Jason Dufner 36 years old, from Cleveland (Ohio), with a degree in economics, is the winner of the 95th Pga Championship, in Oak Hill CC, Pittsford, in the state of New York. Not very athletic physique, vaguely sleepy look, Dufner is actually a great player, analytical and intelligent, a great devourer of biographies of legendary golfers, shows a precise and effective swing. In Pittsburg he captured a trophy he'd been chasing since 2011, when he dominated for 4 days and then was passed by Keegan Bradley, making his tour debut, in the playoffs.
In two years he matured, married the beautiful Amanda, won his first major, after setting the course record on Friday, playing the difficult East Course, par 63, in 70 strokes. In four days he shot 270 shots, -10 under par.
Dufner thus completes, coherently, the list of champions who won a major in 2013. Three out of four are thirty-year-olds, in their first success in the grand slam, who have been lining up for years to seize this triumph: Adam Scott (32 years old), the Australian Masters champion, who had already narrowly lost the Open Championship in 2012; Justin Rose (32), English, amazing amateur, then dropped into pro dust, then worked his way up, step by step, to success at a WGC, Cadillac in 2012 and then the US Open this year. Among them Phil Mickelson, 43 years old, already 4 majors to his credit, never a win on a links though. He worked like crazy on it and a few weeks ago he even won two: one at the Scottish Open and the other in the superlative British, i.e. the Open Championship, his fifth major. Four beautiful stories of solid golfers, not meteors as we have seen in recent years, in the majors left vacant by Tiger Woods. Athletes who work towards their goals with determination, head and effort.
Unfortunately, on TV, it was also a boring Open, due to a dispersive and vaguely soporific American direction that didn't focus on the protagonists. The great emotions and duels to the death, the peaks and the abysses were missing. The best 18 holes were the final ones, the Dufner-Jim Furyk head-to-head. The revenge of two supporting actors. Furyk, 43, from West Chester, Pennsylvania, is a sad and fragile-looking man, yet he is a great champion, winner of the US Open in 2003. He has always played an improbable and very effective swing and since he has been on the tour he has a sort of anti-hero of golf, a bit hunchbacked, with a suffering face and a "centennial" caddy. Yet he puts in some splendid balls in the shaft and putts in the pockets at crucial moments. He still has a lot to say on the pitch. This time, unlike others, he has nothing to reproach himself for, he didn't lose, Dufner won: that is, the one who played better.
For the rest, the splendid form phase of Henrik Stenson continues, the Swedish giant who puts another great placement in his portfolio, because he finishes third alone and climbs to eighth in the Fedex standings. Adam Scott also did very well, fifth on a par with Scott Piercy, behind another Swede, Jonas Blixt.
In the crowd, the outgoing champion, Rory McIlroy, deserves a special mention as he begins to awaken from his torpor and hits the first top ten in several tournaments in this part: eighth, for a total of -3.
Tiger Woods instead travels on a swing: on the altars last week, in the dust this one: +4, fortieth in good company. This brings us to the sixth consecutive year without a major and the litany continues. On the other hand, his nervousness shows how dear the majors are to him. But something is wrong and you don't even need to review golf fundamentals with coach Sean Folley. Tiger, when he plays so badly, he doesn't keep a straight ball, he has to leave the drive in the bag and always shoot in recovery. Will the partnership with the coach last? But is it a matter of swing or head? Maybe it's a mental coach what he really lacks, after the death of his father, who passed away in 2006. Now there are the Playoffs ahead. He leads and could become the first to win the FedExCup for the third time. There's a mountain of money at stake, to console himself as he shoots balls for next year's Masters.
Tournament to forget also for Matteo Manassero: +12, 72nd with Phil Mickelson out of 75 players left on the field after the cut. A disappointing result for the twenty-year-old Italian on whom so many expectations are focused. This year Matteo failed to seize the opportunity of the big tournaments in the States, nor that of the majors. It takes a lot of experience and character, as Scott, Rose and Dufner demonstrate, he has a lot of time ahead and many years of grand slam to recover. However, he boasts a very important victory in 2013: The BMW Pga Championship.
Finally, good performance by Francesco Molinari, 33rd place, but not at the level one could hope for.
