Dufner holds off Lingmerth to seal CareerBuilder Challenge win

Officially, Jason Dufner nailed down the championship of what is now the CareerBuilder Challenge, his first Tour victory since the 2013 PGA Championship, by ramming in a 5-foot putt on the second playoff hole, outlasting David Lingmerth.

The rotation of three courses will be completed tomorrow before the event focuses on the PGA West Stadium Course for the final round on Sunday.

Jason Dufner patiently worked his way around PGA West’s TPC Stadium Course to take the lead Friday in the CareerBuilder Challenge.

He recovered brilliantly with his second, chipping out of the rocks to recover the par and with Lingmerth’s round already finished, Dufner had a 20-foot, three-inch opportunity to birdie the 18th and win outright, but he fell 10-inches short and was forced to get the win via the play-off. Lingmerth managed a best of the day 65 in the final round this time out and was keen to take the positives from his performance.

Dufner kept a share of the lead when he was able to save par on the par-three 17th, despite having his drive bounce off the green into the rocks outlining the water hazard, later describing it as probably “one of the worst shots I’ve hit all week”.

On the second sudden death hole, Lingmerth’s approach shot landed in the water.

“The greens are of kind of hard”, Dufner said. 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. He made the most of his fortunate circumstance by nearly holing a miraculous shot out of the hazard. “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 wanted to hit 6-iron – about 180 to the front there”, Dufner said.

David Lingmerth (-18) – Last year’s breakout star, Lingmerth shot a 10-under 62 on Saturday to get back into contention.

A two-time champion on the Web.com Tour, Lovemark almost seized his first PGA Tour victory six years ago, losing in a three-man playoff in the 2009 Frys.com Open.

“Arjun has won the European, Asian and the PGA Tour (2010 Windham Championship) and Jeev on the European, Asian and Japanese Tours”, Lahiri said.

England’s Andy Sullivan, who has completed 36 holes, was the overnight leader on 10-under, with DeChambeau a stroke adrift after playing 27 holes.

“I never feel like I have to do anything because I’m playing good”. He will play in the next three straight events and will look to build on this showing. Mickelson, who admitted entering this week that he may be one week away from truly contending, finished T3, four shots out of the playoff.