Jason Dufner lights up PGA Championship with 63

Jason Dufner lights up PGA Championship with 63

Eric Adelson August 9, 2013Yahoo! Sports










ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The golfer made famous by a photo of him passed out has made history by being unconscious.

Jason Dufner, the portly 36-year-old who spawned the Internet meme "Dufnering" when he dozed in front of a room of schoolchildren, bulldozed through Round 2 of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club to tie for the best round in major championship history. The Cleveland-born golfer with the classic golf name shot a 63, hit 15 of 18 greens and holed out an approach shot that would have been the moment of the day if the whole day weren't such a moment. Fridays aren't always known for buzz at these tournaments, but the blend of cult hero worship and sterling golf stirred a rain-drenched crowd into a certifiable frenzy.

Just ask "Dufs Dips," a band of Ottawa boys who drove four hours here to see their favorite pro and give him a red shirt they made with #Dufnering printed on the back. The Canadians were giddy as Dufner tore through the course with an array of perfectly-arced fades and clutch putts, stopping only to smile and tuck some tobacco into his lower lip.

"It's the lifestyle, man," raved one of the Dips in a Blue Jays cap, when asked about Dufner's appeal. He didn't elaborate about what aspect of the lifestyle, or even whether he was referring to Dufner's lifestyle or his own. No matter; on this day, the "lifestyle" was throwing darts.

Dufner did what some of the world's best golfers did not: take chances. He used driver on a course where it wasn't recommended, realizing the rains would soften and widen the fairways. Dufner's approach completely belied his soporific style, as he was fearless and aggressive all the way up until his 18-foot uphill putt for a 62, which he left short. No matter, the 63 was good enough to put him at 9-under for the tournament, two strokes in front of Jim Furyk, Matt Kucher and Adam Scott.




A group from Ottawa, Canada shows their support of Jason Dufner. (Yahoo! Sports)Dufner knew about the record, as he's a student of golf history. His Twitter icon is of the famous Hogan hole at Merion Golf Club outside Philadelphia, where the U.S. Open was held this year. He refers to the historic golfer as "Mr. Hogan," even though Mr. Dufner has now torched Hogan's Oak Hill course record.



Dufner knew the all-time record for low round in a major was in reach as he worked his way up the back nine, attacking every pin as if it was a practice round. Behind the 16th green, a course official whispered, "I haven't seen any birdies here today." And Dufner promptly dropped a birdie putt. Behind the 17th hole, another course official whispered the exact same thing, and Dufner barely missed another. The final holes were that kind of difficult on Friday, and Dufner was that kind of incredible. His two-day total of 131 is a tie for the best 36 holes in PGA Championship history.

Dufner has flirted with golf destiny before. He got into a playoff at this tournament two years ago in Atlanta, and said it was the best golf he's ever played. But poor playoff putting doomed him, and he watched Keegan Bradley win his first major. Dufner tied for fourth in the U.S. Open at Merion this year, but he's only won two Tour events in seven years on tour. He's a mix of sure-shot and long-shot, and fans who love an everyman eat that up.

The final hole Friday was proof. He striped his drive and had 203 yards from the middle of the fairway. Stuck between a five-iron and a six, he went with the latter and let adrenaline do its work. Then he unleashed one of the most beautiful shots you'll ever see, a rainbow bending to the left and then back to the right, up against the blue sky and then the packed grandstand. The ball landed just below the hole and the crowd exploded in not only cheers, but giggles. The guy just had it. Overhead, a plane carried a huge banner saying, "Y'all Look Hungry." It was all just too perfect.

The missed putt will probably gnaw at him, but he'd already made a lifetime memory for the Dips. The boys found Jason's wife, Amanda, and gave her the shirt. She thanked them and then went to wait for her husband. Tiger Woods' swing coach, Sean Foley, walked up to her and said, "What's up, Mrs. Duf"? He noticed the shirt and she smiled as she mentioned the boys.

"They were pumped!" she said.

For the next several minutes she waited with the gift until Dufner came out to do his flurry of interviews. "It's tough to chase history," he explained to reporters in his deadpan way. "I'm not usually the first to do anything."

The boys were a few dozen feet away, hanging along a fence by the putting green, chanting, "63! 63! 63!" He grinned and waved, as always spending just enough energy to complete the task.

Moments later, in front of the clubhouse, officials hurried to put up another rope. "Dufner's coming!" one elderly woman shouted, as if it was the president. He emerged from a door and grinned again. "Jason!" one fan said, "can I have an autograph?!"

"Jason!" the fan said again, "can I have a 63?!"

Dufner got into a golf cart and slouched against the seat with his arms tucked by his sides – the exact pose that started a viral sensation.

This time, though, he was wide awake.

Dufner's record round surpasses his hero, Hogan

Dufner's record round surpasses his hero, Hogan

PGA.COM August 9, 2013







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“I obviously had a fantastic day today," said Jason Dufner on Friday. (Montana Pritchard/The PGA of …


By T.J. Auclair, PGA.com Interactive Producer

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - On a special afternoon at the 95th PGA Championship Friday, Jason Dufner tied one record and broke another.

In conditions that were absolutely perfect for scoring after heavy rains softened Oak Hill Country Club's greens and allowed players to take dead aim, Dufner threw dart after dart en route to a major championship record-tying low round of 7-under 63.

Through 36 holes, Dufner holds a two-shot advantage over the trio of Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar and Jim Furyk at 9-under 131.

On the 18th hole, Dufner left short a 12-foot birdie try for what could have been a 62. Instead, he very shakily knocked in the par putt for the 63, a new course record at Oak Hill.


"I obviously had a fantastic day today in a major championship, chased a little bit of history," Dufner said. "Came up a little short on that last putt, but all in all I'm excited. The position I'm in, the golf course has obviously yielded some low scores and I'm looking forward to continuing good play here on the weekend."

Dufner's bogey-free round got off to a smashing start. With 105 yards left into the second hole, Dufner sent a sand wedge high in the air, over the top of the pin and into a backstop on the green. From there, the ball bit into the grass and zipped back about 30 feet before finding the bottom of the hole for an unlikely eagle.

"I had 105 to the pin, a little bit downwind, and I took a sand wedge and I knew I could be aggressive, because you kind of have a backstop there, and with a sand wedge, you know you're going to spin it," said Dufner, who also set a new 36-hole PGA Championship scoring record at 131. "And it actually probably flew about close to 115 and had almost 30 feet of backspin. So it was a good number, a good fit, hit a good shot and got a little lucky. You can't see it at all. I had already given the club back to my caddie. That's how long it took to come back. When I turned back to the hole, they went nuts, it was a pretty neat experience."

Dufner's assault on Oak Hill continued with birdies on the par-5 fourth hole - where he holed a 35-footer - and the par-4 fifth hole. He made the turn at 4 under with his outward 31.

The birdies kept coming on the back nine, too. Dufner birdied the 11th, 13th and 16th holes all on putts inside of 12 feet.

A birdie putt at No. 17 just missed the hole - both Dufner and playing partner Steve Stricker reacted as though they thought it was in - and then, of course, that last chance for an unprecedented 62 that was short at No. 18.

Dufner wasn't disappointed though. He was delighted - as delighted as Dufner will let on - to become the 24th player in major championship history to shoot 63.

Making the moment all the more special was the fact that Dufner edged out Curtis Strange, Webb Simpson and his idol, Ben Hogan, for the new Oak Hill course record.

"I've been a great follower of Mr. Hogan and everything that he's done," Dufner said. "We played at Merion this year for the first time; I was so excited to be there. Dating back to when he won the U.S. Open there and all the history and the plaque there; and then to come to a great course like Oak Hill where he holds the course record and has played numerous rounds here, had great relationships with the Harmons; and to knock his course record off is kind of a tip of my cap to him, and it will be definitely something that I can always look back on when I'm finished playing that I accomplished."

Column: 'John Daly of Asia' makes his mark at PGA

Column: 'John Daly of Asia' makes his mark at PGA
JIM LITKE (AP Sports Columnist) August 9, 2013AP - Sports








PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) -- I'm thinking of changing my name to Justin Timberlake.

And why not? People in Thailand change their names for good luck all the time, or so I'm told.

That bit of knowledge was imparted cheerfully by Kiradech Aphibarnrat outside the clubhouse Friday at Oak Hill, where he had just signed for a 1-over 71 that left him 1 under for the PGA Championship and eight shots behind leader Jason Dufner.

His name, for example, used to be Anujit Hirunratanakorn, at least until he was 16. That's when Kiradech's family ventured to a monastery in northern Thailand for the renaming ceremony. Oddly enough, both his former and current names translate into English as ''bright.''

But in golfing circles, the charming, portly 24-year-old is known as a two-time Junior World champion, or more recently, the ''John Daly of Asia.''

''I played with him two times,'' Kiradech said. ''He's a good guy said we swing very similarly.''

The resemblance, however, doesn't end there. Kiradech shares Daly's go-for-broke course management style. Until a closing run of three bogeys in the last five holes, he was at 4 under and zooming up the leaderboard. What made the fall tougher to take was how well Kiradech recovered from an early bout of nerves.

''After four or five holes, my hands were shaking ... before every shot,'' he recalled. ''Every time on Friday, you have to make the cut. I feel I cannot make any mistakes, that I have to be perfect.''

For some of his golfing predecessors, that was quite literally the case. Most of the Thais who preceded Kiradech onto the European and Asian tours picked up the game after working as caddies, often with clubs they had to assemble from discarded iron heads and grips.

Kiradech, on the other hand, grew up comfortably and took up golf at age 8 after tagging along behind his father on the course. Every time there was a tournament, the two stayed behind to watch the trophies being presented. It didn't take long for the son to get his hands on a few of his own.

''My dad said if I play golf well, he will let someone else do my homework,'' Kiradech recalled, smiling mischievously.

As if he needed further reinforcement, Kiradech won the Junior World Championship in consecutive years, 2003-04, then turned pro in 2008. He won a mini-tour event the following year and his first big-league tournament on the Asian tour in 2011. His real breakthrough, though, came in March, on the European Tourat the Malaysian Open, a tournament shortened to 54 holes due to thunderstorms - a victory Kiradech admitted he might not have secured had it gone the distance.


It wasn't just nerves working against him again, though Kiradech acknowledges those were frayed. There was also the fatigue of lugging his large frame up and down the hills on the course in steamy weather. He's listed at 5-foot-10 and 210, but his agent, Pimporn Rojsattarat, pegs his weight at closer to 260.

''I don't work out a lot. I just try to play good golf. You don't have to have a good body for that,'' Kiradech explained, with typical good humor, while playing last weekend in the Bridgestone, where he tied for 40th.

He didn't set himself a target score for Oak Hill, but after Kiradech shot 68 in the opening round, he candidly admitted the weight of expectations settled across his broad shoulders.

''I was quite proud,'' he said. ''I was able to see myself on TV. A friend called and told me, ''They're talking about you on the Golf Channel.'''

After Friday, unfortunately, not so much.

Starting out in a fuchsia shirt and white pants, Kiradech was hard to miss. But the small gallery he garnered while shooting 34 on his first nine had dwindled to his manager and a handful of family members not long after he made the turn. He hit just two fairways on the back, and like the John Daly of America, tried powering his way out of trouble.

''My game is very good, but I have to learn more,'' he said.

By that, he presumably meant patience, a quality that Pimporn recognizes doesn't come naturally to 24-year-olds. Especially someone like Kiradech, who spent a year or two racing cars before giving up the circuit to grateful tears from his mother.

''Sometimes,'' said Pimporn, who represents more than three dozen promising Thai golfers, ''we have to instruct the caddie to slow Kiradech down.

''He is like many young men,'' she added. ''He likes to do everything fast.''

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Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org and follow him at www.twitter.com/JimLitke