Notebook: Round 3, Cap Cana Championship

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Mar. 28, 2010
By Phil Stambaugh, PGA TOUR Staff

Weather: Sunny, humid and hot with temperatures in the mid-80s and a heat index in the mid-90s. Winds from the E at 5-15 mph.

• Final Leaderboard: 1 -- Fred Couples (-21); 2 -- Corey Pavin (-19); 3 -- Russ Cochran (-14); T4 -- Tom Pernice Jr. (-13), Bernhard Langer (-13), Nick Price (-13).

• Tournament Recap: Fred Couples shot a course-record 10-under 62 (11 birdies, 1 bogey) and took advantage of an unfortunate break to Corey Pavin to win his third straight Champions Tour event. Couples trailed Pavin by one stroke after 13 holes, but Pavin hit a greenside sprinkler head with his second shot on the par-4 14th and his ball landed 60 yards over the green. After watching Pavin's misfortune, Couples hit a wedge 4 feet from the hole and made the birdie putt. Pavin then converted a 20-foot bogey putt, but the lead changed hands for good. Couples added a tap-in birdie on the par-5 15th, his fifth in a row for the second time in the round, and then put the tournament away with a 12-foot birdie at No. 17.

• Fred Couples made Champions Tour history on Sunday, becoming the first player ever to win three of his first four starts. He also won his third straight event, becoming the first player since Jay Haas in 2006 to win three consecutive tournaments on the Champions Tour. Sunday marked only the eighth time in Champions Tour history that a player won three consecutive starts. Chi Chi Rodriguez is the only player in Champions Tour annals to win four straight events, doing so during the 1987 season.

• This week marks the fourth consecutive Champions Tour event won with a sub-200 total, a first in the circuit's history. Couples also became the first player in Champions Tour history to win three consecutive events with sub-200 totals. His average winning score over the three victories is an amazing 18.25 under par.

• In addition to being a Punta Espada Golf Club course record, Couples' 10-under 62 today also matched his career-low round on the PGA TOUR (62- 1990 Nissan Los Angeles Open). The 62 was the lowest finish by a winner since Bobby Wadkins posted the same score in the final round of the 2006 Boeing Championship at Sandestin.

• Couples' 62 gives him 12 consecutive rounds in the 60s on the Champions Tour, moving into solo second place on the all-time list of Most Consecutive Sub-70 rounds. Hale Irwin is the Champions Tour's all-time record holder with 13 straight scores in the 60s in 1999. From the second round of the 1999 Ameritech Senior Open until the end of the second round of the AT&T Canada Senior Open that same season, Irwin was a cumulative 66-under-par. During his run, he won twice, lost two other events in playoffs and was T3. He made 1 eagle, 79 birdies, 140 pars, 13 bogeys and 1 double bogey.

Finish Event Rd. 1 Rd. 2 Rd. 3 Total To Par Eagles Birdies Pars Bogeys
2nd Mitsubishi Electric 65/T2 66/2 64/2 195 (-21) 2 18 33 1
1st ACE Group 68/T1 67/1 64/1 199 (-17) 1 18 32 3
1st Toshiba 66/T4 64/1 65/1 195 (-18) 2 17 32 3
1st Cap Cana 67/T2 66/T3 62/1 195 (-21) 1 21 30 2
Total/Avg.   66.5 65.75 63.75 196 (-77) 6 74 127 9

• Couples not only collected a check for $240,000 but more importantly, he also earned 240 Charles Schwab Cup points in the season-long Schwab Cup race. Couples, the current leader in the Schwab Cup competition, increased his yearly total to 931 points. Bernhard Langer is second with 479 points.

• Pavin's runner-up score of 19-under-par 197 was his lowest 54-hole score in relation to par in his career. On the PGA TOUR, Pavin had 17-under 193 totals after three rounds of both the 1988 Texas Open and 2006 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee and he went on to win both of those tournaments.

• With ideal scoring conditions for a third straight day, there were 20 scores under 70 on Sunday compared to just 14 sub-70 rounds yesterday and 21 rounds in the 60s on Friday. This year's overall scoring average for the field was 71. 748 compared to 72.158 last year. In 1988, the course played to a stroke average of 72.260.

Trevor Dodds finished T17 in his Champions Tour debut. Dodds won the 1998 Greater Greensboro Open on the PGA TOUR and also claimed three Nationwide Tour events.

David Peoples, a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR, recorded his second top-10 finish is as many starts on the Champions Tour. Peoples debuted at the Toshiba Classic and finished T9 in Newport Beach. His ninth-place effort at the Cap Cana Championship guaranteed him a spot in the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic in late April.

• Defending champion Keith Fergus finished T17 this year while Mark Wiebe, the event's inaugural winner, was T29.

• Only four players have now finished among the top 20 in each of the first three Cap Cana Championships -- Brad Bryant, Nick Price, Craig Stadler and Bernhard Langer.

Tommy Armour III became the ninth player to make four eagles in a single event. The last time a player made four eagles in a Champions Tour event was Brad Bryant at the 2007 Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach.

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