American Jason Dufner wins PGA Championship for first major title, makes up for 2011 heartache
Flawless final round erases 2011 PGA loss
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Jason Dufner and his wife, Amanda, collected acorns and a sapling from the general manager of Oak Hill Country Club, hoping they’ll grow into majestic oaks to shade their dream home in Auburn, Ala.
What Dufner collected on Sunday, though, will outlive any of those trees. A victory in the PGA Championship made him a member of professional golf’s elite community of major champions forever.
He promises to be the same Jason Dufner, though. The same as he was before and after he lost a three-hole playoff to Keegan Bradley at the 2011 PGA Championship in Atlanta, the same as he was before he won twice — and got married — in the span of a month in 2012. Even the same guy whose “Dufnering” pose during a public appearance at a Dallas-area school turned into an Internet phenomenon.
“It’s definitely going to change my life, but I’m determined that it’s not going to change me,” the 36-yearold Dufner said Sunday after performing almost flawlessly in the final round, certainly as long as the title remained in play, on his way to a 2-underpar 68 for a total of 10-under 270.
Dufner had started the round one stroke behind his playing partner Jim Furyk, but Furyk couldn’t find the fairways with his tee shots on the front nine or the bottom of the cup with his putts at any key point, forcing him to settle for a 1-over 71 and second place at 272.
“I have a lot of respect for him and the way he played today,” Furyk said of Dufner. “I don’t know if it makes anything easy or less easy, but I don’t look at it as I lost the golf tournament. I look at it as I got beat by somebody that played better today.”
In Atlanta, Dufner held a fivestroke lead with four holes to go, but he made three bogeys to Bradley’s two birdies, and Bradley won the playoff.
On Sunday, Bradley — now a good friend — was waiting with a hug for Dufner as the new champion left the 18th green.
“We just kind of bro-hugged, which I don’t know how that goes over,” Dufner joked later. “He just said, ‘I’m proud of you,’ and I just said, ‘Thanks a lot. It means a lot for you to be here.’
“I was probably over what happened in Atlanta, 95 per cent of it, by the time we got back home at Auburn.
“You always carry those scars with you. (Bradley) always jabbed at me a little bit about having one of these (Wanamaker Trophies) in his house and thanks for giving it to him and all that stuff. Now I’ve got one, too. It’s pretty neat to come back and win a PGA, to be honest with you.”
Dufner first pulled even with Furyk with a birdie on the par-5 fourth hole. They traded birdies on the next two holes, but Dufner went ahead to stay with a birdie on No. 8 and he was two up after Furyk missed the green on the ninth and failed to scramble for par.
Both players then rang up a half-dozen pars in a row, which worked out fine for Dufner.
Even when Furyk finally did make a birdie with a 15-foot putt on No. 16, that only kept him even with Dufner, who had stuffed a short-iron second shot within two feet of the cup.
It was all over by that point, anyway. Both players bogeyed the ultra-tough 17th and 18th holes, changing only their margin over the rest of the field.
“I know what he’s feeling and what he’s going through, how much work he has put into it along the way,” said Furyk, 43, whose only major championship came at the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields near Chicago. “You know, when a tournament ends like that, you’ve just got to take your hat off and shake the guy’s hand. Basically I told him I was really impressed with how he played. He played his rear end off today and he won the golf tournament.”
None of the other 73 players on the course posed genuine threats Sunday.
Henrik Stenson, two back at the first tee, was one behind after making an eagle on the par-5 fourth hole, but he bogeyed No. 7 and never got close again. He finished with a 70 and third place at 273.
Fellow Swede Jonas Blixt started bogey-bogey and had to work hard for his own 70, ultimately worth fourth at 274.
Scott Piercy of the U.S. shot the day’s best round, a 5-under 65, but that only got him into a tie for fifth with Masters champion Adam Scott of Australia (70) at 275.
In seventh was David Toms (67—276) of the U.S., followed another stroke back by a quartet that included defending champion Rory McIlroy (70) of Northern Ireland, Americans Zach Johnson (67) and Dustin Johnson (68) and Australia’s Jason Day (67).
David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., the only Canadian to make the cut, shot a closing 72 for and tied for 47th at 285.