Dufner leads Johnson by one shot at Colonial
Associated Press
FORT WORTH, Texas
Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson have set up what will basically be a match-play final round for the winner’s plaid jacket at the Colonial.
It will be Dufner, whose only two PGA Tour victories came in the last four weeks, against the 2007 Masters champion who got the last of his seven wins two years ago at Hogan’s Alley.
“It seems like one of us is either going to win or finish second,” Dufner said after his 4-under 66 in the third round Saturday.
After two bogeys the previous three holes, Dufner matched playing partner Johnson’s birdie putt on the 17th hole and overcame a wayward final tee shot to save par and keep the lead.
Dufner’s 15-under 195 total put him a stroke ahead of Johnson, who shot 65. Tom Gillis was a distant third at 7 under after a 69.
“I really wasn’t aware of [the separation] until I looked at the board on 13. It was more than I anticipated,” Johnson said. “It seemed like I didn’t hear too many roars in front of us, so that’s a telling sign.”
Dufner, the winner last week in the Byron Nelson Championship about 30 miles away, is trying to win for the third time in his last four starts. He also is trying to do something only Ben Hogan has done.
Hogan, Dufner’s hero, is the only player to win both PGA Tour events in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the same year. When he did it in 1946, they weren’t played in consecutive weeks.
The last player to win in consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour was Tiger Woods in 2009. Nobody won more than two tournaments last season.
Like Johnson, who wore a plaid-collared shirt Saturday, the first time Dufner realized the gap from everyone else had widened was when he saw that scoreboard at 156-yard 13th hole. And he had a three-stroke lead then.