Around the wider world of golf: Rickie Fowler continued prove he's not overrated with a win over both Jordan AND Rory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on the ET; Duffy Waldorf won the Mitsubishi Electric Championship on the Champions Tour; and the team of Lonnie Nielsen and Josh Rackley won the PGA Senior-Junior Championship after rain washed out the final round.
Sunday was a tough day for fans of both golf and football. The teams that will play in the Super Bowl two weeks from now were being determined in games played opposite the CareerBuilder Challenge. (For those of you who didn't hear, the Carolina Panthers will face the Denver Broncos.) For me, it meant a lot of flipping back and forth between channels, hoping I wouldn't miss anything important.
Fortunately I didn't... but if you were one of the unfortunate few who did, here's the key shot you missed, the shot that may have convinced Jason Dufner that Sunday was his day to return to the winner's circle. On the par-3 17th hole, an island green very much like the one at TPC Sawgrass, Dufner pull-hooked an iron and barely stayed dry by landing in the rocks around the edge. It didn't look like he would have much of a shot.
Here's what he did:
Made it look easy, didn't he? And with most of his competition falling away -- Adam Hadwin made three bogeys down the stretch and Jamie Lovemark made three doubles during his round -- this shot kept Jason tied with David Lingmerth, who seemingly could do nothing wrong. This shot allowed Jason to finish tied with Lingmerth and eventually beat him on the second playoff hole, when Lingmerth hit a pull-hook of his own.
He didn't get as lucky as Dufner. Game over.
Of course, it wasn't a single hole that gave Dufner his fourth Tour win. It was his incredible play on the par-4s, which was in turn fueled by much improved putting. He was 14th in Strokes Gained-Putting and 5th in Putts per GIR, and when you're as good a ballstriker as the Duff, that means you've got a good chance to win.
After a couple years dealing with a divorce and various physical problems, Jason Dufner is back in the mix. And appropriately enough, he's also back in the Limerick Summary club:
When the Duff chipped from off seventeen,The photo came from this page at espn.com.
His escape from the rocks looked routine.
He was down for so long;
Now his game’s looking strong…
But the key was new skills on the green.
No comments:
Post a Comment