The 38-year-old Dufner won for the fourth time on the PGA Tour and first since the 2013 PGA Championship. The 28-year-old Indian, who was Tied-third after two rounds, is playing his first full season on the PGA Tour.
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Dufner then took advantage and he admitted after the round that his confidence was at an all-time high. He tied for ninth at the RSM Classic in Sea Island, Ga., in November, and tied for ninth again at last week’s Sony Open in Honolulu before this week’s victory, in which he was 25-under par and survived a final day 70. Lingmerth shot a 62 on Saturday on the Nicklaus Tournament Course to pull within five shots of Dufner. A bogey on 17th, his eighth hole, and then he had four pars in a row, where he could have had a birdie or two. Yet, something flicked on for the 2013 PGA Championship victor, as Dufner birdied holes 10-12 to ultimately force a playoff with Lingmerth at 25 under.
Dufner had a little bit of an easier shot than Chesson Hadley had on Friday, and ended up nearly holing his second shot at 17, which would have won the tournament for him.
He was joined at 11-under by Argentina’s Angel Cabrera, Michael Thompson, Brian Harman, Brendan Steele, Ryan Palmer and John Huh – who carded an eight-under 64 on the Nicklaus Tournament Course.
Phil Mickelson was tied for fifth at 17 under in his first start since the Presidents Cup in October and first since splitting with swing coach Butch Harmon to work with Andrew Getson.
He was, however, optimistic and added, “I still feel the game is in good shape. But the rules officials told me that it was up, and maybe I wanted to look at it, possibly to play it”.
Bill Haas, the victor in 2014 and 2015, was three strokes back along with Jason Gore, Anirban Lahiri, Andrew Loupe and Adam Hadwin.
Luckily for Dunfer, he was still able to play the shot, but it was going to be tricky.
He said the lie on dirt was like something out of the British Open, and he picked his shot clean, the ball running and hitting the flagstick before settling one foot from the hole. I felt pretty much like I was back on time last evening.
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“I got off to two bad starts over the weekend”. I should have probably choked up a little bit more on the grip, that would have probably… helped me not have the grass grab it so much, so it turned the ball over. His longest putts were the 8-footers he drained at holes 2, 12 and 13. “I’m just trying to hit each shot as good as I can and not let results and outcome dictate how I feel or how I think out there….”
