After some New Year fireworks in Hawaii from Titleist brand ambassador Justin Thomas (Pro V1x), the PGA Tour heads to Palm Springs, California this week for the first pro-am event on the 2016-2017 season calendar, the CareerBuilder Challenge.
The Pro-Am competition takes place over the course of the first three days of the tournament, with two-man teams playing one round on each of the three host courses, the TPC Stadium Course at PGA West (7,300 yards/par-72), the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West (7,204 yards/par-72) and La Quinta Country Club (7,060 yards/par-72).
The 156 professionals in the field will play the final round on the TPC Stadium Course, led by Titleist brand ambassador and defending champion, Jason Dufner (Pro V1), who won the event last year by topping Titleist golf ball loyalist David Lingmerth (Pro V1x) on the second hole of a playoff.
Earlier this week in Palm Springs, Team Titleist caught up with Dufner, who was happy to be back in the desert, despite some unseasonably wet weather that had rolled in.
"I always like playing in Palm Springs because there aren’t a lot of weather conditions, typically. We may have some weather issues this week, which will make it a little bit more challenging, but usually it's pretty calm, pretty easy to score, so it's a good measure to see where you’re at with your game."
Dufner said that some early scouting was a big key to his success in the desert last year.
"We had just changed over to the new course last year (2016 was the first year that players competed on the TPC Stadium Course at PGA West) and most of the guys had’t seen it. I played there a little bit there in Q-School, so I had seen that course some. But I went over early before heading over to Hawaii last year and played a little bit so I got to see the course and got a feel for what they were doing. That trip really helped me put my best foot forward."
Dufner and Lingmerth tied in regulation play at 25-under-par 263 in 2016. Jason told us that tougher courses tend to favor his style of play and last year's win was a bit of a surprise.
"Scoring is kind of a premium here, you're going to have to shoot 5-under or better every day to kind of feel like you're in it. To be honest, this wouldn’t have been one of the events last year I would have picked that I would win, but that particular week it worked out. I putted well, hit it well and made a lot of birdies."
The stats bear out Dufner's account of his consistent, all-around performance in capturing his fourth PGA Tour victory. He finished T5 (75%) in Driving Accuracy, T15 in Greens in Regulation (75%) and 5th in Putts Per Greens in Regulation.
With soft conditions, Dufner will need to play just as well to successfully defend his title, but he's already done his homework, following the same gameplan he used last year.
"I took some time off at the end of the year and then played a couple weeks in Hawaii and here for Palm Springs. I'm excited to be back playing again. Lots of good memories here, it's always good to be defending."
Good luck to Jason and all of #TeamTitleist this week!
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BY THE NUMBERS: 2017 CAREER BUILDERS CHALLENGE
This week at the Career Builders Challenge, Titleist is the overwhelming top golf ball choice with 110 players in the field trusting a Pro V1 or Pro V1x golf ball for their success, more than six times the nearest competitor with 17 and more than all competitors combined.
Titleist is also the top choice in the hybrid (27) and irons (44) categories. Vokey Design Wedges top the approach, sand and lob wedge (201) category and Scotty Cameron putters are the top choice in putters (63).
#TeamTitleist