Jason Dufner bounces back for 5th PGA Tour victory at Memorial

Jason Dufner rolled in a 33-foot par-put on the 72nd hole to claim victory by three shots at the Memorial Tournament, producing a thrilling come-back in a final-day hampered by two weather delays. 

You would have been forgiven for ruling Dufner out of the tournament when he blew the 5-shot lead he had attained after 36 holes with a third round 77, but he produced a bounce-back of pure quality on the back-nine on Sunday. 

He began the final day three behind Daniel Summerhays, and lay one back of playing partner Rickie Fowler by the 11th hole having had three bogeys and three birdies on his front nine.

Fowler seemed to have lost momentum when they came back to the course after the weather delay, dropping shots on the 14th and 18th holes, but the same could not be said for Dufner. 

He had birdied 12 for a share of the lead, then picked up two more on 15 and 17 to hold a two-shot advantage over Fowler heading down the last. 

However, he blocked his tee shot in to thick rough as play was called off for a second time, and once play resumed he struggled to even find the fairway with his second. He looked certain to drop at least one shot, but his third found the green before he rolled in his longest putt of the tournament to claim his fifth PGA Tour title. 

With his victory he becomes the second Ohio-born man to win the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in his home state. The other? Tournament host Jack Nickalus.

“A 35-foot or so putt to go in to win is always nice”, Dufner said following his victory. 

“I didn’t want to celebrate too much because Rickie is my guy and I didn’t want to rub it in too much. But he’s a pretty good sport about it, so I had a little fist pump there.”

“It was fun,” said Fowler, who finished tied for second with Lahiri following his final-hole bogey. “Just being able to push each other, to feed off each other, as well. I want to beat him just as bad as he wants to beat me. But to see him make that putt on the last was cool. … He earned it.”

Lahiri, who tied for second with Fowler, carded the lowest round of the day with a 65 as other likely contenders faded and were left to rue missed chances. 

Justin Thomas was one of those. He missed several close-range birdie putts that left him 9-under and T4 with Matt Kuchar, who had a similarly frustrating day that could have been so much better. 

Overnight leader Summerhays double-bogeyed the third and bogeyed the fourth to see his three shot lead vanish, and while he did regain a share of the lead by the seventh, more dropped shots left him with a six-over-par 78 that pushed him back in to a tie for 10th.

Bubba Watson had raced in to a tie for the lead with three birdies on his first six holes, but four bogeys on the remainder of his final-round left him at eight-under in a tie for 6th with Kevin Kisner, James Hahn and Kyle Stanley.