PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- In another example that most players will take a good week of putting over hitting it prodigious lengths, PGA Tour information whiz Dave Lancer came up with the following statistic.

He compiled winners of tournaments on the PGA Tour, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour and found that they led the field in putting 16 times. The winner led the field in driving distance only twice.

Meanwhile, 13 players averaged more than 300 yards in driving distance this year, the lowest number since nine players averaged more than 300 yards in 2003. Three years ago, 26 players averaged more than 300 yards off the tee.

TOO GOOD TO MISS: Kevin Sutherland finished a career-best 18th on the PGA Tour money list, the first time he has been in the top 50 since his lone PGA Tour victory in 2002 at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

That makes him eligible for another World Golf Championship, and a trip to a course he hasn't seen his rookie season.

What now is called the CA Championship was played in Ireland the last time Sutherland was eligible. It since has moved to the Blue Monster at Doral. Sutherland rarely plays in Florida, but he's not about to pass up an $8.5 million purse.

Sutherland missed the cut in 1996 after rounds of 71-74 on a Blue Monster that measured 6,939 yards. Since then, it has gone through a redesign to enhance the bunkers, another redesign after the changes were criticized, and it now is 7,266 yards.

"I played it before the changes," Sutherland recalls. "Then they did that first redesign, and I remember everyone didn't like it. I didn't like it before the changes, so I didn't see any reason to go back."

WHAT'S IN A NAME: For all the fretting over the future of the Wachovia Championship after the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank was acquired by Wells Fargo, not much will change. Tournament Director Kym Hougham said officials decided to leave the name alone, so it wil remain the Wachovia Championship.

SHARE THE WEALTH: Vijay Singh didn't start winning tournaments until there were two months left in the season. Tiger Woods didn't play the final three months of the season. There were seven multiple winners, the most since 2005. All that did was spread some of the wealth around on the PGA Tour this year.

Singh won the money title for the third time in his career with $6,601,094, the lowest amount to lead the money list since Woods won $5,687,777 in 2001. But a record eight players won at least $4 million. And just 20 years after Curtis Strange became the first player to earn $1 million in a season, 104 players made $1 million or more this year. And the most staggering number might have been the $852,752 by Martin Laird to finish at No. 125 and keep his card.

BUBBA LEARNS: Bubba Watson is best known for his prodigious length, and he used to love showing it off. Three years ago at Doral, he pulled out his driver with the pink shaft and belted one shot after another over the golf school on the back of the range.

With each strike, he would casually look over both shoulders to see who was watching him. Now, it seems Watson has figured out that it's best to spend more time on other parts of his game.

"Putting is the name of the game," he said recently. "If you can putt, it doesn't matter how many fairways you hit and how many greens you hit. If you putt well, you're going to win golf tournaments. So I've tried to work on my putting and my short game and my irons."

As for the driver? It's still in the bag. It still goes longer than anyone else. But Watson says he doesn't hit driver on the range when he's warming up.

"I'm always going to hit it long, so I don't ever practice that," he said. "I practice the other stuff more than I do the driver."

DIVOTS: Bob Tway led the PGA Tour in putts per greens in regulation with a 1.718 average. At age 49, he became the oldest players to lead the tour in any statistical category. ... Of the rookies who finished among the top 125 on the PGA Tour money list, four came from Q-School and four came from the Nationwide Tour.

STAT OF THE WEEK: The Masters was the only major that did not finish in the top 10 toughest courses on the PGA Tour this year.

FINAL WORD: "The only person he has ever been unkind to is himself." -- David Feherty, speaking about John Daly.

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