Jason Dufner rolled home a 25-foot birdie putt on the final green to clinch a dramatic one-stroke victory at the Byron Nelson Championship.
American caps memorable few weeks with second victory
Jason Dufner rolled home a 25-foot birdie putt on the final green to clinch a dramatic one-stroke victory at the Byron Nelson Championship on Sunday.
It capped a truly memorable few weeks for the American who won his first PGA Tour title in New Orleans at the end of April before getting married to wife Amanda.
Dufner becomes the second man to win multiple titles on the American circuit this season, joining Hunter Mahan, and is now all but a certainty to make his Ryder Cup debut in September.
Having led by one stroke overnight, Dufner endured a poor start to his final round and surrendered his lead after dropping shots at the second and third.
He recovered with birdies on the fourth, fifth and seventh to improve his score to nine-under after seven holes, but that was only good enough for a share of the lead with playing partner JJ Henry who made a hole-in-one at the fifth.
As the tournament reached its climax a host of players were jostling for position at the top of the leaderboard with Dufner and Henry jockeying for position with the likes of Sweden's Jonas Blixt, Marc Leishman of Australia and fellow Americans Joe Durant and Dickie Pride.
Clumsy double-bogey
It was Henry who hit the front at 11-under with a birdie at the par-five 16th, but he would then blow his chance with a clumsy three-putt double-bogey at the par-three 17th.
Having driven into water on the final hole, Pride also appeared to have lost his chance, but the veteran then produced a clutch par putt from 20 feet to post 10-under.
That looked like being good enough for a play-off, but Dufner, playing in the group behind, then followed him in from an almost identical spot on the final green to seal victory.
"I just had a really good feel for that putt and I've been in a couple of play-offs and I kind of wanted to close this one out and not get in another play-off," Dufner stated afterwards.
"It's been a great month for both of us. Two wins in the month and to get married on top of it all, you couldn't really ask for much more personally or professionally."
Durant, Leishman, Blixt and Henry had to settle for a share of third at nine-under, while Phil Mickelson fired a closing 66 to finish tied seventh with Ken Duke at six-under.
