Wachovia Championship - April 28, 2008
WACHOVIA CHAMPIONSHIP
Quail Hollow Club
Charlotte, NC
Par: 36-36—72 Yards: 7,442
FedExCup Points: 25,000 Winner: 4,500
Purse: $6,400,000 Winner: $1,152,000
2007 Champion: Tiger Woods (275, (-13)
Wachovia Championship Notes
The top-four finishers from the 2007 Wachovia Championship were the same top four (in order) as the final standing in the FedExCup points list: Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson and Rory Sabbatini.
By winning the 2007 Wachovia Championship, Tiger Woods became the fourth major championship winner to add the Charlotte tournament title to his resume. Woods, the winner of 13 major championships, joined Jim Furyk (U.S. Open), Vijay Singh (Masters, PGA Championship) and David Toms (PGA Championship) as Wachovia Championship winners who have also won major championships.
The winners of the Wachovia Championship are forced to navigate Quail Hollow Club’s final two holes. How have champions played holes 17 and 18 in the previous five events? Tiger Woods recorded four bogeys and four pars in 2007. Jim Furyk had two birdies, two bogeys, and four pars in 2006. Vijay Singh parred the holes in all four rounds in 2005, while Joey Sindelar had a birdie at the 17th Sunday to go along with seven pars in 2004. David Toms made nothing but pars in 2003 until a quadruple-bogey 8 at the par-4 18th in the final round before winning by two strokes over Singh, Brent Geiberger and Robert Gamez.
Vijay Singh and Kevin Sutherland are the two players who have made every cut at the Wachovia Championship since the event’s inception in 2003. A total of 38 players have made all five starts at the tournament. Singh and Jim Furyk are the only two players to win the event and also finish in the runner-up position. Singh won in 2005, two years after tying for second. Furyk lost in a playoff to Singh in 2005 but came back the following year to defeat Trevor Immelman in a playoff.
No player in the history of the Wachovia Championship has managed to record all four rounds in the 60s.
The sponsor's exemptions this week are Billy Andrade, Tommy Gainey, Robert Gamez, Jim McGovern, Ted Purdy, Kyle Thompson and Lee Westwood. Gamez was a runner-up, with Vijay Singh, in the inaugural event in 2003 won by David Toms. A year ago, Bernhard Langer, playing as a sponsor's exemption, finished in the top 10, tying for 10th.
Playing as a Monday qualifier in 2006, Ken Duke, still a member of the Nationwide Tour, put together four par-or-better rounds and tied for 14th, earning a check for $100,800. Last year, Duke, a fully exempt TOUR player, again had a strong tournament at Quail Hollow. He tied for seventh after a final-round 73 derailed his chances at winning.
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