The most miserable golfer on the PGA Tour was living up to his name after a torrid start to the third round of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Columbus, Ohio. Jason Dufner began the day five shots clear of the field after setting a 36-hole tournament record. He shot successive rounds of 65, the highlight of those coming at the 18th hole (his ninth) where he holed his approach for an eagle two. Not that you would ever have known it from his reaction.
But after just eight holes last night he was tied for the lead with Daniel Summerhays. Dufner had only dropped one shot on Thursday and Friday but he bogeyed the second, third, fourth and fifth holes to fall back to 10 under par. Dufner, he of the many waggles, is a man whose mood is impossible to gauge. He is a complex character. When he won the US PGA Championship in 2013 he was overweight and in need of a good haircut, but as he came off the final green on that Sunday in August he fell into the arms of Amanda, a beautiful brunette he had married the previous year. He was not the perfect physical specimen, but Dufner seemed to have it all.
He is also responsible for “Dufnering,” which refers to a slumped sitting position with an expressionless face. It originated in March 2013 after a photo went public of Dufner slumped without expression while visiting a youth centre in Irving, Texas. Afterwards fellow pro Keegan Bradley, himself not noted for his joyful demeanour on the golf course, and several other professional golfers good-naturedly mocked Dufner through Twitter and other social media, and “Dufnering” rapidly became a phenomenon.
His marriage collapsed (he and Amanda divorced in 2015), at around the same time that he decided to shed a huge amount of weight and rid himself of his curls. It would be an exaggeration to say that he went into a slump, but his game lost its edge. Worse still, he developed a dose of the screaming heebie-jeebies on the greens. From eight feet and beyond, he remained as good as anybody on the PGA Tour, but put him in close range of the hole and there was no telling what might happen. At times his putter seemed to explode in his hands and he would knock the ball way beyond the cup; on other occasions he would come up woefully short. His putting was a ticking time-bomb, and you cannot win unless you can putt.
Somehow, he has worked his way through it all. His putting remains by far the worst part of his game and it let him down again last night, with three putts from 16ft at the par five fifth hole. He had a birdie try at the sixth from 12 feet but never looked like holing it. The American finally got a shot back at the seventh, another par five, where he hit the green in two and eventually dribbled a five-feet putt into the cup.
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Dufner hits so many iron shots so close that the law of averages suggest that even he is going to hole his share. And so it was over the first 36 holes at Muirfield Village, otherwise known as “Jack’s Place”. Jack Nicklaus is the tournament host and the course and its facilities are his brainchild.
Even before his third-round failings, Dufner’s golf had not been flawless but he only required 25 putts in his second round. In 36 holes he recorded 11 birdies, two eagles and a solitary bogey. On any course, against any calibre of opposition, that will get the job done. Make no mistake, this a seriously tough golf course. Just ask Dustin Johnson, the world No 1, who was propping up the field after an opening round of 78 and missed the cut by five shots. Not that Dufner has always been a fan of Muirfield Village. He missed the cut in his first two appearances at the Memorial in 2009 and 2010 and decided the course wasn’t for him. It all changed when he returned as part of Team USA for the 2013 Presidents Cup, playing a key role in the home team’s 18.5-15.5 victory over the Rest of the World after tapping into the knowledge of his teammates.
“I was kind of giving it up there for a while and wasn’t too excited about playing the Presidents Cup here,” Dufner admitted. “It was a good week for me going forward on this golf course. I picked some of the guys’ brains on the team that year. How do you play these holes? How do you play these situations? And then I was able to use that and come back and have some success.”
He finished in the top 20 in 2014 and played in the final group in the third round with eventual champion David Lingmerth in 2015 before fading. Last year he again started strongly only to tumble down the leaderboard at the weekend, and he will be hoping that history does not repeat itself. “There’s a big challenge on this golf course, it gets a little tougher on the weekend,” he said. “So I won’t be expecting to shoot 14-under on the weekend. But maybe the weather, the soft rain will make the course soft and more playable. So we’ll go from there and see how it goes.”
Dufner’s nearest challenger going into “moving day” was Summerhays, who added a 69 to his opening 66. His nine under par total would normally have seen him leading this tournament, but he had no concerns about making up the deficit. “I’ve played 180-something events now, and I’ve seen a lot of leads evaporate really quick,” Summerhays said. “I’ve also seen guys extend them. I have no idea what will happen, but honestly I can only control what I can control, continue to have the swing thoughts I’ve been having, stay calm inside and continue to play my game.”
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Sure enough, by continuing to do that he found himself level with Dufner as they approached the turn. He birdied the fifth and eighth holes to move to 11 under.
At one point, James Hahn appeared to be on course for something extra special. The 35-year-old, who finished third at the AT&T Byron nelson, has two PGA Tour victories to his credit, bu tends to get bogged down with swing thoughts on occasion. He dropped a shot at the second but then set off on an extraordinary run, with birdies at the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh holes taking him to the turn in 32. He parred the eighth, ninth and 10th and then off he went again, picking up shots at the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th. At that stage he had birdied 10 holes and was nine under par for his round, but he bunkered his tee shot at the par three 16th to drop another shot, and a further bogey followed at the 17th. He settled for a round of 65, which leaves him on five under par.
Bubba Watson progressed to eight under par, one behind Rickie Fowler, a shotmaker whose game should be made for this course.
54-HOLE LEADERBOARD
-13 Daniel Summerhays (US) 66 69 68
-10 Matt Kuchar (US) 69 70 67
-9 Justin Thomas (US) 67 71 69, Jason Dufner (US) 65 65 77, Bubba Watson (US) 71 68 68
-8 Rickie Fowler (US) 70 66 72, Jamie Lovemark (US) 69 69 70
-7 Kevin Kisner (US) 70 69 70, Jordan Spieth (US) 66 72 71, Kevin Streelman (US) 73 69 67
-6 Jason Kokrak (US) 73 67 70, Shane Lowry (Ire) 72 68 70, David Lingmerth (Swe) 65 74 71
-5 Steve Stricker (US) 74 68 69, Pat Perez (US) 70 72 69, Byeong-Hun An (S Kor) 68 72 71, James Hahn (US) 74 72 65, Jim Herman (US) 70 74 67
-4 Bud Cauley (US) 75 67 70, Kyle Stanley (US) 74 67 71, Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 70 71 71, Ross Fisher (Eng) 73 69 70
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