Jason Dufner’s near hole-out from the rocks at CareerBuilder Challenge

Five men are a shot further back on 12 under, including Jason Gore, whose eight-under 64 on the Tournament Course was the best round of the day. Mickelson, who admitted entering this week that he may be one week away from truly contending, finished T3, four shots out of the playoff.

“But I’ll take it. Some guy won the Powerball a couple of weeks ago and he’ll take it, right?” “If I hit it the way I’ve been hitting it, driving it in play, I think there’s a lot of birdie opportunities still”.

“I feel good about where my game is”.

Dufner knows his way around the Stadium and Nicklaus courses. Some guy with apparently nothing better to do than be snide, responded, “When’s the last time you won?”. After a pair of shaky pars on the first extra hole, they went back to play 18 for a third time that day.

Anirban Lahiri watches his tee shot on the fourth hole on the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course during second round of the CareerBuilder Challenge on Friday in La Quinta.

“Conditions are flawless for scoring”, Dufner said. When you play bad out here and you don’t have results or you don’t meet expectations, you get down. “It’s kind of like what we see in the Presidents Cup in match play”.

That was enough to ensure Dufner, who led for all four rounds, the title. Over 54 holes, Dufner, unlike many of his closest pursuers, doesn’t have the advantage of eagles on the many reachable par-5s in the three-course rotation, but he’s drained 26 birdies.

“I’m fortunate to be in this position, and happy to be playing good golf again”, he said. “I had some really good numbers with my wedges, which helps”. Both players’ drives weren’t great off the tee, but Dufner was in a fairway bunker and had to lay up while Lingmerth hit on. At Sawgrass, it would have motored into the water, and Dufner thought his ball was wet here. After capturing the NCAA individual title as a freshman at USC he was one of those “can’t-miss” prospects coming out of college, but was slowed by injuries, including disc surgery on his neck.

Dufner had a 15-under 129 total.

Hadwin, who finished fourth after playing in the final group at the 2011 PGA Canadian Open, hopes for a fast start on Sunday.

The result was disappointing for Lingmerth, but the 28-year-old Swede likely just secured his spot in the Olympics alongside Henrik Stenson.

Jamie Lovemark (-21) – America’s prodigy before Rickie Fowler has come along. “There’s some long rounds out here”.

David Lingmerth got no such reprieve at PGA West’s punishing TPC Stadium Course. Then, at No. 17, he holed a chip from just off the green for a birdie that shook off the last of his challengers. He shot 73 and was tied for 113th at 2 under…. Sometimes those things happen, you need those to happen to win after you hit a poor shot. The Nicklaus Course has averaged 69.145 overall and La Quinta 69.328….

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