Dufner delights in avenging Atlanta pain

Jason Dufner had sat in the media centre two years previously at Atlanta Athletic Club as the disappointed yet philosophical PGA Championship runner-up. Sunday night he was back on stage at Oak Hill as a newly-minted Major champion.

Having tasted bitter defeat to Keegan Bradley in the 2011 PGA, losing a four-shot lead over the final four holes and then a play-off for the title, the American had struck a determined tone that sweltering August evening in the Atlanta suburbs, vowing his setback would not be the defining moment of his life in golf.

“I’m not a history buff as far as golf goes,” Dufner said at his runners-up press conference.