Jason Dufner and Brandt Snedeker both sank birdie putts on the last two holes and claimed a two-stroke victory over Matt Kuchar and Harris English in the Franklin Templeton Shootout at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla.
Dufner sank a go-ahead five-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole and Snedeker holed a 30-footer to punctuate a final round 11-under-par 61 in the best-ball format that gave them a winning score of 61-64-61–186, 30-under.
“Jason is a great partner because he’s ‘Steady Eddie,'” said Snedeker, who is known as one of the best putters in the game. “He’s on the fairway and green on every hole. I helped read the greens and one of us would come through if the other had a bad hole.
“We made chip-ins on the third and seventh holes, and that gave us some momentum, got us going.”
Said Dufner, a strong ball-striker: “He’s one putters out here, so I just watched a lot and learned a lot. I knew he had my back on the greens and I picked up as much as I could from him.”
Kuchar and English wound up at 58-67-63–188 to finish as the runners-up for the second straight year after winning in 2013, while 36-hole leaders Daniel Berger and Charley Hoffman were in third at 60-64-65–189.
Billy Horschel and Hunter Mahan were fourth at 59-68-64–191, followed by Camilo Villegas of Colombia and Cameron Tringale of Laguna Niguel at 60-69-66–195, and
Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and Gary Woodland at 59-70-67–196.
Retief Goosen of South Africa and Danny Lee of New Zealand totaled 63-72-62–197 to tie for seventh with Mike Weir of Canada and Sean O’Hair, who came in at 65-67-65–197, while Kenny Perry and Steve Stricker were ninth at 65-67-66–198.
Rory Sabbatini of South Africa and Charles Howell III posted a score of 62-68-69–199 to tie for 10th with Patrick Rodgers of Stanford and Zach Johnson, who wound up at 64-67-68–199, while J.B. Holmes and Patrick Reed were 12th at 61-69-70–200.
