January 25, 2016: Jason Dufner won the CareerBuilder Challenge with a tense playoff victory on the second playoff hole after tying at 25-under with a rampant David Lingmerth at the end of the fourth round. Anirban Lahiri played a solid week of golf, T28 at 14-under 274 with a second straight 71. The Indian flew directly from the Eurasia Cup in Malaysia and lead the tournament at the end of the first round. Considering the quick turnaround and the difference in timezone, this was a another resilient performance by Anirban. (Latest Golf News)
Lahiri suffered an early setback when he conceded bogeys at the 3rd and 5th, after courting sand and water respectively at those two holes. But as is his wont, the Indian fought back immediately carding back to back birdies at 7 & 8 to recover to even for the round.
Anirban played mostly solid golf from thereon to add two more birdies to repeat the 71 he made on Saturday for a tied 28th position. Lahiri is currently lying 89th in the FedexCup rankings with 119 points.
Dufner’s round was highlighted by a miraculous par save that will be spoken about at the PGA West for a long time to come. With Dufner already tied for the lead with Lingmerth, he pulled his tee shot wide at the 17th hole. He grimaced in despair, expecting the ball to sink in the water protecting the hole, known as Alcatraz.
By a big stroke of good fortune though, the ball settled in a small sanctuary of light sand between the tangled rocks that circle the green. He made a fine chip from there to strike the flag and settle close to the pin, ensuring a saved par.
“I was like, ‘Man, this is a great break I’m going to take advantage of it,'” Dufner said. “`This is what I need. I need this right now. I need this break to happen. I’m confident with what I can do with this shot and I need to make this happen and get a par.'”
“It’s a shot that I’ve hit some, not in the hazard, but something similar,” Dufner said. “You kind of hit that low little spinning one with some check on it.”
On the 18th for a second time not much later, Lingmerth had an opportunity to sieze the title with a birdie putt from 23 feet, but he missed it. As the pair returned to the 18th tee for a third time on Sunday, the tension was palpable around the Stadium Course’s final hole.
Lingmerth had shot a bogey free 65 to surge into a share of the lead, but he found similar magic missing from his bag as the two dueled in the playoff.
The two men settled their balls in the grass bunker to the right with eerily similar shots, but Lingmerth pulled his approach into the rocks and the ball bounced away into the water. Dufner took a two putt to make par but an unfortunate Lingmerth missed from 22 feet to hand a fourth PGA TOUR title to Dufner.
“The rough is a little heavy in some spots and it grabbed my club a little bit more,” Lingmerth said. “It really wasn’t a bad swing. I should have probably choked up a little bit more on the grip. A small mistake that was very costly.”
Phil Mickelson was playing for the first time since the Presidents Cup last October. He returned a very satisfying third place at 21-under with the help of a final round 68. “I’m excited,” Mickelson said. “This is a really good week for me for validation that I’m on the right track and that it’s continuing to get better as I go along.”
