PITTSFORD, N.Y. — The former titleholder was standing behind the 18th green, waiting to greet Jason Dufner, the latest P.G.A. Championship winner. It was not Rory McIlroy, who won last year and finished tied for eighth in his defense.
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Jason Dufner after his final putt Sunday at Oak Hill Country Club. His bogey-bogey finish did not cost him his first victory in a major.
Keegan Bradley, who won the 2011 event at Dufner’s expense, returned to Oak Hill Country Club from his hotel, where he watched most of Dufner’s two-stroke victory over Jim Furyk while taking to Twitter to provide insider analysis like “The duff daddy is dialed in.”
Bradley will not have Dufner to needle anymore about not having a replica of the Wanamaker Trophy. Dufner, who began the day one stroke behind Furyk, birdied three of the first eight holes to take a lead that a bogey-bogey finish could not blemish. He closed with a two-under 68 for a 10-under 270. Furyk, trying to win his first major title since the 2003 United States Open, carded a 71 that also included a bogey-bogey finish.
Henrik Stenson, who was bidding to become the first Swede to win a men’s major, posted a 70 and finished third, three shots back. It was Stenson’s lowest finish in a month after seconds at the British Open and the World Golf Championships event in Ohio. As he left the 18th green, Stenson pointed at the Wanamaker Trophy and said, “I’ll see you next year.”
Dufner, 36, seemed surprised to see Bradley, wearing basketball shorts and a T-shirt. Bradley made his way over to him after Dufner made his short bogey putt on the 18th to seal the win, which he celebrated with two fist pumps that could have been mistaken for involuntary twitches. After Dufner hugged his wife, Amanda, he received a bear hug from Bradley.
“That friendship is just really cool,” Amanda Dufner said, referring to her husband’s rapport with Bradley. “The way that all came about is really special.”
How the two fierce competitors became fast friends reveals more about Dufner’s personality than he will ever show in public. It was forged in the most awkward of arenas, during the playoff between the two at the 2011 P.G.A. Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club.
Each was gunning for his maiden tour victory. Dufner, a 54-hole co-leader, fell into the three-hole playoff with bogeys on the final three holes of regulation. In the extra time, Dufner shot two strokes higher than Bradley, who has not let him forget it.
“He’s a good guy and he’s good-hearted about a little ribbing that I give him about that day,” Bradley said.
Now that Dufner has his name on the winner’s trophy, Bradley will have to find something else to give him grief about. One senses that Bradley, 27, is more than up to the challenge.
Bradley played his final round nearly four hours before Furyk and Dufner, with so much ground to make up that if Oak Hill had been a marathon course, Bradley would not have had the leaders in his sights.
That did not stop Bradley from giving chase. His goal, he said later, was to better the pace set by Dufner on Friday when he posted a course record 63.
“I wanted to beat Duf’s course record, for sure,” said Bradley, who seemed poised to succeed when he birdied 6 of the first 13 holes to surge into a group behind the lead pack at three-under for the tournament.
On the 14th hole, Bradley hit a bark wall. His drive caromed off a tree and he left the green with his first bogey of the day. He made another bogey at the last hole to card a 66 and sew up a tie for 19th.
After signing his scorecard, Bradley said he was going back to his hotel to watch the telecast and see what kind of finishing kick Furyk and Dufner were able to muster. “I feel like a lot of people think they are quiet guys,” Bradley said, “but they are very vocal, especially Duf. I think they are both super intense. On Sundays, they wouldn’t be your first choice to go up against.”
Furyk, 43, tried valiantly to hang onto the lead. He matched Dufner’s lead-taking birdie at the fifth hole with one of his own at the sixth. But Furyk, for all his perfectionist tendencies, could not match Dufner’s precision off the tee or on the green. After he bogeyed the ninth to fall two behind, he was unable to cut into Dufner’s lead.
It was the second time in two years that he held the final-day lead at a major and lost. He also led late in the 2012 United States Open, one of four events last year where he failed to capitalize on at least a share of a 54-hole lead.
On Saturday night, Furyk was asked what he would do on Sunday to orchestrate a different outcome. Perhaps tellingly, he used the word “hopefully” five times in his response.
“I’m disappointed it’s been a while since I’ve won, and I’ve had some chances to close the door and haven’t done it,” Furyk said, “but I guess it’s days like this that will make the next one sweeter.”
Bradley said after his round that he thought Dufner was going to be tough to beat. He knows Dufner’s game well after their 2011 playoff, their turn as United States teammates at last year’s Ryder Cup and the several practice rounds they have played together this summer.
“He’s putting really well,” Bradley said. “When Jason rolls some putts in, he’s as good a player out here as anyone.”
The two best players in the world, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, were never a factor in the championship. Woods closed with a 70 to finish in a tie for 40th at four over; Mickelson carded a 72 to finish at 12 over.
Though 32 spots separated them in the final standings, Woods and Mickelson crossed paths briefly when Woods teed off at No. 1 while Mickelson waited to hit his drive at No. 14. The holes share a tee box, but the players appeared to exchange nary a single pleasantry.
There is a danger in reading too much into how golfers carry themselves during a competitive round. Whether they are smiley or stoic, demonstrative or dispassionate, polite or preoccupied, the fans are seeing a snapshot of their favorite players’ personas, not a portrait. Take Dufner, who can be a real cut-up when you get him away from his office.
“Jason, when he’s around people he’s comfortable with, he actually will talk quite a bit,” said Brandt Snedeker, who got to know Dufner better last year when they were Ryder Cup teammates. “He’s funny. He’s a great guy to be around. His persona on the golf course is not really who he is at all. That’s just how he thinks he can play the best golf.”
Dufner is not so stoic that he does not stop to admire the scenery. On the second nine of his round Thursday, he walked over to his wife, who was walking outside the gallery ropes, and dropped a few acorns in her palms and encouraged her to gather a few more.
The couple recently bought a large plot of land in Auburn, Ala., where Dufner attended college. On Sunday, Dufner’s wife said, “He wants to take those acorns and try to grow some oak trees, which will be really, really special now.”
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