Charles Schwab Cup Championship: Rd. 4 notes

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Weather: Sunny and pleasant with highs reaching the mid-70s. Winds were light and variable.

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Results, money
Cook takes finale
Leaderboard: Scores
Transcripts

• With his victory, John Cook wins the fourth title of his Champions Tour career (in his 55th career start on the Champions Tour). It was also his second in his last three starts. He also prevailed at the Administaff Small Business Classic two weeks ago near Houston. His other Champions Tour victories came at the 2007 and 2007 AT&T Championship. Cook was also an 11-time winner on the PGA TOUR and did not win his fourth title on the PGA TOUR until his 333rd start.

• Cook earns a check for $442,000, the largest of his Champions Tour career and he finishes the 2009 season with a career-best $1,798,664. He was third in earnings on the Champions Tour.

• Cook's 22-under-par score of 266 shattered the Charles Schwab Cup Championship 72-hole scoring record of 20-under-par 268 set in 2003 by Jim Thorpe and later matched by Thorpe (2007) and Andy Bean (2008).

• Cook's five-stroke victory marked the fourth successive year the winner has prevailed by multiple strokes. It was the second-largest margin of victory in tournament history. Jim Thorpe won by two strokes in 2006, by three in 2007 and Andy Bean won by nine shots in 2008.

• The five-stroke win by John Cook was not the largest of his career. He won the 1996 FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis by seven strokes over John Adams.

• Loren Roberts captured his second Charles Schwab Cup in the last three years by 319 points over John Cook. Roberts wins a $1 million annuity. Below are the final standings of the top five finishers

• Russ Cochran closed out a stellar rookie season with a second-place finish. A conditionally-exempt player at the start of the season, Cochran finished 17th on the final money list with $900,696 easily surpassing his best year on the PGA TOUR ($684,851/1991). Cochran closed out his year with five top-10 finishes in his last six starts, earning $583,360 in those starts for an average of $97,227 per start in that span.

• Andy Bean was unsuccessful in his bid to defend his 2008 title, but he closed out 2009 on a high note, shooting a 9-under-par 63 on Sunday. It matched his career low round on the Champions Tour as well as tying the mark for the best final-round score in tournament history (Jay Sigel/1994/Dunes Golf and Beach Club/Myrtle Beach) and the lowest at this site. His strong final round helped him finish T18.

• Bernhard Langer earned his second Arnold Palmer Award as the Champions Tour leading money winner. Langer closed out the year with $2,139,451. It marked the second straight year he was the only player with over $2 million in earnings. He won $2,035, 073 in 2008.

• Langer also earned his second consecutive Byron Nelson Award for the lowest scoring average on the Champions Tour. Langer's scoring average for the year was 68.92, the lowest since Tom Watson in 2003 (68.81). Jay Haas was second at 69.25.

• Gil Morgan, the oldest player to ever compete in this tournament at age 63 years, 1 month, 4 days, finished T10, his eighth top-10 finish 12 appearances in this tournament. He now ranks second in that category behind Hale Irwin, who had nine.

• After a one-year absence due to hip replacement surgery, Tom Watson returned to finish T6. It was his seventh top-10 finish in eight appearances in this tournament.

• For the eighth time in the nine-year history of the Charles Schwab Cup, the champion was determined at this tournament. The lone exception was in 2002 when Hale Irwin claimed the title before the event began. Since its inception, the only player to overtake the leader coming into the final event was Watson in 2005. Taking advantage of triple points (the third and final year triple points were awarded); Watson was a one-stroke victor in the tournament over Jay Haas and surged past the previous week's leader, Dana Quigley, to win the Cup by 247 points. Quigley finished T5 that week.

• One week after claiming the 30th and final berth in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship with his win at the AT&T Championship, Phil Blackmar took advantage of his good fortune. He finished fifth in the tournament and won $141,000 to bring his 2009 earnings to $658,313, a career best.

• The field averaged 69.561 for the tournament, the lowest scoring average in the seven-year history at the Sonoma Golf Club. The previous low was 69.534 in 2007.

• Since the tournament became a 72-hole affair in 1994, only four players had posted four straight rounds in the 60s, and two of those won the event -- Jim Thorpe (2007) and Andy Bean (2008). John Jacobs was the first to do so in 2000, but finished one stroke behind winner Tom Watson. Tom Kite became the second in 2003, but he finished third, five strokes behind Thorpe. This year three players, including John Cook had four straight rounds in the 60s. Joining Cook were Cochran and Brad Bryant.

• A total of 15 players finished the year with earnings of over $1 million. Last year, 19 players reached that figure. Loren Roberts and Jay Haas each hit the $1 million mark for the fourth consecutive year, the longest streaks on the Champions Tour.

• For the third consecutive year, the most difficult hole was No. 4 . The field averaged 3.123 (+.312) and it yielded just 11 birdies during the competition. The easiest was No. 13 with an average score of 4.447 (-.553).

• The tournament moves to Harding Park in San Francisco for the 2010 and 2011 Charles Schwab Cup Championship. The site served as host of the 2009 Presidents Cup and also was home of the World Golf Championships-American Express Invitational in 2005.