Round 3 notebook: Songdo IBD Championship

text size

Weather: Partly sunny and pleasant with highs in the mid-to-upper 70s. Winds were from the NNE at 5-15 mph.

Final Standings: 1 -- Jay Don Blake/203/-13; T2 -- John Cook, Mark O'Meara, & Peter Senior/203/-13); 5 -- Tom Lehman/205/-7).

RELATED

Results, money
Round 3 Recap
Final leaderboard
Schwab Cup standings

• Jay Don Blake birdied the fifth extra hole to defeat John Cook in a five-hole playoff that started with two other players -- Mark O'Meara and Peter Senior. O'Meara and Senior were eliminated with bogeys on the third extra hole. Blake's win earned him a bit of revenge since Cook had beaten him in a playoff earlier this year at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.

• Jay Don Blake's victory on Sunday came in his 424th start since his last victory at the 1991 Shearson Lehman Brothers Open in San Diego. A year ago Russ Cochran ended a similar winless string when he defeated Fred Funk on the first extra hole. It was Cochran's 405th start since his last victory at the 1991 Centel Western Open.

• Jay Don Blake earns a check for $456,000, the largest of his professional career and increases his 2011 earnings to $1,004,319, the first time in his career he had earned over $ 1 million. His best year on the PGA TOUR came in 2000 when he won $590,109 and finished 82nd on the money list. His previous best tournament check was for $272,000 at the 2002 Sony Open in Hawaii.

• Jay Don Blake jumped from 23rd to 10th on the 2011 money list with his win.

• Jay Don Blake earns a two-year exemption into the Champions Tour season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.

• Sunday's five-hole playoff was the longest on the Champions Tour since Jay Haas and Bernhard Langer went seven holes at the 2008 Toshiba Classic where Haas prevailed.

• Sunday's playoff was the third in succession as well as the eighth of the campaign. It was one shy of the all-time Champions Tour record of nine in 2002. There were also eight playoffs in 1994 and 2005. It was also first four-man playoff since 2008 ACE Group Classic.

• Tom Lehman maintained his lead in the Charles Schwab Cup and now has 2,135 points and leads runner-up Mark Calcavecchia (1,684) by 451 points. Peter Senior's T2 finish bumped him to third place with 1,645 points. John Cook is now fourth with 1,570 followed by Olin Browne with 1,370.

• Mark O'Meara's T2 finish allowed him to earn $225,800 which increased his 2011 earnings to $1,150,094, the fourth time in five years he has reached the $1 million mark.

• So far in 2011, 10 players have already earned $1 million with Tom Lehman leading all players with $1,793,009.

• Bob Gilder finished T47 in what was his 300th career start on the Champions Tour. Gilder has now played in 946 events in his PGA TOUR career which includes both tours.

• One of the featured groupings on Sunday included three former U.S. Open winners -- Tom Kite (1992), Tom Watson (1982) and Scott Simpson (1987). All three won their Open titles in Northern California. Kite and Watson at Pebble Beach and Simpson at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.

• Defending champion Russ Cochran finished T14 in defense of his title.

• David People's T6 finish was his best showing in 2011.

• The field averaged 72.194 for the event, including 73.099 on Sunday.

• The most difficult hole was No. 10 with an average score of 4.300 (+.300), while No. 3 was the easiest at 4.706 (-.294). There were three eagles and 66 birdies for the tournament.