Jason Dufner secured a second PGA Tour victory in the last four weeks at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. The 35-year-old beat fellow American Dicky Pride by a single shot at the TPC Four Seasons Resort in Irving, Texas.
Dufner began the final round one clear but he stumbled early on with bogeys at the 2nd and 3rd holes. But he bounced back immediately with birdies at the next two.
On the back nine, J.J. Henry took the lead at 11-under-par after back-to-back birdies on the 15th and 16th, having scored a hole-in-one earlier in the round, on the 5th.
But Henry fell back with a double-bogey at the 17th leaving Dufner and Dicky Pride at the top of the leaderboard.
Pride, a Tour veteran of some 20 years, made a fantastic par saving putt on the final hole after finding water from the tee. Then, moments later, Dufner holed along a very similar line for a birdie to beat Pride by a single shot.
"I knew if I made birdie that I would win, par would be a playoffs, but the playoffs aren't much fun. My experience in them aren't too great," said Dufner. Although he lost twice in playoffs in 2011 (including to Keegan Bradley in the USPGA Championship,) Dufner did beat Ernie Els over extra holes to win in New Orleans earlier this year.
With the victory Dufner has moved to the top of the FedEx Cup standings and to 14th on the Official World Golf Ranking.
J.J. Henry ended the week in a tie for third with Swedish rookie Jonas Blixt, Marc Leishman and Joe Durant who only got into the event as an alternate.
HP Byron Nelson Championship TPC Four Seasons Resort, Irving, Texas 17-20 May, purse $6,500,000, par 70
1 Jason Dufner (USA) 67 66 69 67 269 $1,170,000 2 Dicky Pride (USA) 66 68 69 67 270 $702,000 T3 Jonas Blixt (Swe) 68 70 67 66 271 $312,000 T3 Joe Durant (USA) 70 71 65 65 271 $312,000 T3 J.J. Henry (USA) 68 68 67 68 271 $312,000 T3 Marc Leishman (Aus) 65 69 71 66 271 $312,000 T7 Ken Duke (USA) 69 67 72 66 274 $209,625 T7 Phil Mickelson (USA) 70 69 69 66 274 $209,625 T9 Jason Bohn (USA) 70 70 67 68 275 $156,000 T9 Jason Day (Aus) 68 68 67 72 275 $156,000 T9 Robert Garrigus (USA) 71 70 68 66 275 $156,000 T9 Ryan Palmer (USA) 64 70 72 69 275 $156,000 T9 Pat Perez (USA) 67 67 72 69 275 $156,000 T9 Vijay Singh (Fij) 68 70 66 72 275 $156,000
Note: Player score in bold signifies Titleist ball usage
Where next? European Tour - Nicolas Colsaerts wins Volvo World Match Play
