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FINAL ROUND TOURNAMENT NOTES

John Cook won his first Champions Tour title in his second career start on the circuit and, at 19 days after turning 50, became the event’s youngest winner and eighth youngest all-time on the Champions Tour. Last year at the AT&T Championship, Fred Funk won the event at 50 years, four months and eight days. Earlier this year, Mark Wiebe matched the Champions Tour’s all-time record for youngest winner, claiming his first victory just 10 days after turning 50.

John Cook’s victory today was his first since the 2001 Reno-Tahoe Open, the last of his 11 PGA TOUR titles, and ended a victory drought of 6 years, 1 month and 25 days.  It was Cook’s second career win in the state of Texas (1998 Byron Nelson Golf Classic). His previous-best effort at Oak Hills on the PGA TOUR was a T7 in the 1991 H.E.B. Texas Open.

John Cook’s victory today earned him a check for $240,000 and also a trip to the season-opening event in Hawaii next year, the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai.

John Cook’s win today marked the fifth straight year the AT&T Championship has been won by a player on his first attempt and amazingly, it’s happened 13 times in the 23-year history of the tournament.  Don January (1997), Bruce Crampton (1986), Jim Dent (1990), Lee Trevino (1991), David Graham (1997), John Mahaffey (1999), Doug Tewell (2000), Craig Stadler (2003), Mark McNulty (2004, Jay Haas (2005) and Fred Funk (2006) are the others to do it.

John Cook’s Round-Three Statistics:                                 John Cook’s Tournament Statistics:

Driving Accuracy --   11 of 14 (78.6%/T4)                          --          32 of 42 (76.9%/3^rd)

Driving Distance --    295.2 (43^rd)                                        --          294.1 (50^th)

Greens In Regulation --   15 of 18 (83.3%/T4)                   --          42 of 54 (77.8%/2^nd)

Putts Per Round --    28 (T12)                                             --          27.3 (T9)

John Cook’s win coupled with Bernhard Langer’s victory last week at the Administaff Small Business Classic gives the Class of 2007 back-to-back titles. Cook became the eighth first-time winner, second consecutive first-timer and third in the last four events (Langer, Mark Wiebe/SAS Championship). Before today, the last time the Champions Tour had back-to-back first-time winners was in 2006 when Eduardo Romero (JELD-WEN Tradition) and Scott Simpson (Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach) did it.

John Cook became the 20^th different winner this year, the first time since 2004 that the Champions Tour has had at least 20 different champions. Cook became the eighth first-time winner, the same number of first-time winners as last year.   

 

A total of 10 of the last 12 winners of this event have all posted three straight rounds in the 60s.

For the second consecutive year, Loren Roberts finished T4 at Oak Hills and, as a result, he widened his lead over Jay Haas in the Charles Schwab Cup race. Roberts picked up 96 points this week and now enjoys a 165-point advantage over Haas entering the season’s final event. Last year, Haas went into the Charles Schwab Cup Championship with a 126-point lead and ended up winning by 20 points, the closest race ever. 

Double points are on the line for top-10 finishers at next week’s event in Sonoma.  The winner of the Charles Schwab Cup will earn a $1 million annuity. Based on the points available (880) to the winner of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, only four players have an opportunity to claim the 2007 Charles Schwab Cup. In addition to Roberts (2,716) and Haas (2,551), only Tom Watson (2,032) and Brad Bryant (2,019) are still mathematically eligible.

Mark O’Meara recorded his fourth runner-up performance of the 2007 season this week and his second consecutive second-place finish. O’Meara’s 69 today stretched his run of sub-70 rounds to seven straight, one sub-70 round short of Tom Purtzer’s 2007 best of eight straight scores in the 60s. O’Meara is now 35-under-par over a stretch that started with a final-round 65 (5-under) at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship.

John Cook’s come-from-behind win today snapped a streak of five straight events won by second-round leaders/co-leaders. Cook joined Jay Haas (2005) as just the second player to come-from-behind to win at Oak Hills.   

Oak Hills Country Club played to a stroke average of 71.316 today compared to 72.333 on Sunday last year. Overall for three rounds, Oak Hills played to a stroke average of 70.774 compared to 71.201 last year.

Jim Thorpe managed to hold off Tom Jenkins for the 30^th spot on the money list and earned his way into next week’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Sonoma. Jim Thorpe, the defending champion in next week’s event, ran his streak of years in the season-ending tournament to nine consecutive while Jenkins saw his run of years in the Schwab Cup Championship end at eight straight. Craig Stadler’s streak of consecutive years among the top-30 finishers on the money list ended at four in a row. Here’s a look at how things shook out after the smoke cleared at the AT&T Championship.

 

Current                                               Position Entering                  Current                       Event

Position          Player                         This Week                              2007 Money               Finish

29.                   Des Smyth                 29-$615,261                          $621,981                   T44

30.                   Jim Thorpe                 30-$597,038                          $605,038                   T38______

31.                   Tom Jenkins              31-$594,239                          $600,959                   T44

32.                   Craig Stadler             32-$538,737                          $568,604                   T12

After starting the week on the outside looking in (51^st), Japan’s Massy Kuramoto finished T18 this week and played his way into the top-50 (48^th) on the 2007 money list to earn partially-exempt status on the Champions Tour for 2008. Bruce Vaughan, an open qualifier at the start of the year, also earned partially-exempt status for next year, finishing 44^th on the final money list with $434,934.

 

TICKET INFO

TICKET ORDER FORM

Map to Oak Hills CC

The Field

PRESS RELEASES
Fab Foursome of Champions Tour Rookies Highlight AT&T Championship Field
IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL FIRST RESPONDERS
Texas Players Eager for Return to Lone Star Home in 2007 AT&T Championship
Showdown in San Antonio, AT&T Championship, set for this week at Oak Hills

AT&T Championship presented by Alcatel
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