Tiger Woods denies Jason Dufner's plea to alter World Challenge so he can watch Auburn-Missouri

One of Auburn's most famous alums and biggest superfans attempts to change the schedule of an officially sanctioned PGA Tour event. The host was unsympathetic.

For all intents and purposes, the 2013 golf year is over. But 18 of the best and most recognizable players in the world will drop in on the Los Angeles area this week for the World Challenge event, an annual silly season party hosted and put on by Tiger Woods. With all the big names in attendance, and the star power of the host, it's generally more competitive than your regular silly season item.

But that didn't stop Jason Dufner, noted Auburn superfan, from asking Mr. Woods to shorten the event to just 36 holes so he could watch his Tigers play Missouri on Saturday in the SEC Championship Game. Tiger, who's not the most interactive tweeter, responded promptly:

Dufner was recently heralded at Auburn's home game against Georgia, when Jason Dufner Drive was created in the Auburn area where the 2013 PGA Champ also resides.

The ridiculous ending to that game, of course, ended up being just a prelude to the madness of the Iron Bowl that pushed the Tigers to an SEC West title.

But Dufner will find no quarter from Tiger, who's also a college football enthusiast and woke up in the middle of the night in Turkey just last month to watch Stanford knock off previously undefeated Oregon. Maybe Dufner and Woods can bond over those upsets on Saturday at Sherwood Country Club, which will be about as far away from and as different an atmosphere as the one in Atlanta.

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Inbee Park’s 3 straight major wins is No. 15 of 2013’s Top 25 golf stories

Inbee Park, with six tour wins, dominated the LPGA in 2013 -- but the three straight major championship wins by the world No. 1 and her quest for a record-breaking fourth made the golf world sit up and take notice.

Inbee Park wrapped up an historic season on the LPGA with two top-5 finishes in the tour’s season-ending events -- the first Player of the Year honor ever bestowed on a Korean golfer -- and as the world No. 1. What propelled the seemingly dispassionate "Silent Assassin" to heights she never imagined herself scaling were six wins, a trio of which came in the first three major championships of the year.

"Many people say I look effortless. They also say I'm emotionless. Some people started calling me the 'Silent Assassin,'" Park said after accepting her PoY award last month, according to GolfChannel.com’s Randall Mell. "Just because I don’t show my emotions doesn’t mean I don’t feel anything. What I have gone through this year is more challenging than anything I’ve gone through in my life. The season seemed endless."

Counting down 2013's top 25 golf stories

• No. 25: Rory moves to Nike, misery follows 

• No. 24: Ko wins again, 16-year old turns pro 

• No. 23: Stenson dominates both tour playoffs

• No. 22: Snow! Floods! Wind! Lightning! 

• No. 21: Guan steals show at Masters

• No. 20: Spieth makes history, arrives as game's next great

• No. 19: Tiger goes majorless

• No. 18: Woods threatens 59 at Firestone

• No. 17: Vijay PED drama leads to lawsuit

• No. 16: Phil's cruel lip-out prevents historic 59

Park, who set herself the goal of someday winning a career grand slam and, more immediately, enjoying happiness, found herself in elite company and in the public eye after capturing the Kraft Nabisco, LPGA Championship, and U.S. Women’s Open. Along with the legendary Babe Zaharias, she was only the second player to win the first three majors of the year. 

"Trying to put my name next to hers means just so much," Park said after her four-shot triumph over I.K. Kim at Sebonack in June. "I would think I would never get there; it's somewhere that I've never dreamed of. But all of a sudden, I'm there." 

In Zaharias’ day, back in 1950, there were just three majors to win. With five, thanks to the elevation of the Evian Championship to choice status in 2013, debate raged as to whether a clean sweep was necessary for Park to notch a true Grand Slam. 

"I think the British Open is one I have to win," said Park. "So it would be great if I could win five, but I still think four means a Grand Slam. 

"I think four out of five is very big," she added with a laugh. 

On the brink of earning an unprecedented fourth straight major in the same calendar year, Park was also suddenly in the same conversation as Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam. 

"This is just one of the most dominant stretches of golf we have ever seen. It is history in the making today and it reminds you of what Tiger Woods has done, what Rory McIlroy has been able to do in a couple of majors," NBC’s Dan Hicks said during the broadcast of the Women's U.S. Open finale. "It is that level of golf and it only comes so rarely." 

Sorenstam, the World Golf Hall of Famer to whom Paula Creamer compared Park, concurred. 

"This is an incredible feat," the 10-time major champion remarked during the final-round telecast. "I hope people understand that." 

Park did not contend in either the Women’s British Open (she finished 42nd) or the Evian (67th), but she certainly met her own objective along the way. 

"More than anything, though, I, the `Silent Assassin,’ am most proud that I kept my eye on the higher goal -- happiness," she said during the LPGA’s annual awards banquet, according to Doug Ferguson. "I found it."

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Spieth set to end year with bang at World Challenge

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Everything's bigger in Texas – except Jordan Spieth's noggin.

The Lone Star megastar has every reason to stick out his chest, raise his head to the sky and boast about his fantastic feats, especially when he knows he took the world by storm in 2013 as a teen-ager. A storm, mind you, that included nearly $4 million in earnings, his first PGA Tour win (that came with a John Deere tractor, no less, and an invitation to next year's Masters), nine top-10s, PGA Tour rookie of the year honors and becoming the youngest U.S. player in the history of the Presidents Cup.

And Spieth, who became the youngest winner on Tour since 1931, ends the year with a place in the field for Tiger Woods' Northwestern Mutual World Challenge that starts Thursday at Sherwood Country Club in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, where last-place money is $100,000.

Yet Spieth remains grounded and brags as often as he has four-putt, knowing last year at this time he was taking his finals at the University of Texas. That he had crashed out of the second stage of Q School a year ago and had to start the season with no status on the PGA Tour. That he was ranked No. 810 after he missed the cut in his first Tour event as a professional.

PGA TOUR: McIlroy beats Scott to win Australian Open 

"It's great to look back at what happened to be in this scenario and learn from the positives," said Spieth, now 20 and ranked No. 22 in the world. "But all in all, I think the way to have success (in 2014) is to not dwell too much on the past and focus on the best players in the world that I'm playing against now week-in and week-out. 

" … Each year I think going back to when I was 12 years old, I've improved. My dad always, a big thing for him was to say just try to look back at each month and see if you got a little better each month at something." 

Spieth also learned there's a fine line between first and last, that a year changes at the end of a hole-out. Like the hole-in-one he had in Puerto Rico that led to a top-10 that got him into the tournament the following week in Tampa, where he had a hole-out on the 71st hole for another top-10. And there was the bunker shot he made on the 72nd hole in the John Deere that got him into a playoff he would go on to win. 

"It was funny looking back and noticing how many times I holed out where it was really important," Spieth said. "A lot of it required luck, so sometimes it's better to be lucky." 

In a meeting with his instructor Cameron McCormick to look back on 2013 and forward to 2014, Spieth discovered after a check on his stats that he needs to improve on his long iron play and short game around the greens. Further, Spieth wants to wash the bad taste out of his mouth that was left behind the result of his play in the majors, where he missed the cut in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship and finished in a tie for 44th at the British Open. 

"Now I'm able to be in all four of them and pick my schedule leading up to them to have the best success I can there versus not even knowing I was going to be in a couple of them until one of them a day before," Spieth said. "All in all, I'll be well-rested with a better game plan this year for the majors, and that is going to be a big focus on trying to play all four weekends and really getting competitive in them and just try to see what it feels like." 

All in all, Spieth would rather look ahead than behind. 

"I think maybe later in life I'll look back at the year more than I am right now," the Dallas resident said. "I think that what I did throughout last season was adjust goals and set new goals that would be based on the tournaments I was getting into, and I think that that just needs to continue. I don't think that a break for a couple months needs to stop any momentum or the way I was thinking. So I'm just going to try to adjust my goals and see what happens the first half of the year and see what goes from there."

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