The Duffinator: UNF sophomore Jason Duff fires bogey-free 64 to win Jacksonville Amateur by 11 shots

The best chance for the other 39 players in the final-round field of the 61st Jacksonville Area Golf Association Jacksonville Amateur on Saturday was for Jason Duff to get kidnapped on the Deerwood Country Club’s first tee.

Once he birdied the par-5 first hole, it was off to the races — and someone would have needed a touchdown, a two-point conversion and a field goal to catch him.

Duff, an Elkton resident and sophomore at the University of North Florida, obliterated one of the strongest fields in recent memory with a bogey-free 64 to win the Amateur by 11 shots at 15-under-par 201.

Jacksonville Amateur, round two: Mid-course correction: Jason Duff rallies from double-bogey to regain lead in Jacksonville Amateur

Jacksnville Amateur, round one: Jason Duff, confident and 'humbled' after freshman season at UNF, charges to Jacksonville Amateur lead

He led wire-to-wire. Duff shot his lowest career score in competition, breaking his previous low of 66 that he shot in the opening round of the tournament.

Duff posted the lowest score at the amateur since Sean Dale won in 2011 at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club at 17-under 267 (for 72 holes), and beat the previous low score by seven shots since the tournament went back to 54 holes in 2015.

Records for the entire history of the Jacksonville Amateur weren’t immediately available but Duff, the ASUN freshman of the year, is believed to have set the record for victory margin.

The widest margin in recent years was a nine-shot victory for A.J. Crouch in 2012 at the Sawgrass Country Club.

Duff’s domination was such that he could have recorded a score 10 shots higher and still led wire-to-wire to become the seventh member of the UNF golf team to win the Jacksonville Amateur in the last 12 years, and the 10th in the last 21 years.

“I never expected to come out here and to this,” he said after posting the lowest round in the Jacksonville Amateur since Mike Smith shot 63 at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club Lagoon Course in 2012. “I knew I was playing well but if someone had told me I would have won by 11 shots I would have said they were crazy.”

But playing partner Johnny Watts (73), who tied for second with Luke Cusick (71) at 4-under 212, knows the goods when he sees it. Watts recently got his amateur status back after playing on PGA Tour Latinoamerica and said he rarely saw the focus from guys playing golf for a living as he did out of Duff.

“It was pretty impressive,” said Watts. “It was as close to a flawless round of golf as I’ve ever seen.”

Duff didn’t miss a fairway. One might raise a point that Deerwood’s fairways are generous but Duff missed only two greens — the ninth by two paces and the 18th when he laid up, hit his third shot in the back bunker, over the back pin, but still plopped the ball out to 2 feet from the hole

The last time one of the players in the field was within three shots of Duff was Andrew Riley, when he chipped in for eagle at the par-5 seventh hole. Duff was waiting in the fairway, saw the Creekside graduate make his 3 and knew it wasn’t over.

“Andrew’s an awesome player,” Duff said. “I knew if he got hot, it might be a tournament.”

Instead, it was Duff who turned on the heat.

He hit his second shot at No. 7 to 35 feet and two-putted for a four-shot lead. He then nearly aced the par-3 eighth hole, nestling his tee shot to within 1 foot.

Riley bogeyed three of his next four holes and Duff then grabbed the tournament by the throat when he made three 6-to-8 foot putts in a row — at Nos. 11 and 12 for birdie at No. 13 for eagle.

From then on it was a matter of five stress-free pars.

“I did a very good job at not getting ahead of myself,” Duff said. “I thought I would be nervous on the first tee but I wasn’t, really. I felt like I sort of belonged here. It’s our [UNF] home course … we play out here all the time and I went out there, went through my routine and executed a lot of good golf shots.”

Duff fired at flags to the end. He bounced his third shot at No. 18 near the flagstick but it trickled into the back bunker. Despite short-siding himself, he blasted out to within a pace of the hole, dropped the putt, allowed himself one fist pump and a broad smile, then embraced his family: his father Terry, his mother Pamela, his grandfather Joe and his sister Jess.

UNF coach Scott Schroeder, who was monitoring the tournament online while on the road, said Duff’s victory should serve him well when the team re-assembles in August to begin preparation for the fall season.

“Hopefully he’ll take something from this,” Schroeder said. “When he's in a good spot off the golf course and preparing right, you can see some really good golf. When he's confident, you can see some really good golf. He has the ability to get into a zone where not much else around him is bothering him.”

And Duff dusted off a field that included Watts, a former professional, his UNF assistant coach Jeff Dennis (73) and Agustin Tarrigo, the top amateur from Uruguay (71), who tied for fourth at 3-under.

Also back in the pack were defending champion Mike Smith (72), past Florida State Golf Association player of the year Jeff Golden (69) and Riley (76), who won a U.S. Amateur qualifier five days ago.

“The fact that I could come out here and dominate … it definitely gives me a confidence boost,” Duff said. “It’s knowing that not only can I come out here and compete with anyone but I can come out here and win. I’m definitely going to try to build off this and keep the momentum going in the fall [UNF] season.”

Notable: Bob Dickson of Ponte Vedra Beach served as the honorary starter for the final round, announcing all 14 groups and 40 players over a two-hour period. Dickson, an All-American at Oklahoma State, is one of only four men to win the U.S. and British Amateurs in the same year (1967) and went on to win twice on the PGA Tour and once on PGA Tour Champions. He later worked for the PGA Tour as director of marketing for the TPC Network. … Dickson had six starts in the Greater Jacksonville Open when it was at Deerwood, with a tie for eighth in 1975 and a tie for 12th in 1969. He made four cuts. ... The next five Jacksonville Amateurs will be at San Jose (2023), Timuquana (2024), Jacksonville Golf and Country Club (2025), Sawgrass (2026) and Jacksonville Beach (2027). … Duff got into the field late thanks to the withdrawal of tournament director John Milton, who said he sustained an injury while boating with his grandchildren.

Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com

Jacksonville Amateur Championship 

At Deerwood Country Club 

Par-72, 7,093 yards 

Jason Duff 66-71-64 — 201 

Luke Cusick 71-70-71 — 212 

Johnny Watts 72-67-73 — 212 

Agustin Tarigo 71-71-71 — 213 

Jeff Dennis 71-69-73 — 213 

Thomas Salanito 75-71-68 — 214 

Osborn Theam 69-70-75 — 214 

Sam Ohno 70-74-71 — 215 

Michael Smith 73-71-72 — 216 

Mark Ellison, Jr. 72-70-74 — 216 

Jeff Golden 72-76-69 — 217 

Stewart Slayden 76-72-69 — 217  

Danny Erickson 73-73-71 — 217 

Andrew Riley 72-69-76 — 217 

Andrew Stewart 70-72-76 — 218 

David Palm 70-75-73 — 218 

Johnny Tucker 71-73-75 — 219 

Tyler Brown 72-74-73 — 219 

Pablo Mena 75-73-70 — 218 

Andrew Morris 73-73-73 — 219 

Chase Baldwin 73-77- 69 — 219 

Kevin McDonald 71-74-76 — 221 

Jacob Posze 78-70-73 — 221 

Harrison Harper 72-76-73 — 221 

Peter Catanzaro 75-71-74 — 220 

Raines Holmes 74-73-75 — 222 

Clay Tucker 78-72-72 — 222 

Thomas Murtagh 75-75-72 — 222 

Charles Collings 72-72-79 — 223 

Chris Henderson 72-75-76 — 223 

Jake Newman 76-73-75 — 224 

Zach Lee 78-74- 73 — 225 

Max Barile 69-79-78 — 226 

Mitchell Nolan 74-75-226 

Mitch Howard 75-78- 74 — 227 

Sutanit Tangyingyong 75-75-77 — 227 

Davis Roche 76-75-76 — 227 

Duke Butler IV 74-77- 78 — 229 

Jarod Fasig 80-73- 88 — 241 

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jason Duff goes deep: UNF sophomore wins Jacksonville Amateur by 11 shots with closing 64