Adam Scott, reigning Masters champion and a contender in virtually every major he enters these days, once again got himself in contention. But in the end, it was Dufner who stood tallest and iced the cake after shooting 63 on Friday to tie the all-time major low score and break the course record which had been shared by his idol Ben Hogan.
"For me to be competitive on this type of golf course, I felt like I had to have a great week ball-striking and I was able to do it. I hit a lot of fairways. If I did miss the fairways, I wasn't in the thick, thick stuff, so I could manage to get it up by the greens," said Dufner.
"When I did hit the fairways, I hit a ton of greens, and that was the difference for me," he continued. "My scrambling was pretty good today. I see I only didn't get one ball up and down. That was on the last. But I felt like if I wanted to compete this week, I really had to put one of my best weeks ball-striking so far this year."
Furyk couldn’t be accused of losing this one, even with consecutive bogeys to finish. He seemed to be at peace with his effort and in some way, must have felt that he silenced a few critics who had been on his back after 2012.
"I have a lot of respect for the way Jason played and how well he struck the ball," said Furyk. "He seemed to be in the middle of most fairways. He seemed to be on the green with a chance for birdie on almost all the greens, and heck, if he got hot with the putter today, who knows what he would have shot.
"He (Dufner) didn't miss very many fairways and he hit some really good iron shots. I look back; he hit it a foot on five, eight and 16. I mean, tap in birdies. I don't know if it makes anything easy or less easy, but I don't look at it as I lost the golf tournament. I look at it as I got beat by somebody that played better today."
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