PGA Championship Wrap-Up

I don't have a lot more to add beyond what has already been said.  I was certainly wrong about both Dufner and Furyk.  I didn't think either of them would break 72 on Sunday -- instead Furyk shot a 71 and Dufner fired a 68.

On the other hand, I was right about Oak Hill turning up a relatively obscure winner -- Dufner is 36 years old and this is only his third victory on the PGA Tour.  Having said that, I'm glad that they made Oak Hill easy enough that we got to see a lot of birdies.  That made for a more entertaining tournament.

I also wish to say that the folks who are claiming that Tiger has had a bad year because he didn't win a major don't know what they're talking about:

-- Tiger regained the number-one ranking in the world.

-- Tiger has won five tournaments this year, something that very few golfers have ever done.  (So he's won as many PGA tournaments this year as Dufner and Henrik Stenson have combined to win in their careers.)

-- Tiger has won the Players' Championship and two of the three World Golf Championship events.

-- Tiger is currently first in the Fed Ex point race, even though he has only played in 12 events.  Matt Kuchar, who has played in 19 events, is second.  Tiger leads Kuchar by 3,059 points to 2,293.

-- Tiger finished in the top 10 in both the Masters and the British Open.

By any normal standards, this is one of the great years of all time, and it's silly to pretend otherwise.

Anyway, congratulations to Jason Dufner and congratulations to golf fans, who got to see four pretty entertaining major tournaments this year:

1.  J. Dufner:  -10 (68+63+71+68=270)

2.  J. Furyk:  -8 (65+68+68+71=272)

3.  H. Stenson (SWE):  -7 (68+66+69+70=273)

4.  J. Blixt (SWE):  -6 (68+70+66+70=274)

T5.  S. Piercy:  -5 (67+71+72+65=275)
T5.  A. Scott (AUS):  -5 (65+68+72+70=275)

7.  D. Toms:  -4 (71+69+69+67=276)

T8.  J. Day (AUS):  -3 (67+71+72+67=277)
T8.  D. Johnson:  -3 (72+71+65+69=277)
T8.  Z. Johnson:  -3 (69+70+70+68=277)
T8.  R. McIlroy (NIR):  -3 (69+71+67+70=277)

Here is next year's schedule for the majors:

The Masters:  April 10-13, 2014 (Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga.)
U.S. Open:  June 12-15, 2014 (Pinehurst Resort (No. 2 Course), Pinehurst, N.C.)
British Open:  July 17-20, 2014 (Royal Liverpool, Hoylake, England)
PGA Championship:  August 7-10, 2014 (Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville, Ky.)