LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jason Dufner, the PGA Championship defending champion, said Wednesday he is suffering from a neck injury that has limited his play. Dufner, who had not played a practice round this week until playing nine holes Wednesday, said he had an epidural Monday to alleviate the pain.
“I didn’t play very well last week [at Bridgestone],’’ he said. “I’m hoping this week I’ll be able to feel a little bit better, get through 72 holes. Obvious reasons for playing this week — defending is pretty important to me. Being on the Ryder Cup, I’m right on the edge of those points [eighth]. There’s a lot of points this week. That’s an important thing for me to try and be part of. Hopefully I can have a good week.’’
Dufner said he first began feeling the neck pain at the Masters in April and that is has worsened since the U.S. Open last month.
“To be honest, it’s kind of a blessing,’’ Dufner said. “I need to take a serious look at my health and maybe make a better effort to be in better shape, because if you don’t have your health out here, as you see with a pretty prominent player [Tiger Woods] it’s pretty hard to be competitive out here.’’
The happiest person at Valhalla on Wednesday when Tiger Woods showed up had to be Phil Mickelson, who is paired with Woods for the first two rounds along with Padraig Harrington.
Mickelson has been outspoken about how much playing with Woods elevates his game, and the results in recent head-to-head meetings have proven that.
Before 2007, Woods used to own Mickelson when the two were paired together. Since 2007, though, Mickelson has an 8-5-1 head-to-head advantage. Over that time, Mickelson is 5-0 in final-round matchups, with a cumulative 19-stroke edge.
“We rarely get paired together,” Mickelson said. “As much as I love playing with him, playing against him, trying to beat him. I get excited to play with Tiger, I love it. I think we all do. He brings out the best out of me.”
Jack Nicklaus, who has the record for most majors with 18, on Wednesday made a bold prediction about Rory McIlroy.
“It depends on what he feels his priorities are, and that’s his call,’’ Nicklaus said on ESPN Radio. “I think Rory has an opportunity to win 15 or 20 majors or whatever he wants to do if he wants to keep playing. But you just don’t know what the guy’s priorities are going to be in life 10 years from now.”
U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson said Steve Stricker will be one of his vice captains next month at Gleneagles in Scotland. Stricker will join Watson’s other vice captains, Andy North and Raymond Floyd.
Interestingly, Stricker is a good friend of Woods’ and has had a lot of team success playing alongside Woods, who is well off the points list and needs Watson to choose him as a wild-card pick for the team.
Stricker, who would love to play on a fourth Ryder Cup team, has one more chance to get on the team as a player — if he wins the PGA Championship this week.
“I’ve got one more shot left,’’ Stricker said.
Woods, who played nine holes with Stricker, praised the move by Watson.
“It’s fantastic, because ‘Strick’ is not only a good guy, he’s also one of our peers,’’ Woods said. “You have Tom, Raymond as well as Andy, who don’t play out here anymore [and] don’t really know the guys.
“I think it’s important to have someone who is out here on a regular basis, who knows the guys, knows their personalities, knows their games inside and out. I think that’s well deserved. Also a pretty smart move as well.’’
Frank Esposito, the head pro at Brooklake Country Club in Florham Park, N.J., is playing in his third major championship of the year this week at the PGA. He earlier played in the Senior PGA and the Senior Open.
Esposito, 51, has a score to settle with the PGA Championship, for which he qualified through his fourth-place finish in the PGA Professional National Championship. In the 2008 PGA at Oakland Hills, Esposito was on the leaderboard in the second round before faltering on the back nine and missing the cut.
“He was on the leaderboard with nine holes left on Friday [in 2008], and he made two double bogeys on back nine and a bogey and missed the cut by a shot, and I think that still haunts him a little bit,’’ said Len Siter, the head pro at Mountain Ridge Country Club in West Caldwell, N.J., who coaches Esposito. “It took him a while to recover from that.’’
Esposito, a Staten Island native who went to Rutgers, called that ’08 PGA “a good experience.”
“I played really good, but coming down the stretch I got ahead of myself and made a couple bad swings from rushing,” he said. “But that’s part the process, and now we’re working on not doing that. That’s a process that me and Lenny are working on. The more I play, every time you do it, it gets easier.’’
Esposito’s larger goal is qualifying for the Champions Tour. He finished 22nd last year in Champions Tour Qualifying School, which gets him into Monday qualifiers. This year, he wants to finish in the top 5 at Q School to become fully exempt.
“It’s a big target right now, it’s the next step,’’ Esposito said. “That’s why I’m trying to focus on. Yeah, it’s a money thing, but I’m 51 and how many years do I have left? This is the next step. I think my game is good enough to do it. It’s an opportunity I have, like being here this week. How many more opportunities do you have to play in regular major? We’ll see what happens.’’