2013 PGA Championship: Jason Dufner cruises to 1st career major at Oak Hill

Jason Dufner may have lost the PGA Championship to Keegan Bradley back in 2011, but one of the spoils Duf earned with his PGA victory Sunday at Oak Hill more than made up for his painful playoff loss to his good buddy.

Dufner, thanks to his two-shot win over Jim Furyk, and to several spectators taking their post-shot “Baba Booey” screams to new levels of obnoxiousness, landed a spot on the Howard Stern Show on Tuesday.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were long gone from Oak Hill Country Club by the time Jason Dufner hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy -- the world’s top-ranked player unhappy with his failure to find fairways all week and brushing off concerns about another potential injury, and No. 2 hungering for some home cooking.

Woods, who grabbed at his back after several shots during Sunday’s final round of the PGA Championship, from which he exited with an even-par 70, well before Dufner and Jim Furyk in the final pairing took the field, told reporters the twinges were nothing.

Jason Dufner and the PGA Championship are a perfect match. The fourth and final major, which has an unwarranted reputation as the least prestigious, is the ugly but convenient and necessary event to bring up the rear of the majors season and round things off behind the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open.

Dufner is always being caricatured -- for his pulseless demeanor on the course, his pulseless demeanor off the course in interviews or via “Dufnering,” his fat lip full of Copenhagen, his mop of hair, his paunch, his association with and choosing to root for Auburn and Cleveland sports teams, and for pretty much being everything aesthetically the opposite of Masters champ Adam Scott. He’s the perfect bookend to the 2013 major championship season, which was about as good a non-Tiger winning year as we will ever have.

Keegan Bradley and Jason Dufner are known to be good friends. How good? Well, good enough that Bradley turned around on his way to the airport in order to be on the 18th green to congratulate Dufner on winning the PGA Championship.

According to ESPN’s Bob Harig, Bradley had already left Oak Hill and was on his way out of town before deciding to turn around to congratulate Dufner in person. He apparently even ran a red light on his way back to the course.

Few golfers identify more with their school than Jason Dufner, who still spends most of his non-Tour traveling time in Auburn. So on Sunday night, after he clinched the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, they were rolling Toomer’s Corner to celebrate:

We posted a gif of 2013 PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner yesterday with what appeared to be an entire tin in his lower lip -- just an Auburn man and his vices. Thanks to Sports Illustrated’s Alan Shipnuck, who is doing some important on-the-ground reporting at Oak Hill, we have further details about what exactly the Duf was using to calm the nerves:

It was a two-man race in the final round of the PGA Championship, with Jason Dufner and Jim Furyk exchanging birdies throughout the front nine in the final pairing on Sunday. The day started with a loaded leaderboard, which included world-class players such as Adam Scott, Steve Stricker and Henrik Stenson, but no one came close to challenging the final pairing of Dufner and Furyk.

Dufner, who blew a five-shot lead in the final four holes at this event two years ago in Atlanta, turned it on early to pick up three birdies and go out in 32. He’s considered one of the steadiest ball strikers in the world, and was all over the flagstick throughout the final round. Two brilliant approach shots pushed him to a two-shot cushion over Furyk on the back nine. His shot into No. 8 was nearly his second hole-out eagle of the week, but this time he settled for a tap-in birdie. With wedge in hand on No. 16, Dufner officially sealed it with another near-eagle:

Jason Dufner’s wife Amanda met him on the 18th green to celebrate his PGA Championship victory. He greeted her with a hug and a pat on the backside.

Jason Dufner may have left that putt for a major championship-record 62 in Friday’s second round short, but Sunday, despite a few nervous moments, there was little but the bottom of the cup as the stoic runner-up to Keegan Bradley in the 2011 PGA Championship hoisted his own Wanamaker Trophy.

Dufner shot a final-round 2-under 68 to get to 10-under for the tournament and defeat Jim Furyk by two shots at Oak Hill.

Jason Dufner has been solid off the tee and good on the green this week, but he’s been phenomenal from 150 yards and in. That was once again the case on No. 16, when Dufner moved to 12-under by sticking another approach shot.

With a sand wedge in hand, Dufner sent his approach shot a few feet past the pin, spinning it back to within a couple feet for his fourth birdie of the day.

Jason Dufner has been unflappable for most of this week and he’ll need those steady nerves if he’s going to hold on to win the 2013 PGA Championship. Dufner leads by two strokes heading into Oak Hill’s difficult closing stretch.

The stretch from No. 15 to No. 18 includes three of the four hardest holes on the course. It all begins with the 181-yard par-3 15th hole. No. 15 has played as the fourth-hardest this week, yielding the fourth-fewest birdies of any hole. Dufner has managed to avoid issues on the 15th thus far with three pars this week.

The leaders are beginning to pull away from the field as Jason Dufner, Jim Furyk and Henrik Stenson continue to play well. Everyone is currently chasing Dufner, who leads at 11-under.

Back-to-back birdies gave Dufner the lead early Sunday, but he didn’t remain alone at the top for long. Furyk didn’t have a lot of good birdie opportunities early, settling for five pars to begin the round, but found success on the sixth hole to get back into the thick of things.

Jason Dufner, one of the best iron players in the world, is dialed in right now at the PGA Championship. Dufner has stuck several approach shots throughout his front nine to either save scrambling pars or set up birdie opportunities. But his best shot of the day came at No. 8, where he nearly sank it for eagle for the second time this week:

It was that kind of a shot on No. 2 on Friday that pushed Dufner into the thick of it, propelling him to a majors scoring record round of 63. That time, he didn’t need the putter to tap-in:

Standing on the 7th tee, both Jim Furyk and Jason Dufner were tied for the PGA Championship lead at 10-under. But both promptly yanked their tee shots to the left, pulling them into some of the thickest rough on the course on a hole that’s been one of Oak Hill’s three toughest all week.

Furyk’s wasn’t terrible, just a little overdrawn and the ball kicked into the thick stuff. Dufner’s, however, was completely pulled, leading to this unattractive shottracker image from CBS (via Shane Bacon):

Rory McIlroy, the No. 3 player in the world who has had the season from hell, finished Saturday with miraculous back-to-back birdies to get to 3-under for a Sunday shot at his second straight PGA Championship. As some of the players out early ahead of Rory on the course demonstrated, there are plenty of birdie chances out there for the young Northern Irishman to cut into that six-shot hole he started in. The leaders, Jim Furyk and Jason Dufner, are also prone to recent Sunday shakiness so Rory was absolutely in it to start his final round.

A couple birdies by McIlroy on the front side, and avoiding bogey, would put tons of pressure on the groups behind him. Well, it started well enough for McIlroy with a birdie on his third hole, a par-3. But he backed that up with a missed bunny birdie putt on the next hole, Oak Hill’s easiest and just one of two par-5s on the classic course. It was a must-make birdie hole, and he blasted his putt past the edge:

The leaders are beginning to make their way around Oak Hill for the final time, faced with some unexpected pressure as a few players have charged up the leaderboard. Jason Day, on a tear Sunday, now stands just three strokes off the lead at the 2013 PGA Championship.

Day began the day nine strokes off the lead. A bogey at No. 2 dropped him to 1-over and appeared to end his chances of contending. He’s caught fire since, with seven birdies on last 10 holes. Day made the turn at 32 and birdied three of his first four holes afterwards. Because he’s well ahead of the leaders, he has an opportunity to post a low score and see what happens.

The shouting upon impact on the tee has been pretty ridiculous the past two weeks on the PGA Tour. There was the guy last week who shouted “Baba Booey” after every single stroke Tiger made at Firestone on Sunday. And it has continued this week, much to the chagrin of right and proper Englishman Ian Poulter:

But what about “Rutabaga!“, Ian?

Tiger Woods went 19 holes without a birdie over the weekend at Oak Hill and by the time they started dropping, late into his final round on Sunday, the world No. 1 looked like he needed some R&R for either his back or elbow.

Woods, everybody’s odds-on favorite to win his 15th major title entering this week’s PGA Championship, ended the first nine of his final round with a double bogey-six on the ninth hole. His “scripted” half-red/half-gray Sunday blouse was somehow appropriate for the half-hearted 4-over, T42 result Woods posted for the week when his final par putt fell well before the final duo of Jim Furyk and Jason Dufner took the field.

The trend at the majors this year has featured Sunday chasedowns from players outside the final pairing, and with some of the early scores, there will be opportunities for lots of the chasers on the leaderboard. Keegan Bradley started the day too far out of it, but he’s setting the early pace and was 6-under through his first 13 holes. The 2011 PGA Champion had a solid showing at at Bridgestone last week, and he’s caught fire here on Sunday in his first round this week without Tiger Woods in his group.

Players like Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood have to be encouraged by the work of Bradley and others. McIlroy and Westwood are just getting to the first tee, starting 3-under and six shots back of Jim Furyk. There will be chances on both sides at Oak Hill, as demonstrated by Bradley, who started with three birdies in his first four holes to turn in 32, and then added three more birdies in his first four holes on the back side. Bradley has since dropped a shot, but his playing partner, young Japanese phenom Hideki Matsuyama, has birdied five of his first six holes to get rolling on the back nine.

Finding a bunker off the tee makes it hard to make birdies at Oak Hill, but Matt Kuchar’s tee shot into a fairway bunker proved extra costly.

Kuchar drove his ball into a fairway bunker at No. 2. He attempted to go for the green with his second shot, but didn’t get enough elevation and the ball caught the lip of the bunker and rolled back to his feet.

This is comparable to examining the mathematical possibilities of the Houston Astros’ 2013 postseason chances. From Golf Digest’s Ashley Mayo, who is on-scene in Rochester:

It’s been a rough week for Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship and he continues to struggle on Sunday. If he wasn’t having enough issues on his own, Woods has been unable to catch a break, just like at No. 9 when his approach shot hit the flagstick and caromed away.

Woods hit one of his best approach shots of the week, with his ball landing just inches from the pin. It caught the edge of the flagstick and shot 25 feet away from the hole.

We’ve seen all variations of Tiger’s “Sunday Red” over the years, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen him go halfway:

Phil Mickelson, my pre-tournament pick to win the 2013 PGA Championship, rides quietly off into the Rochester Sunday afternoon after a final round 72 to settle at 12-over for the week. Phil was simply playing out the string on Sunday, a casual non-contending 18 holes to get out of the way before jetting back home to California. He and playing partner Stephen Gallacher made their way around Oak Hill in just over three hours, finishing before Noon ET and getting the hell out of town.

The Sunday is in such stark contrast to the final round of the last major, where Phil exploded onto the top of the leaderboard with a legendary 66 at Muirfield. This round was more of an obligation in obscurity, nearly complete before TNT’s TV coverage even came on the air. It’s always been feast or famine for Mickelson, who’s gambling either pays off or blows up in his face. He finished in a tie for fourth-to-last place at the Masters to start this majors year, and ends the PGA currently in a tie for second-to-last place.

Tim Clark struggled on the 10th hole Sunday at the PGA Championship, carding a double bogey. But he bounced back in the best way possible on the 11th: with an ace.

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