Notebook: Round 4, THE PLAYERS Championship

Weather -- Partly sunny and breezy with a high of 76 degrees. Winds NE 15-20 mph.

• Since THE PLAYERS Championship moved to TPC Sawgrass in 1982, the third-round leader has gone on to win 11-of-29 times (37.9 percent). In the last 10 years, only Stephen Ames (2006), Adam Scott (2004) and Hal Sutton (2000) have managed to turn a 54-hole lead into victory at THE PLAYERS.

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Leaderboard: Round 4
The Daily Wrap-up
The Live Report
Photos: Round 4
Transcript archive
17th hole updates, notes

• Tim Clark becomes the first South African winner and sixth international winner of THE PLAYERS in the last 10 years and the 11th overall. Of the 19 winners of stroke-play events on the 2010 PGA TOUR, six were born outside of the United States.

• In the 29 years THE PLAYERS Championship has been contested at TPC Sawgrass, the champion has not started from farther back than T7 entering the final round and gone on to win (Hal Sutton, 1983, four-strokes back). Clark was T6 after 54 holes and three strokes back. The largest-stroke deficit an eventual winner has overcome entering the final round at THE PLAYERS is five by Justin Leonard in 1998 (started in third, won by two) and Henrik Stenson in 2009 (started T2, won by four).

• Three of the last five winners of THE PLAYERS have led/co-led in both Greens In Regulation and Driving Accuracy (Fred Funk/2005, Stephen Ames/2006, Sergio Garcia/2008). Clark was T5 in Driving Accuracy and 4th in Greens In Regulation for the week.

Tim Clark, 68-71-66-67 272 (-16)

• Tim Clark becomes just the second player to make THE PLAYERS his first PGA TOUR victory, joining Craig Perks in 2002.

• Tim Clark jumped from 30th to fifth in the FedExCup standings with his victory, 287 points behind leader Ernie Els.

• Clark has either finished solo second or T2 eight times on the PGA TOUR, most recently earlier this year where he finished T2 at the Bob Hope Classic. The last player to finish second eight or more times before his first win was David Frost, who won the 1988 Southern Open after eight second-place finishes.

• Before Sunday's win, Clark had the second-most career top 10's among players without a victory with 39, trailing only Bobby Wadkins' 50.

• In 11 events on the PGA TOUR this season, Clark has made nine cuts and finished in the top 10 four times (T2, Bob Hope Classic; T10, AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am; T9, WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and 1st, THE PLAYERS).

• In seven previous appearances at THE PLAYERS, Clark has made the 36-hole cut three times with his best finish a T9 in 2009.

• Tim Clark was one of two players to post a bogey-free final round (Hunter Mahan/72).

• Tim Clark was paired with Charley Hoffman (77) in Sunday's final round. Both Clark and Hoffman were first to tee off in THE PLAYERS on Thursday at 7:15 a.m. -- Hoffman off No. 1 and Clark off No. 10. The last time Clark and Hoffman were paired together was the final round of 2008 The Barclays when both players shot even-par 71s to finish T38.

• Tim Clark becomes the 273rd former Nationwide Tour player to win on TOUR and the fourth at THE PLAYERS.

Robert Allenby, 66-70-67-70 273 (-15)

• In 14 starts at THE PLAYERS, Allenby has posted two top-10 finishes (T4/2003, 2nd/2010) and four top-25 results.

• Robert Allenby has recorded 52 top-10 finishes on TOUR since his previous victory (2001 Marconi Pennsylvania Classic).

• Robert Allenby's runner-up finish comes in his 223rd start since his last PGA TOUR victory at the 2001 Marconi Pennsylvania Classic.

• Robert Allenby has made 446 career starts across five different Tours (PGA TOUR, European, Japan, Australasian, South African) for 112 top-10 finishes -- or 25.11%. Allenby has 62 career top-10s from 341 starts on the PGA TOUR - or 18.18%.

Lucas Glover, 70-65-69-70 274 (-14)

• Lucas Glover earned his best result at THE PLAYERS, and his best finish since winning the 2009 U.S. Open with a third at TPC Sawgrass. Glover had never made the cut in four previous appearances at THE PLAYERS.

Davis Love, 69-68-71-68 276 (-12)

• Davis Love has six top-10 finishes in 25 appearances at THE PLAYERS. He now has 169 career top-10s. The T4 is also his best result this year after opening the season with T5 at the Sony Open in Hawaii. His T4 is also his best result on TOUR since a T2 at the 2009 Mercedes-Benz Championship.

• Davis Love III shot 69 in Round 1, 68 in Round 2 and 68 in Round 4 for his 18th, 19th and 20th career rounds in the 60s at TPC Sawgrass. He passes Fred Couples (18 rounds in the 60s) as second on the all-time list for rounds in the 60s. Nick Price tops the list with 22 rounds in the 60s.

• In his 25 appearances at this event, the only other time Davis Love has posted three rounds in the 60s at a PLAYERS was 1992 (67-68-71-67), his first of two wins at TPC Sawgrass. Love also won THE PLAYERS in 2003 with a final-round 64.

Ben Crane, 67-69-68-72 276 (-12)

• Ben Crane is in search of his second PGA TOUR victory this season and third-consecutive top-10 finish at THE PLAYERS. Crane earned his third-career PGA TOUR title earlier this season at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego and has finished T6 and T5 at THE PLAYERS in 2008 and 2009, respectively. He is currently No. 11 in the FedExCup standings.

• Ben Crane is making his sixth appearance at THE PLAYERS. Crane has improved his results in each of his six starts.

Lee Westwood, 67-65-70-74 276 (-12)

• The 54-hole leader Lee Westwood is in search of his second-career PGA TOUR victory. Since his only TOUR victory at the 1998 Freeport-McDermott Classic in New Orleans, Westwood has made 121 starts on the PGA TOUR, including major championships and World Golf Championship events, and posted 18 top-10 finishes.

• Lee Westwood (T4) has been the leader/co-leader after 54 holes four times on the PGA TOUR, most recently last month at The Masters Tournament where he went on to finish solo second. He converted one of those opportunities into victory at the 1998 Freeport-McDermott Classic and finished T2 at the 2008 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

• Westwood is the first player in 33 years to lead both the Masters Tournament and THE PLAYERS at the end of round three in the same year. Tom Watson did that in 1977 and he ended up winning the Masters Tournament and finishing tied for fifth at The Players Championship. Westwood finished second at the Masters and T4 at THE PLAYERS in 2010.

• Westwood has made seven starts on the PGA TOUR this season with four top-10 finishes. He also has a runner-up (Omega Dubai Desert Classic) and a T3 (Commercialbank Qatar Masters) on the European Tour.

• The final pairing failed to produce the winner for the first time since Phil Mickelson in 2007.

• This is not the first time Lee Westwood played in the final group on Sunday at THE PLAYERS. In 2005, Westwood was co-leader after 36 holes when groups of three teed off in the third round and were not re-paired for the final round due to weather delays. The tournament was eventually completed on Monday with Westwood finishing T22 with rounds of 65-69-80-72 286.

Francesco Molinari, 68-65-71-73 277 (-11)

• Molinari was seeking to become the fourth player to win his first PLAYERS start -- joining Jack Nicklaus (1974), Craig Perks (2002) and Hal Sutton (1983). Molinari would have done so in his ninth PGA TOUR start, the fewest of any PLAYERS Champion in the tournament's history. The current record for fewest PGA TOUR starts by an eventual PLAYERS Champion is Adam Scott with 41, followed by Henrik Stenson with 44.

• Earlier today, Francesco Molinari's brother Eduardo finished T13 at the BMW Italian Open in Turin, Italy.

Miscellaneous

• Tiger Woods withdrew after six holes in the final round with a neck injury. It is the third time Woods has withdrawn from a TOUR event as a professional (2006 North Trust Open, 1998 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am). Woods also withdrew from the 1995 U.S. Open as an amateur.

• Chris Couch (T17) is playing out of the Major Medical Extension category, with 21 tournaments to earn $796,087 and retain that status for the remainder of the 2010 season. THE PLAYERS was Couch's 11th start this year. He has earned $738,837 this year and requires $57,250 to retain his current status.

• Hunter Mahan became the fifth player to record 18 pars in a round at THE PLAYERS since 1983.

• Phil Mickelson (T17) finished with a 2-over par 74 in the final round. He has made the cut here 13 times in 17 starts. His final-round scoring average is exactly 74 -- the same score he shot on Sunday. Mickelson has played only four final rounds under par (1995/70, 1998/71, 2004/71, 2007/69).

• Andres Romero (T10) and Paul Goydos (T52) each birdied the par-3 17th in the first three rounds of the 2010 PLAYERS, the first players to birdie the hole in the first three rounds since 2003 (John Daly). Romero recorded a par at No. 17 on Sunday while Goydos posted a bogey. Paul Azinger, in 1987, is the only players to birdie the hole in all four rounds of a single PLAYERS Championship.

• In the history of THE PLAYERS at TPC Sawgrass, 21 players have enjoyed top-10 finishes in their first PLAYERS starts, including Francesco Molinari (9th) and Chris Stroud (T10).

• Ben Crane (72), Charley Hoffman (77) and Bo Van Pelt (70) were the only players to enter the final round with three rounds in the 60s. Only six players have recorded four rounds in the 60s here at THE PLAYERS in tournament history:

Al Geiberger, 1975 (won)
JC Snead, 1976 (finished second)
Greg Norman, 1994 (won)
Fuzzy Zoeller, 1994 (finished second)
Jeff Maggert, 1994, (finished third)
Steve Elkington, 1997 (won)

• Eleven of the 20 first-time participants (and two PGA TOUR rookies -- Troy Merritt, Alex Prugh) made the 36-hole cut at this year's PLAYERS Championship. In the 36-year history of THE PLAYERS, Jack Nicklaus (1974), Hal Sutton (1983) and Craig Perks (2002) are the only players to win the tournament in their first attempt. Here's how the first-timers fared:

Balls in the water on the famed par-3 17th hole since 2003:

Scoring Averages at the par-72 TPC Sawgrass:

Below are the years with the most birdies at THE PLAYERS since 1983:

Below are the five lowest cumulative scoring averages in the history of THE PLAYERS:

Below are the fewest rounds in the 60s during a final round at THE PLAYERS.

Paul Goydos' five-putt on No. 7 today was the fifth five-putt at THE PLAYERS since 1983. Coming into this week, there were three five-putts this year on TOUR out of 132,841 holes played (Woody Austin, Rory Sabbatini and Mark Calcavecchia). Other five-putts at THE PLAYERS since 1983:

There were no hole-in-ones in 2009 and there were none this year. Since 1986, there has never been two consecutive years without an ace at THE PLAYERS.

Birdies for Charity

The Birdies for Charity program annually leads up to THE PLAYERS Championship and allows the community to support local charities through tracking the exciting, high-level of play during the tournament. Similar to a walk-a-thon, Birdies for Charity participants make a pledge to a local organization for each birdie made by professional golfers during THE PLAYERS. A record 92 organizations are participating this year, up from 68 in 2009 and 51 in 2008, a strong indication that the generosity of First Coast residents will allow for a record fundraising effort.

The Birdies for Charity program generated $230,000 in 2009, part of the record $4.15 million THE PLAYERS raised last year for charitable organizations throughout the region. Birdies for Charity and THE PLAYERS are part of "Together, anything's possible," the PGA TOUR's charity platform that brings together all of the TOUR'S stakeholders -- players, tournaments and sponsors, volunteers, charities and fans -- to tell the story of the tremendous impact their collective efforts are having in communities throughout the world.