Planet Golf — 18 August 2012 by GW staff and news services
Garcia gets first win in four years

GREENSBORO, N.C. – It took one more day for Sergio Garcia to win the Wyndham Championship. But he’s used to waiting for a trophy. This was his first one in four years.

Garcia finished with a 66 to wind up at 18-under 262 and claim $936,000 in prize money.

Tim Clark was at 16 under following his 67 in the final PGA Tour event before the FedExCup Playoffs, and Bud Cauley finished 15 under after his 68.

It was his first Tour victory since the 2008 Players Championship.

Garcia led both after the third round and when the fourth round was held up overnight due to a persistent downpour.

He had three straight late-round birdies after a bogey briefly dropped him into a tie for the lead, and cruised to his eighth career PGA Tour victory.

Garcia began the decisive surge on the par-4 No. 13, plopping his chip roughly a foot from the flagstick and tapped it in for birdie.

He added another birdie on No. 15 — a pretty chip from a greenside bunker left him with a 5-foot putt — and followed that with another birdie on the par-3 16th after his tee shot stopped closer than 2 feet from the stick. He added a birdie on No. 17 to move to 19 under, leaving his bogey on the final hole inconsequential.

Here’s the notes from the tournament:

Final-Round Leaderboard: Sergio Garcia, 262 (-18); Tim Clark, 264 (-16); Bud Cauley, 265 (-15).

Sergio Garcia

    • Garcia took a one shot lead into the final round and won by two shots over Tim Clark with a final round 4-under 66.
    • Garcia picks up his first win since The Players Championship in 2008. It is also his first win since turning 30 years old.
    • He earns his 8th career victory at the age of 32 years, 7 months and 10 days in his 240th career start on Tour.
    • He collects 500 points and moves to No. 33 in FedExCup standings entering the PGA Tour Playoffs.
    • Garcia has now converted three of eight third-round leads/co-leads on Tour. The wins came at the 2001 Travelers Championship, 2004 HP Byron Nelson Championship and 2012 Wyndham Championship.
    • Garcia was a co-leader of the 54-hole lead at the 2009 Wyndham Championship, but fell one-stroke shy of the playoff after 72 holes and finished fourth.
    • Since making a return to Sedgefield Country Club in 2008, the third-round leader has held on for the win all but once. The exception was in 2009 when Ryan Moore came from four back to defeat Sergio Garcia. Carl Pettersson led by two strokes after 54 holes in 2008, Arjun Atwal took a three-stroke lead with one round to play in 2010 and Webb Simspon took a two-stroke advantage over Tommy Gainey into last year’s final round.
    • Garcia made just his third start at the Wyndham Championship, and first since fourth-place honors in 2009. He finished T13 at Forrest Oaks in 2005.
    • Garcia ends a streak of four straight first-time winners at this event (Ryan Moore, Arjun Atwal, Webb Simpson).
    • As an amateur, Garcia finished T3 in the Web.com Tour’s Greensboro Open in 1998 at Sedgefield Country Club with rounds of 72-67-65-68. He made three starts on the Web.com Tour in 1998 as an amateur.
    • Garcia made his 13th start of the season. His only other top-10 finish this year is T4 at the Northern Trust Open in his first start of the season.
    • Garcia extends his exempt Tour status through the 2014 season.
    • Projected to move to No. 6 in the World Ryder Cup Points list for an automatic spot on the European Team with one week remaining.

Tim Clark

    • Clark made his seventh start at the Wyndham Championship. In his last start at Sedgefield Country Club, he finished T6 in 2008.
    • Clark, who made just four starts in 2011 due to an elbow injury and tendonitis, made his 16th start of the season. He is coming off a T11 at last week’s PGA Championship.
    • Clark was seeking his second PGA TOUR win this week (2010 Players Championship).
    • Clark came into the week ranked 109th in FedExCup standings and moved to No. 54.
    • Clark was trying to join former teammate Carl Pettersson as the second winner of the Wyndham Championship from North Carolina State.

Bud Cauley

    • Cauley made his 23rd start of the season this week, where he has amassed five top-10 finishes.
    • Cauley matched his previous best finish on Tour at the 2011 Frys.com Open (3rd).
    • Cauley missed the cut at last week’s PGA Championship.
    • Cauley posted fourth-place honors at the True South Classic (T4) and RBC Canadian Open (4th) in back-to-back starts.
    • Cauley (22 years, 5 months and 3 days) was trying to become the second youngest player to win on Tour this season (John Huh/ 21 years, 9 months, 5 days).
    • Cauley was looking to become the seventh first-time winner on Tour this year and third rookie (John Huh and Ted Potter, Jr.).
    • Cauley made his way onto the Tour in 2012 by virtue of finishing inside the top-125 on the 2011 Tour non-member money list in just eight starts.
    • Cauley is one of seven players to earn their PGA Tour card straight from college without having to go to the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament: Gary Hallberg, Scott Verplank, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, Tiger Woods, Ryan Moore and Cauley.

Jason Dufner (T7)

    • Dufner entered the week No. 3 in the FedExCup standings and as the only player in field that could have taken over the No. 1 spot. He moved to No. 2 with Tiger Woods retaining the No. 1 spot and Rory McIlroy dropping to No. 3.
    • Dufner won his first event on the Tour earlier this year at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. His second win of the 2012 season came just two starts later at the HP Byron Nelson Championship.
    • Dufner’s eight top-10 finishes this year are tied for most on Tour this season with Bo Van Pelt and Matt Kuchar.
    • After missing the cut in his first start of his season at the Sony Open in Hawaii, Dufner has reeled off 18 made cuts. It is the longest current streak on Tour.
    • Dufner recorded his second top 10 in his seventh start in the Wyndham Championship. Since moving back to Sedgefield Country Club in 2008, Dufner has recorded 14 of 16 rounds in the 60s. He has made four of seven cuts in Greensboro with his only other top 10 coming in 2004 (T8).

Chad Campbell (T4)

    • Campbell bogeyed his final hole to drop to 14-under 266.
    • The last of Campbell’s four Tour wins came at the 2007 Viking Classic. Campbell has 11 career runner-up finishes on Tour. His last two runner-up finishes were both playoff losses and came in 2009 at the Masters and at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
    • Campbell has qualified for the Playoffs every year since 2007. He is No. 91 in the FedExCup standings.
    • Campbell’s only other top 10 this season was T3 at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. Since joining the Tour in 2001 the only two years Campbell has not recorded two or more top 10s in a season were 2001 and 2011.

Webb Simpson (T22)

– Defending champion Simpson was trying to join Sam Snead as the only players to successfully defend their title at the Wyndham Championship. Snead achieved the feat twice, winning back-to-back in 1949-50 and 1955-56. In addition to Snead, eight others have won the event more than once.

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