Final-round notebook – THE BARCLAYS
Sergio Garcia entered the week ranked T173 in Putting Average on the 2008 PGA Tour and finished first in that statistic at The Barclays. In addition, Garcia finished T2 in Putts Per Round with an average of 27.5 per round.Vijay Singh carded a final-round 70 at The Barclays on Sunday to claim his 33rd PGA Tour title in a playoff over Sergio Garcia and Kevin Sutherland. Singh moved from No. 7 to No. 1 on the FedExCup points list as the PGA Tour continues it’s Playoffs for the FedExCup.
With the loss, Garcia’s career PGA Tour playoff record falls to 4-4. Garcia also lost in a playoff to Singh at the 2005 Wachovia Championship.
The playoff marked the 14th in the history of The Barclays and the 10th playoff of the 2008 PGA Tour season. The last playoff on Tour came at the John Deere Classic, when Kenny Perry defeated Brad Adamonis and Jay Williamson on the first playoff hole.
This week marked the 177th PGA Tour start for Sutherland since his win at the 2002 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. This is his second runner-up finish in that span of Tournaments (2007 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am).
At the 2007 Barclays, only two players were able to advance in the PGA Tour’s Playoffs for the FedExCup from Nos. 121-144 into the following week’s Deutsche Bank Championship: Doug LaBelle II and Rich Beem. LaBelle used a T41 finish to move from No. 121 to No. 120, while Beem used a T7 finish to move from No. 134 to No. 113. In 2008, 15 players were able to move from outside the top 120 and into next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship.
Mathew Goggin used a final-round 67 to move from T23 to T4 and claim his eighth top-25 finish of the 2008 season. Goggin has now set personal bests for single-season earnings and top-25 finishes as well as tying his personal best for top-10s (three) and career-best finish (runner-up).
Goggin (69-67) is the only player in the field to play bogey-free golf over the weekend rounds.
PGA Tour rookie Martin Laird entered last week’s Wyndham Championship ranked No. 164 on the FedExCup points list and used a T4 finish to move up to No. 128 on the list and into The Barclays. Laird’s T7 finish Sunday in turn moved him from No. 128 to No. 67 and into next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship. Laird has now made six cuts in a row after only making six out of his first 14 cuts on Tour this year. In addition, he has been a star in the final round over his last three Tournaments with a 66 to finish T4 at the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open, a 63 to finish T4 at the Wyndham Championship and a 67 to finish T7 at The Barclays.
Justin Leonard continued his solid 2008 with a T7 finish at The Barclays thanks in part to a final-round 67. Leonard entered the week at No. 8 on the FedExCup points list and moved to No. 5 after Sunday. Leonard’s consistent play is seen in the fact that he has only missed one cut in 21 starts this year on the PGA Tour. Leonard began 2007 with six missed cuts in a row and entered the 2007 Buick Open ranked No. 245 in the Official World Golf Rankings. He finished runner-up that week and has since added two wins and 10 top-10 finishes to his resume.
Ben Curtis’ T4 finish Sunday gives him a second-straight top-10 finish on the PGA Tour (T2 – PGA Championship). In 137 career starts on Tour, this is the first time that Curtis has recorded back-to-back top-10s.
Overnight leader Kevin Streelman birdied two of his last three holes to finish T4 on Sunday, the best finish of his PGA Tour career. Streelman has now made 11 cuts in a row on Tour dating back to the AT&T Classic.
For the 29th time in the 42-year history of The Barclays, no player in the field was able to record four rounds in the 60s (Note: Statistic does not include 1998, when the event was shortened to 54 holes).
This is the highest number of players (5) to finish within one shot of the winner in the 42-year history of The Barclays. Three players finished runner-up to Seve Ballesteros in 1988 after a playoff and three players finished one-stroke shy of Julius Boros in 1968.
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