PGA Results: 2012 Champions Tour

Champions Tour This past week was the grand finale for the Champions Tour, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.  The Charles Schwab Cup Championship took place in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Jack Nicklaus designed Cochise Course at Desert Mountain Golf Club.  On the line this past weekend was the grand prize of $1 million for winning the Charles Schwab Cup race, as well as nearly half a million dollars in prize money for the tournament win. Coming into this week there were three players who had a mathematical chance of bringing home the $1 million prize, Tom Lehman, Bernhard Langer and Roger Chapman.  Tom Lehman was inspired by his long time coach, Jim Flick.  Flick is suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer.  Lehman got three great words of advice before the tournament from Flick, "be Tom Lehman." Lehman heeded the advise of his ailing coach and fired four solid rounds in the 60's, including an amazing 3rd round 62.  His 2nd round 63 wasn't too bad either.  Those two super-low rounds put Lehman ahead of the field by a large margin of six strokes.  Lehman had to win the tournament outright to claim the Cup and he did just that, convincingly. PGA Tour I'm not sure there's a hotter golfer on the planet right now than Ian Poulter, after his amazing performance in the Ryder Cup and now his victory last week at the HSBC Champions.  The HSBC Champions is a World Golf Championship event held in Guangdong, China at the Olazabal Course at Mission Hills. The field was a star studded affair, barring the #1 and #2 players in the world, Rory McIlory and Tiger Woods.  Lee Westwood had the round of the tournament, firing a 3rd round 61.  Four players tied for 2nd, including Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els.  But they couldn't catch Poulter, who played great golf all week, finishing with two consecutive rounds of 65 for the two shot win.  The victory marks Poulter's 2nd WGC sponsored event victory. LPGA Tour The ladies were also on the other side of the planet, in Shima-Shi, Mie, Japan.  The event was the Mizuno Classic, held at Kintetsu Kashikojima Country Club. Stacey Lewis of the USA came into the final round seven shots behind second round leader Bo-Mee Lee.  Seven shots is nothing a final round featuring 10 birdies can't overcome.  Lewis's final round 64 leapfrogged (pun intended) Lewis past Lee for a two-shot win.

“I felt it was coming yesterday.  I played really solid yesterday.  I just didn’t make any putts. But to makes those three putts I made coming down the stretch was unbelievable. I didn’t really think I was playing this well coming into the week but I just started playing better and better every day. Putts just started falling today and it was meant to be.” ~Stacey Lewis

The victory marks the fifth of Lewis's career and fourth of the season.  Player of the year candidate.