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-par 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 (65). Tom Gillis (69) was a distant third at 7-under.
“I still have 18 holes, and that’s my focus,” Johnson said. “I totally anticipate Dufner to keep doing what he’s doing. There’s not a whole lot going on that’s wrong.”
Dufner, the winner last week in the Byron Nelson Championship, 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.
Before winning at New Orleans on April 29, the 35-year-old Dufner was winless in his previous 163 PGA Tour starts. He then took a week off to get married and returned to play at The Players Championship before winning the Nelson.
Bo Van Pelt had his streak of 13 consecutive sub-par rounds at Colonial end with a 71. But, he was in fourth place alone at 204.
