Jason Dufner’s red-hot month continues at Colonial

Fort Worth, Texas — Everywhere you go in Fort Worth, signage promoting the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial can be found.

On billboards driving down I-30, bus stops in downtown, and in convenience store windows, there’s no way you can miss the fact that the PGA Tour is in town this week.

The ads feature David Tom, Jim Furyk and Rickie Fowler, three of the tournament’s most prominent names. But the hottest golfer on the planet? He’s nowhere to be found in the advertisements … even though he’s in the field at Colonial.

By now you probably know who we’re talking about. That would be Jason Dufner, a guy who, until last week, was considered “just another PGA Tour winner” to a lot of fans.

But following his win at the HP Byron Nelson Championship, which capped an incredible run of two wins in 22 days, it seems like everyone wants to get a glimpse of the quiet golfer with the mop of brown hair.

As one kid told his dad as they were talking to the tournament on Thursday, “I want to see Rickie Fowler and Jason Dufner.” Rickie Fowler I can understand.

But Jason Dufner? The way he’s been playing of late, maybe it isn’t so crazy. Dating back to his win in April at the Zurich Classic, he’s now carded 9 sub-70 rounds in his last four starts, including Thursday’s opening round at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial where he fired a 5-under 65 and sits just one shot off the lead.

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, but the way things are going for Dufner at the moment, you have to wonder when the incredible run is going to stop. On a day when his iron play was off — he hit only 66 percent of his greens in regulation — Dufner had the putter going, needing only 26 putts to get around Colonial’s greens.

Dufner seems to have a fix for everything these days. At some point the streak is going to end and the wheels are going to fall off — at least for one round — but for now it appears as if the two-time winner can do no wrong.

If this 26 days run has taught us anything, it’s that Jason Dufner has staying power in golf. As much as we want to believe the next big superstar on the PGA Tour is a twentysomething (and it most likely is), the best player in golf at this very moment is a dude from Auburn, Ala., who walks around with a dip in his lip.

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