Crowne Plaza Invitational results: Adam Scott wins at Colonial following playoff shootout with Jason Dufner

It’s been an underwhelming first five months of the PGA Tour season, but on Sunday at Colonial, we got a heavyweight playoff battle for the Crowne Plaza Invitational. Rory McIlroy set the stage early in the day over at Wentworth, getting his biggest win since that 2012 PGA Championship and solidifying his status as the favorite for the U.S. Open. Then at Colonial, Jason Dufner and Adam Scott, the new No. 1 player in the world, went to extra holes and put on a remarkable show in what turned into a three-hole shootout. In the end, it was Scott who did Dufner one better at the 18th, their third time through that hole on Sunday. It was as good as the Tour, Colonial and the Crowne Plaza Invitational could have hoped for and the best we can get from a non-Tiger, non-major golf tournament.

But Scott, who put his ball just at the back of the green, wielded his anchored putter and canned a clutch putt from 15 feet. It prompted recall of those two putts he hit at the Masters (at the 18th in regulation and No. 10 in the playoff) to win there last year.

Following those ridiculous exchanges on the first two holes, Scott would finish things off with one more amazing shot into the green. Dufner thinned his approach a bit, and left it out to the left about 30 feet from the hole. After watching that, Scott didn’t play things conservatively and fired right into the stick, settling it some 5 feet short of the cup. He’d clean up his birdie and walk off with a win to firmly entrench his position at the top of the world rankings.

The theme during the last few months on the Tour has centered on the weekend flameouts by all the biggest names and the rise of a series of first-time winners who are good for the game but haven’t generated the buzz the Tour needs with Tiger Woods on the shelf. Sunday at Colonial started wide open, with 49 players within five shots of the lead. It’s a course that doesn’t necessarily favor one type of hitter, as the final pairing of 47-year-old David Toms and 22-year-old Hideki Matsuyama exemplified.

Colonial is a much more classic setup, the longest-running consecutive event at one venue on the Tour. It’s a tighter layout that doesn’t reward the bombers like the typical TPC course that we so often get. A round in the mid-to-low 60s is always possible, and with so many people bunched up, we had no idea whether we’d get some first-time unknown again or a big-name winner. The uncertainty continued throughout the round too, as a revolving door of leaders topped the board until the final hour or so.

That’s when it became clear that we were headed for the Dufner-Scott playoff, two 2013 major champions and the new No. 1 player in the world. We finally had those big names at the top. A subplot for Scott, who carded a 66 on Saturday to get back in it, was not just whether he could chase down the leaders but also whether he could hold on to his top ranking. Henrik Stenson’s finish at the BMW PGA Championship, the Euro Tour’s flagship event, earlier in the day forced Scott to finish T13 or better or else his reign at No. 1 would end after just one week.

Scott made the turn with a double bogey at the ninth, and from there, it seemed we were on “No. 1 watch” more than assessing his chances for a win. But he got hot coming into the house, getting those two back and one more, on an inward 32 to get to 9-under. It was an impressive answer by Scott, who was hounded by the No. 1 discussion all week and would have taken heat for losing it so quickly. This was a bit of validation for a player who’s played the best golf in the world over the past 13 months.

Dufner was out ahead of Scott, and he was the first of the two to post a Sunday 66 for the come-from-behind charge. He’s long been one of the best ball strikers in the world, constantly sticking approach shots on top of flagsticks, which we saw repeatedly last year at Oak Hill for that major championship. He did that all day at Colonial too, but squandered some chances on the green by missing short putts and burning a few other edges on the back nine. Finally, from 25 feet out ironically, Dufner got one to fall on the 18th green to post the first 9-under score.

That would be enough to get him to extra holes, but Scott would match his every shot and then finally overtake him at the 18th. It was an awesome day for golf, whether it was the Euro win by McIlroy, the LPGA win for Jessica Korda, Colin Montgomerie’s first major at the Senior PGA Championship, and then this shootout in Fort Worth. The PGA Tour needed it badly, and it’s hopefully a jolt for the rest of the season as the calendar flips to June and we head to the home of Jack Nicklaus for the Memorial.

Here’s the final leaderboard from the weekend at Colonial: