PGA Championship: Jason Dufner illustrates golf's 'legend' problem

Winning one of golf’s four Major championships has always been tough. They are set-up to identify the best players in the game – the British Open even calls its winner the “Champion Golfer of the Year”. These days, though, winning two appears to have become all but impossible. Jason Dufner, the creator of Dufnering (google it), became the 15th first-time winner in the last 19 Major tournaments by beating 54-hole leader, Jim Furyk, by two shots at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill on Sunday. Furyk is someone who knows a thing or two about trying to win a second Major – he is still trying after winning the US Open back in 2003. Golf’s four Majors are the Masters, the US Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship. In 2013, three of them were won by players who had never won a Major before: Adam Scott, Justin Rose and Jason Dufner. Phil Mickelson, who won the British Open, is one of only two golfers to have won multiple Majors since the beginning of 2009. The other is Rory McIlroy. Both men have won two. [caption id=“attachment_1026189” align=“aligncenter” width=“380”]  Jason Dufner won his first Major championship at Oak Hills. Reuters[/caption] Going back to the 2008 PGA Championship, there have been 19 different winners over the last 21 Majors. Guys have won in their 20s (McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Martin Kaymer); in their 30s (Scott, Rose, Dufner) and in their 40s (Ernie Els, Darren Clarke, Mickelson). There have been marquee winners – Mickelson, Els – and unheralded surprises – Y.E Yang, Lucas Glover. Majors have been won in all kinds of ways too. Players have run away and hid from the field – McIlroy won the US Open in 2011 by 8 shots and Louis Oosthuizen won the British Open by 7 shots in 2010. There have been guys who gave it away – Scott bogeyed the last four holes to lose the 2012 British Open by a shot while Dufner knew heartbreak at the PGA Championship in 2011, when he threw away a five-shot lead with four holes remaining. And there have been final round heroics too. Most recently Mickelson’s magical 66 at Muirfield last month and Charles Schwartzel birdeing the last four holes to win the Masters back in 2011. What there has not been, however, are guys winning Majors consistently. Only McIlroy has won a Major in consecutive years. The last player to win two in the same year was Padraig Harrington back in 2008 and he hasn’t come close to winning one since. Deeper fields account for some of this trend. There are more players capable of having a great week, increasing the odds of one of them coming out of the pack and getting their hands on a trophy. The main reason, though, might have to do with the one name that has been missing from the list of Major winners over the last five years – Tiger Woods. Woods won 14 Majors in 12 years between 1997 and 2008. He was an unstoppable machine that simply ran over the other players until he literally drove into a tree. Woods is 0-fer-18 since he came back from the accident that wrecked his marriage and knocked him from his perch as the world’s best player. He is, of course, back as World No 1 and has won five times this year. But he can’t seem to close the deal on weekends in the big four championships. Woods has failed to break 70 on Saturday or Sunday in his last 16 rounds and 25 out of his last 28. Those kinds of numbers just aren’t going to get it done. The lack of a dominant player – maybe the most dominating player ever – has opened up the field to everyone else. Suddenly, guys who would have kept one eye on what Woods was doing don’t have to worry about him. Instead, they see a vacuum and everyone is rushing in to try and fill it. It also proves just how good Woods was in his prime. His ability to peak during those four weeks a year is unequalled with the possible exception of Jack Nicklaus, who won 12 Majors over his first 12 years. In all likelihood, it will only be a matter of time before Woods gets back on the horse and wins No 15. Age and injuries have taken their toll, but he is still far too good not to right the ship. And someone will emerge from the pack – maybe McIlroy, maybe Scott – to challenge for the game’s throne. Someone always has. For golf, someone simply has to. For right now though, parity is the name of the game.