Jason Dufner sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the last hole to win the Byron Nelson Championship on Sunday, taking his second title of the year only three weeks after ending a 163-event win drought.
Dufner fired a final-round three-under 67 to finish on 11-under 269 and edge fellow American Dicky Pride by one stroke after Pride had made a similar 22-foot putt from nearly the same spot to stay even with Dufner.
“There were a lot of people making a lot of shots down the stretch,” Dufner said. “Luckily, I had a nice chance at 18 to close it out.”
On April 29, Dufner won in New Orleans to end a long win drought that included squandering a late lead at last year’s PGA Championship. On May 5, Dufner married his girlfriend, Amanda Boyd.
On Sunday, he won the US$1.17 million top prize at the US$6.5 million event at TPC Four Seasons to join compatriot Hunter Mahan as the only multiple winner on the USPGA Tour this season.
“Two wins and to get married in the same month, it doesn’t get much better professionally or personally,” Dufner said.
Dufner had back-to-back bogeys at the second and third holes, but then birdied the fourth and fifth, as well as the par-five seventh. He went birdie-bogey to open the back nine and birdied the par-five 16th, before his winning birdie at 18.
Pride settled for second after a final-round 68. After three birdies in a row, he found water off the tee at 18, then sank a tense par putt. Pride has not won since his taking his lone USPGA title in 1994 in Memphis, Tennessee, as a rookie.
Australian Marc Leishman, Sweden’s Jonas Blixt and Americans Joe Durant and J.J. Henry shared third on 271, with Americans Phil Mickelson and Ken Duke next on 274.
Henry appeared to have the title in his hand with birdies at 15 and 16 for a one-stroke lead, but he then went left off the tee at the par-three 17th, missed a 27-footer for par, and then missed a two-and-a-half-footer and took a double-bogey. Henry had aced the par-three fifth hole.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
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Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB