Final-round notebook – Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial
* Tim Clark was attempting to follow Rory Sabbatini’s victory last week at the HP Byron Nelson Championship, which would have marked the first time since 1994 that two South Africans won back-to-back on the PGA Tour (Ernie Els/U.S. Open, David Frost/Canon Greater Hartford Open). Nick Price (Zimbabwe) followed those two wins with the 1994 Motorola Western Open, making it three consecutive Tour wins for players from Southern Africa.* Tim Clark entered the final round of a PGA Tour event as a leader/co-leader for the third time in his career. He finished T10 at the 2005 FUNAI Classic-Disney and T18 at the 2008 St. Jude Championship before his defeat in a playoff at the 2009 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
* Tim Clark’s career-best four-round total was 265 (2008 Wyndham Championship) before posting 17-under 263 this week.
* Clark has amassed 35 top-10s in 184 career starts (including seven runners-up) and is the highest-ranked player on the career money list without a victory (62nd/$13,275,026).
* Tim Clark has the third-most career top 10s (35) of players without a victory. Here’s a look at those players with 30 or more (since 1980).
Players without Win Number of Career Top 10s
Bobby Wadkins 50
Lennie Clements 36
Tim Clark 35
Harrison Frazar 33
Brett Quigley 32
Jay Delsing 30
* Steve Stricker (68), Tim Clark (70) and Steve Marino (68) finished tied at 17-under 263 after 72 holes at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. It was Stricker who took the title with a birdie-3 at the second playoff hole after all three players made par at the first extra hole.
* This was the fifth playoff on the PGA Tour this season, with three of them occurring in the Texas Swing events. Paul Casey claimed the Shell Houston Open over J.B. Holmes with a bogey-5 on the first playoff hole, while Zach Johnson won the Valero Texas Open over James Driscoll with a birdie on the first extra hole.
* This marks the 10th playoff in the 62-year history at Colonial. Five of the last seven have been decided in one extra hole. The most recent playoff was Rory Sabbatini’s 2007 victory over Jim Furyk and Bernhard Langer.
* The win marks Stricker’s first victory since 2007 The Barclays and the fifth of his career.
1996 Kemper Open
1996 Motorola Western Open
2001 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
2007 The Barclays
2009 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial
* Stricker has had some close calls this year and finally got across the line in his 12th start of the season. Stricker led into the final round of The 50th Bob Hope Classic before a 77 dropped him to T3. He led during the final round at the Northern Trust Open, eventually finishing second. He also finished T4 at the Transitions Championship after sharing the 36-hole lead. Stricker earned a T6 at The Masters and a T7 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and now has six top 10s this year.
* Before the week began, Steve Stricker was the only top-10 player in the FedExCup standings without a victory in 2009. He jumps from 10th to second with this victory.
* Stricker leads the scoring average for the year with 69.46.
* Stricker’s win was the first come-from-behind victory at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial since 2001 Sergio Garcia).
* Marino, in just his third year on Tour, has 13 top-10s in 81 career starts. His previous-best showing on Tour was a second-place at the 2008 Mayakoba Golf Classic.
* Sixteen players posted four rounds in the 60s this week, including 11 of the top 12. Tim Clark (70), who bogeyed the final hole, was the only player in the top 10 who failed to do so, snapping a string of eight consecutive rounds in the 60s at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
* Jason Day (69) had a lot of local support for his second-best showing of his career with a fourth-place. Day, who lives near Colonial Country Club, notched a T2 at the Puerto Rico Open earlier this season.
* Close to 100 people this weekend rode their bikes on the Trinity Trails to the Tournament, with the Tournament donating $10 per biker to Streams and Valleys, part of the Adopt-a-River program. Riders were able to park their bikes at the “Go Green” tent and walk directly onto the golf course.
* Paul Casey (66) earned his third top five on the Tour this year with a fifth-place. Casey’s performance comes after a win at last week’s BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour, his third worldwide win this year (ABU Dhabi Golf Championship, Shell Houston Open). Casey “borrowed” Tim Wilkinson’s caddie (Jason Hamilton) this week after his own caddie, Craig Connelly, returned to Great Britain to be with his fiancé who required surgery after a bicycle accident.
* Jim Furyk (65) birdied Nos. 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 to be 5-under through seven holes and closed with 11 consecutive pars to post a T9 finish. Furyk has five top 10s this year.
Kevin Na (69) recorded his sixth top 10 of the season with a T9.
* Charley Hoffman (71), who has made 23 consecutive cuts, ended another streak at the ninth hole in the final round, when he three-putted from 42 feet for bogey. Hoffman had gone 166 consecutive holes without a three-putt to that point.
* Danny Lee (69) ranked No. 1 with 24 birdies this week and finished T46 at 4-under-par. Clark was next best with 23. Stricker recorded 22. Along with the 24 birdies, Lee recorded 13 bogeys, two double bogeys and a triple bogey.
* Greg Norman, the Presidents Cup International Team captain, looks like having a truly international group of players on his team this year. The leading six players in the standings are all from different countries – Geoff Ogilvy (Australia), Vijay Singh (Fiji), Camilo Villegas (Colombia), Ernie Els (South Africa), Angel Cabrera (Argentina) and Mike Weir (Canada). Shingo Katayama (Japan), Jeev Singh (India) and K.J. Choi (South Korea) make it nine players from different countries currently represented in the top 15.
* Geoff Ogilvy (74) recorded his second-highest round of the season on Sunday. Ogilvy, No. 2 on both the FedExCup standings and the money list at the beginning of the week, posted 75 in the final round at the Shell Houston Open.
* After an opening 71, Corey Pavin, a two-time champion at the Crowne Plaza Invitational, was T79. Pavin, who turns 50 later this year, followed with 69-66-65 to finish T18 for his second top 20 this year (T15/Mayakoba Golf Classic). It was his 26th consecutive start at Colonial.
* Adam Scott (71) had missed six consecutive cuts before advancing to the weekend at Colonial. Scott got to 5-under through 48 holes of the Tournament but finished 1-under 279.
* Brian Gay’s final round 64, including a back-nine 30, was the low round of the day. Gay advanced 39 spots from T66 to T27, and crept into 10th position on the FedExCup standings. Rory Sabbatini, the 2007 Crowne Plaza Invitational champion and winner at last week’s HP Byron Nelson Championship, jumped from T66 to T34 with a final round 65, and is ninth in the FedExCup standings.
* Michael Bradley (66) was bogey free in the first pairing of the day and advanced from T70 to T46. The round marks Bradley’s first bogey-free round since his first-round 67 at the 2009 Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular, which he won.
* Brian Davis (67) has now posted 24 consecutive rounds at par or better. Davis has made the most of his fine play of late, posting three consecutive top-5 finishes before a T34 this week.
* Chris DiMarco (69) remains the Kodak Challenge leader at 8-under after the Crowne Plaza Invitational with Tim Herron (70) at 7-under. The par-3 13th hole, this week’s Kodak Challenge hole, relinquished one ace (Dean Wilson/Round 1) and 50 birdies during the week.
* Bogey-free rounds were posted by Jim Furyk (65), J.J. Henry (66), Michael Bradley (66), Ben Crane (67) and Dudley Hart (69).
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