NEWS AND NOTES FROM SUNDAY

VERONA — Vaughn Taylor can thank his putter for getting him to the playoff. Taylor took just 25 putts on Sunday, going 3-for-3 in the 10-15 foot range and 13-for-15 inside of 10 feet. Taylor ranks 16th on the PGA Tour in putting average.

Kuchar, who missed the cut in his only other appearance at the Turning Stone Resort Championship in 2007, set a personal-best with nine top-25s for the season. He recorded eight top-25s last year.

Peter Lonard set a course record with a 63. He had nine birdies and no bogeys. “We sort of decided, if I get 3, 4, 5 [under], I’m just going to keep going at the flags and take what I get,” Lonard said. Lonard hit all but two greens and two fairways in the final round. Birdies came at 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 & 18.

“Last week, I had the flu,” Lonard said, “didn’t leave the house, didn’t hit any practice balls and turned up here thinking I’m going to play in 35-degree weather all week and that’s probably the worst thing I can do so, I don’t know. Maybe I should hit less balls and think about it more. Lonard played with Corey Pavin on Sunday.

On Saturday, Pavin played with Mathias Gronberg, who tied the course record with a 64. Lonard hadn’t broken 70 all week, but when you better your approach shot distance to the pin by 10-feet (to 22-feet, 11-inches), one-putt 11 holes and shoot a front-nine 30. 63 is within a stroke of his career low.

No rookie has won on Tour this year – that hasn’t happened since 1998. Last year, rookies Dustin Johnson and Marc Turnesa both won during the Fall Series.

The 18th hole, where drama played out for more than an hour down the stretch, is a monster 624-yard, par-5 18th. For this week, it played 602 yards. It is the fourth-easiest hole on the course for the week. Sunday, it played the easiest with a stroke average of 4.559 and two more birdies (28) than pars (26). However, there has only been one eagle there — by Webb Simpson — all day.
KODAK CHALLENGE

Kevin Streelman continues to picture himself with $1 million in the first Kodak Challenge on the PGA Tour. Turning Stone’s par-3 #11 played tough all week for the pros, ranking as the second most difficult hole at Atunyote Golf Club. Streelman struggled with it but Jason Gore and Nathan Green each moved to within one stroke of him with birdies this weekend. Gore’s move into second this week continued his remarkable Kodak Challenge run this season.  Despite missing the cut in 11 of 22 tournaments, Gore has made the most of his limited Kodak Challenge opportunities this season.

A player’s best score during play is recorded – missing the cut does not eliminate a golfer. Other guys moving up the leaderboard from their time in Verona were Brendon de Jonge and Bo Van Pelt, who each birdied #11 move to -11 and just two shots behind Streelman. Vaughn Taylor, who had all four rounds in the 60’s, birdied #11 to move to 9-under-par.

This contest is a first-of-its-kind competition and celebrates beautiful holes and memorable moments on the PGA Tour. Players must play at least 18 of the 30 Kodak Challenge holes to be eligible to win. A player’s lowest score relative to par on his best 18 Kodak Challenge holes will be counted. The player with the lowest cumulative score relative to par wins $1 million and the Kodak Challenge trophy. For more, go to www.kodakchallenge.com.
 
The next Kodak Challenge hole is the par-5 560-yard #16 at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open on October 15-18.

 
“SMILE & WIN” PRIZES

Every time you turned around you saw the while lanyards around people’s necks. It didn’t hold their ticket, it held another Kodak promotion at the Turning Stone Championship. If you wore the free Kodak “Smile & Win” badge and a “spotter” spotted you, you got an instant prize plus were entered into a drawing for more.

One lucky fan, Tom Chase of Cicero, NY, won a $1,000 Frys.com gift card.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.