
Second ROUND Tidbits
Mar. 29, 2008
By Phil Stambaugh, PGA TOUR Staff
PALM COAST, Fla. --
Bernhard
Langer shoots for his third career win on the Champions Tour
Sunday in his 11th start on the circuit. If successful, he would
equal his career victory total on the PGA TOUR. Should he win,
it would also be Langer's second title of 2008 and he would join
Scott Hoch
as the only other multiple winner on the Champions Tour this
year.
Fred Funk celebrated a
chip-in for birdie on No. 15 Saturday. (Miller/WireImage)
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INSIDE
THE NUMBERS |
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36-Hole Leaderboard |
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1. Bernhard Langer |
133 -11 |
|
2. Lonnie Nielsen |
135 -9 |
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3. Fred Funk |
136 -8 |
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4. Tim Simpson |
137 -7 |
|
T5. Joe Ozaki |
139 -5 |
|
T5. Nick Price |
139 -5 |
|
T5. Ben Crenshaw |
139 -5 |
|
T5. Mark McNulty |
139 -5 |
|
T5. Craig Stadler |
139 -5 |
|
T10. Tom Watson |
140 -4 |
|
T10. Brad Bryant |
140 -4 |
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T10. Gene Jones |
140 -4 |
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• Langer has played in 90 TOUR events in
Florida without a victory. His best career finishes in the
Sunshine State were a tie for second at the 1987 Honda Classic
and second at the 1995 PLAYERS Championship.
• This marks Bernhard Langer's third
Saturday lead on the Champions Tour and he's 2 for 2 thus far.
He went wire-to-wire in winning last year at the Administaff
Small Business Classic and led by three strokes after two rounds
of the Toshiba Classic before winning in a playoff.
• Through six events, Langer is the only
36-hole leader to win thus far on the 2008 Champions Tour. That
victory came in a seven-hole playoff over
Jay Haas
at the Toshiba Classic in Newport Beach, Calif.
•
John Cook
made the first double eagle on the Champions Tour this year on
Saturday when he holed a 3-wood second shot from 223 yards at
the par-5 14th hole. Cook's albatross was the 31st double eagle
in Champions Tour history and first since
Leonard
Thompson made a 2 at the par-5 18th hole at Nashawtuc
Country Club in the opening round of the 2007 Bank of America
Championship near Boston.
• A total of 275 Charles Schwab Cup points
will be awarded to the winner Sunday. Should Bernhard Langer
win, he would take over the early lead in the Schwab Cup race.
Langer currently has 476 points and trails Scott Hoch by only 12
points in the season-long competition. At the end of the
official season, the player earning the most Charles Schwab Cup
points will receive a $1 million annuity.
• On Sunday, Bernhard Langer will play in
the final group for the fourth time this year.
Fred Funk
last played in the final grouping at the MasterCard Championship
at Hualalai and won the event. Nielsen has been in the final
group three times before Sunday's final round. The last time
Lonnie
Nielsen was in the final grouping was at the Commerce Bank
Championship on Long Island last year, where he went on to win.
•
Joe Ozaki's
7-under 65 Saturday was the low round of the tournament and
vaulted him 36 spots into a tie for fifth, the largest move by
any player in the field Saturday.
•
Loren Roberts
extended his streak of par/better rounds to 20 straight with a
2-under-par 70 Saturday. That's the longest current run on the
Champions Tour.
• Saturday's stroke average of 72.584 was
more than a stroke lower than Friday's first-round scoring
average (73.692). There were 12 rounds in the 60s Saturday
compared to seven Friday. A total of 31 players broke par
Saturday compared to 21 Friday. The cumulative stroke average
for two rounds is 73.142. Last year after 36 holes, the stroke
average on the Ocean Course at Hammock Beach was 72.256.
• The par-4 18th hole played as the most
difficult Saturday (4.494), yielding just three birdies (Joe
Ozaki, Ben
Crenshaw,
Scott Simpson). The par-5 10th hole played as the easiest
(4.494), yielding 37 birdies and one eagle by the 77-player
field.
• Through 36 holes, Bernhard Langer has made
just one bogey.
Tim Simpson
leads in Greens in Regulation with 28 of 36 (77.78%). Ben
Crenshaw leads in Fairways Hit with 24 of 28.
Wayne Grady
has averaged just 25 putts per round.
• Sunday's final round begins at 9:10 a.m.
ET with 77 professionals going off both the #1 tee and #10 tee.
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