Auburn’s Jason Dufner gets first PGA win since 2013

The laidback American, who had been a stroke clear overnight, racked up seven birdies after the turn, including five in a row, to fire an eight-under-par 64 at La Quinta Country Club, one of three co-hosting venues this week.

“I’m glad the luck turned a little bit for me, and has come my direction”, Dufner said. “So, 66 bogey-free is a fantastic start”.

After hitting his tee shot into the rocks surrounding an island green – and luckily evading water – he somehow managed to find a decent lie.

“I told my caddie and my amateur partners, ‘I’m about to do something good, ‘ ” Dufner said. Dufner bogeyed the par-4 10th hole, where he began play for the round, and the par-three 15th.

Leading Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri carded one-under 71 and dropped nine positions to finish tied 28th in the fourth and final round of the $5,800,000 CareerBuilder Challenge at the PGA West’s TPC Stadium Course here.

“It has been a good three days”, Mickelson said.

Phil Mickelson was tied for fifth at 17. “As I work to get it back on, it feels easy again”. “I had a good solid round”.

“A lot of the iron shots are 12, 15 feet off. I know when I get it right I’ll have a lot more tap-in birdies in the round”. The Belgian missed an eagle putt on No. 18 by an inch. “When you start thinking like that, good things happen”.

There are seven other players six shots or closer to the lead, including two who fired 62s on the Nicklaus in the third round.

“I tried to hit it in the middle of the fairway or in the middle of the green and hold on up and I kind of pulled it a little bit”. “That’s part of life, so now I’m trying to just roll with it and get back to working and playing”.

“In the past, this has been the tough golf course”, Kelly said. Loupe had a 66 on the Stadium Course, and Hadwin a 66 at La Quinta. Dufner prepared for the new venues before going to Hawaii for the Sony Open.

But you should remember them, because they’re determined to make names for themselves in the world of golf. Lahiri admitted, “I left a lot of putts out there and that was disappointing”. At Sawgrass, it would have motored into the water, and Dufner thought his ball was wet here.

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.

DIVOTS: CareerBuilder is in its first year as the title sponsor of the event long called the Bob Hope Classic, taking over for Humana….

The tournament’s 54-hole record since 2012 is 189 by Patrick Reed in 2014. He shot 73 and tied for sixth.