IRVING, Texas (AP) ― Jason Dufner made a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole Sunday for a one-stroke victory in the Byron Nelson Championship, his second victory in four weeks.
The winning putt wrapped up a closing 3-under 67 for an 11-under 269 total. Dicky Pride was second.
Dufner got his first PGA Tour victory at New Orleans on April 29, then took a week off to get married. He also led alone by one stroke after the second and third rounds at the TPC at Four Seasons course.
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Jason Dufner celebrates after making his putt on the 18th green on Sunday. (AP-Yonhap News) |
Pride, whose only PGA Tour victory in a 20-year professional career came in 1994, was at 10 under with a par-saving 22-foot putt at No. 18 after hitting his drive into the water.
Moments later, Dufner made a putt that was only a few feet longer but on virtually the same line as the one Pride made to finish his round of 67. J.J. Henry, who had an early hole-in-one, was in the lead at 11 under after consecutive birdies at Nos. 15 and 16, overcoming a bad tee shot on the first and a greenside bunker on the second.
But Henry, in the final group with Dufner, hit his tee shot at the par-3 17th over the green. The former TCU star lost the lead with a double bogey after a 4-foot putt slid just outside the cup.
After watching Henry’s meltdown, Dufner made a tap-in par at No. 17 and then hit a big drive on No. 18 in the middle of the fairway. He hit his approach to the middle of the green, avoiding a playoff with the long putt and joining Hunter Mahan as the only two-time winners this season.
Joe Durant, who was the final alternate added to the Nelson field, shot a 65 to finish in a tie for third at 271 with Henry (68), Marc Leishman (66) and rookie Jonas Blixt (66).
Volvo World Match Play
CASARES, Spain (AP) ― Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts won the Volvo World Match Play Championship, beating Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell 1-up in windy conditions.
Colsaerts, a two-time winner on the European Tour, beat Scotland’s Paul Lawrie in 20 holes in the morning semifinals. McDowell edged Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello 2-up in the other semifinal.
The victory lifted Colsaerts into 10th place in the Ryder Cup points table ― the last automatic spot for the European team ― but perhaps more importantly demonstrated to team captain Jose Maria Olazabal his prowess at match play ahead of the September matches against the United States in Medinah near Chicago.
