Dufner maintains his cool to win

“It’s not easy to win on this tour, but it feels good when you do”.

Winless since the 2013 PGA Championship, Dufner was at 23-under 193. “This is what we work to do”.

“It’s the best tour and this week I felt like I was one of the best in the world”.

For the final round on the host Stadium Course, Dufner is paired with Lovemark, and they both have the tournament low there this week with 65s. Hopefully I will play more consistently over the next few weeks. Na continues to play enough solid golf to get in position to win, but it has to be frustrating to not get that second victory.

Lingmerth had a 62 on Saturday on the Nicklaus Tournament Course to pull within five shots of Dufner.

“It was not how it was planned”, Fowler said, “but I came out on top”.

Phil Mickelson debuted his new swing for the new year and was encouraged by getting as close as three shots to the lead Sunday. “It’s been a good start”. With his ball laying between two rocks on a gravel lie, Dufner struck the ball and got it rolling toward the hole.

On the par-five fifth, he went into the water and after a penalty drop had his second bogey of the day. He rolled in another 12-footer on 9 for his 10th birdie of the day.

“I’m excited for this year”, Dufner said. I thought it was going to sneak in there for a minute.

Jamie Lovemark was second after a 65 on the Stadium Course.

“I wanted to really dedicate myself to believing that I’m a great player again”, he said. “You got a lot of scoring clubs in your hand on that course”.

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.

“I’m probably a week away, if I’m being honest, ” Mickelson said Friday. When you play bad out here and you don’t have results or you don’t meet expectations, you get down.

It took an outrageous escape shot from Dufner on the 17th to even force a play-off.

He did, sending the two back to the 18th tee. Lingmerth briefly had the solo lead after firing a final round 65, but Dufner retook a share of the lead on the 16th hole. He shot 73 and was tied for 113th at 2 under…. He was forced to lay up on all four par-5 holes and took advantage of many short approach shots.

Brendan Steele tees off at the TPC Stadium course, which is distinguished by narrow areas of playable green freeway framed by brown rough. “Every shot was at the flag”, Na said.