker earned his best finish in four starts at the Farmers Insurance Open (3rd/2007, MC/2008, T42/2009 and T2/2010).

• Sim made his first appearance at the Farmers Insurance Open.

• Playing in his 31st TOUR event, 2009 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year Sim posted his third top-10 finish. Sim finished T7 at the 2008 Frys.com Open and T9 at the 2007 Ginn sur Mer Classic. Sim played his rookie season on TOUR in 2006.

• Last year, Sim made the cut in all three TOUR events he contested with his best finish a T18 at the U.S. Open.

• Sim was the Nationwide Tour Player of the Year after winning three times in 2009 and finishing first in the all-around ranking. Here's a look at the Nationwide Tour records he broke last season: single-season money record $644,142 (previous-Troy Matteson with $495,009 in 2005); single-season scoring average 68.81; putting average 1.684.

• Allen celebrated his 51stbirthday with a 7-under 65 to finish T5. Allen posted five consecutive birdies on Nos. 5-9, the most in a row by any player on the South Course this week.

Allen has made nine cuts in 13 starts at the Farmers Insurance Open. Before his T5 this week his previous best finish here was T14 in 1990.

• Allen, winner of the Senior PGA Championship in his Champions Tour debut last year, finished third at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai last week with three rounds of 66.

• Allen was seeking his first win in 346 starts on the TOUR. He was also attempting to become the first Champions Tour member to win on the PGA TOUR since Fred Funk (2007 Mayakoba Golf Classic).

• Allen has finished runner-up twice on the TOUR (2004 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro, 2007 Turning Stone Resort Championship).

• After missing his first two cuts as a TOUR member, Fowler posted a T5 finish in his third start this year. Fowler now has three career top-10s in 11 career TOUR starts (T7/2009 Justin Timberlake, T2/2009 Frys.com Open, T5/2010 Farmers Insurance Open).

• Fowler made his first start in the Farmers Insurance Open but his second start at Torrey Pines, finishing T60 at the U.S. Open in 2008 as an amateur.

• Four rookies finished in the top-15 this week -- Prugh (T5), Fowler (T5), Matt Every (T15) and Troy Merritt (T15).

• Prugh (66) won the 2009 Michael Hill New Zealand Open on the Nationwide Tour, finishing 16th on the money list at the end of the season to graduate to the TOUR. Prugh has made the cut in each of his three starts this year -- T72/Sony Open in Hawaii, 5th/Bob Hope Classic and T5/Farmers Insurance Open. Coincidently, the 2010 Michael Hill New Zealand Open finished Sunday with Robert Gates the winner.

• Ernie Els, making his second appearance at the Farmers Insurance Open, has two top-10 finishes and eight rounds under par (2005/T6, 2010/T5). Els shot 65-71-71-71 in 2005 and 70-69-69-69 in 2010.

• This week marked Robert Allenby's 213th start since his last victory on the TOUR at the 2001 Marconi Pennsylvania Classic -- a period of 8 years, 4 months and 8 days.

• Allenby was 13under through 13 holes of the final round and just one stroke behind leader Crane before finishing the final five holes bogey, bogey, par, triple bogey, eagle for a T9 finish, his 61st career top-10.

• Five players in the top five (Leishman, Sim, Allen, Prugh and Fowler) have yet to win on TOUR. The Farmers Insurance Open has not produced a first-time winner since Jay Don Blake won in 1991.

• Phil Mickelson began the final round with three consecutive bogeys, posted 1-over 73 and dropped from T5 to 19th.

• During the past nine years of the Farmers Insurance Open no player has recorded all four rounds in the 60s. Dating to the 1997 tournament (14 tournaments), only six players have performed the feat, with two coming in 1999 (Billy Ray Brown and Bill Glasson) and four in 2001 (Frank Lickliter II, Mike Weir, Jay Don Blake and Shigeki Maruyama).

• Ryuji Imada, the third-round leader, posted 3-over 75 to finish T9.

• Defending champion Nick Watney shot a 4-under 68 to finish T9.

• Scott Piercy, who held the first-round lead with 8-under 64, posted 69 in the final round to finish T20.

• Harrison Frazar recorded three eagles during the week.

• On behalf of Farmers Insurance and the Century Club of San Diego the March of Dimes received a donation through the Birdies 4 Babies program. The group donated $100 for every birdie and $1,000 for every eagle recorded on the weekend. (Saturday-245 birdies, one eagle -- Sunday-273 birdies, seven eagles).

• Twelve players are tied for the lead at 2-under par in the 2010 Kodak Challenge, including Chad Collins who holed a 37-foot putt for birdie at the Kodak Challenge hole (No. 14) in the final round.

• Three players posted bogey-free rounds on Sunday -- Charles Howell III (68), Ricky Barnes (68) and Martin Laird (68). Brendon de Jonge recorded the only bogey-free round in Saturday's third round. Last year, there were no bogey-free rounds on the South Course during the third or fourth rounds.