Mitsubishi Electric C'ship: Round 3 notebook
By Phil Stambaugh, PGA TOUR Staff
Weather: Sunny with highs in the low-80s and winds from the W at 5-10 mph.
• In one of the great head-to-head battles of all-time on the Champions Tour, 60-year-old Tom Watson birdied the last two holes to overtake Fred Couples and win his 13th career event on the Champions Tour and first at stroke play in almost two years. Couples, making his debut on the circuit this week, was bidding to become just the 16th player in Champions Tour history to win his first start and appeared to be in the driver's seat after making a 15-foot birdie putt at No. 16. However, Watson holed an eight-foot birdie putt to tie Couples at No. 17.
On the final hole, Watson's wedge shot stopped five feet from the cup while Couples' approach landed 10 feet. After Couples misjudged the speed of his putt and missed left, Watson stepped up and holed his putt for victory, ending an 0-33 career victory drought in the state of Hawaii. Both players made six birdies and an eagle in the final round and Couples' 8-under 64, the low round of the day, came up one stroke short.
• Before Sunday, Tom Watson's last victory in a stroke-play event came at the 2008 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. The week after winning in Tampa, he teamed with Andy North to win the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (17 official events ago), a better-ball official event. Watson's win today at 60 years, 4 months and 20 days made him the second oldest winner in Mitsubishi Electric Championship history (Hale Irwin, 2007, 61 years, 7 months, 18 days) and the 13th oldest overall winner in Champions Tour history.
He also became the oldest winner on the Champions Tour since Gil Morgan captured the 2007 Walmart First-Tee Open at Pebble Beach (60 years, 11 months, 7 days).
• Here's a look at Tom Watson's lowest 54-hole scores in his Champions Tour career:
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• Watson was 17-under-par on the back nine for the week and his 22-under 194 score for 54 holes was the third lowest by a winner at Hualalai (Roberts/191 in 2006, Irwin/193 in 2007). Watson's 63 on Friday equaled the lowest start by a winner. Roberts shot 63 on Friday in 2006 and Tom Kite shot 63 in the first round in 2002. Watson became the first wire-to-wire winner of this event since Kite in 2002 and just the fourth overall to lead from start to finish (Peter Thomson/1985, John Jacobs/1999).
• Fred Couples made just one bogey in the tournament yet he finished second in his Champions Tour debut. Corey Pavin, the other major champion in the field making his first start on the Champions Tour, was T13. Couples' 21-under-par 195 total equaled the second-lowest score ever posted on the Champions Tour that did not win a 54-hole event. At Hualalai in 2006, Don Pooley shot 24-under 192, but lost out to Loren Roberts. At the 2001 Gold Rush Classic near Sacramento, Allen Doyle shot 21-under 195 yet did not win.
• Tom Watson jumped out to an early lead in the 2010 Charles Schwab Cup race by earning 315 Schwab Cup points for his victory today. Watson won the Schwab Cup competition in both 2003 and 2005. The Schwab Cup offers $2.1 million in tax-deferred annuity payouts to the five leading finishers, with the winner receiving a $1 million payout.
• With very gentle breezes each of the three days, the overall field scoring average for this year's event was 69.130 compared to 69.578 last year. This year, there were 66 total rounds below 70 recorded compared to just 50 total rounds in the 60s last year.
• Tom Lehman made the only birdie at the par-3 5th hole for the second consecutive day, yet left Hualalai having played the hole in one-over-par for the week. Lehman made triple-bogey six at that hole in the opening round. No. 5 was again the hardest in the tournament, yielding just three birdies (R.W. Eaks/Rd. 1) and playing to a stroke average of 3.324. Last year, No. 5 played as the hardest par-3 on the Champions Tour (3.480) and gave up just four total birdies during the tournament.
• After going 41 events without recording a top-10 finish, Hale Irwin has now finished among the top 10 in two straight events on the Champions Tour. Irwin ended his 2009 season with a sixth-place finish at the AT&T Championship in San Antonio and his 4-under-par 68 today moved him up into solo fifth place at the 2010 season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai this week. This was Irwin's 197th career top-10 finish on the Champions Tour, second on the all-time list behind Bob Charles (203), and both he and Tom Watson now have seven top 10s, tying them with Allen Doyle, Raymond Floyd, Al Geiberger and Chi Chi Rodriguez for the most in event history.
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