BEREA, Ohio - On July 29, Jason Dufner stopped by Cleveland Browns training camp to visit a couple friends and see the team he's been rooting for since he was old enough to know what football was.
Maybe it's just coincidence, but all Dufner has done since is make himself $1,766,666.66.
Yes, exactly $1,766,666.66. A pretty good chunk of change.
That's the result of his tie for fourth in Akron at the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational and the biggest check of Dufner's career, which he earned last weekend by winning the PGA Championship in Rochester, N.Y.
Dufner has been on fire since visiting the Browns, a visit set up by Browns quarterback and occasional Dufner golfing partner Brandon Weeden. During his visit, Dufner also spent a few minutes with fellow Auburn alum and new Browns linebacker Quentin Groves.
"We met at an event at Auburn, and since we've kind of stayed in touch and last year I even ran into him at an airport," Groves said. "When he came out here two weeks ago, I just told him that I'd be rooting and watching. I didn't know I'd be screaming at the TV with him winning a major, but I was."
The Browns finished practice Sunday in time for Groves and Weeden to watch Dufner play the final three holes of the PGA Championship and hold off second-place finisher Jim Furyk by two strokes.
"Tell Jason I need my cut of all that money," Groves said. "He's been really good since he stopped by here."
Dufner lived in Olmsted Township in the western Cleveland suburbs until he was 11.
With his PGA Championship victory, Dufner essentially stamped his ticket back to Ohio for the President's Cup in early October. The top 10 Americans in the World Golf Rankings automatically qualify for the event, and with his win in Rochester Dufner moved from 13th to a comfortable sixth among American golfers.
Dufner's jump likely means three of 2013's four major winners will play in the President's Cup, which will be held at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin.
Dufner was No. 23 before the Bridgestone Invitational, then jumped to No. 8 in the world rankings last week.
