PITTSFORD, N.Y. — All week, Jim Furyk was reminded that he had the lead at the U.S. Open last year and lost it. Not surprisingly, it was not his favorite subject.

It was negative thinking, Furyk said. It was not fun. And it was also not forward thinking. In his mind, he had a future, and that was what he wanted to talk about.

“I’m not in the grave,” Furyk, 43, said.

The winner of the U.S. Open 10 years ago, he planned to win more majors, perhaps starting with the 2013 PGA Championship, which he led by one stroke over Jason Dufner as the final round began at Oak Hill Country Club.

But Sunday was not Furyk’s day almost from the beginning. Usually precise to the point of being boring, Furyk was spraying tee shots and missing greens. And he was playing a golfer seven years his junior who knocked nearly every drive down the middle and hit approach shots to tap-in distances.

The PGA Championship turned out to be a celebration of the game’s rising stars. There was Dufner, who won going away, and also a young guard behind him: Jonas Blixt, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy — all in the top 10.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were an afterthought, faltering and virtually out of sight by the time the national television coverage began.

Furyk shot a 71, a solid round on a difficult scoring day. He certainly did not give away the tournament or squander a chance at victory. But as the veteran, Furyk did miss chances to put pressure on Dufner, who, like all players chasing a first major victory, could have wavered if the pressure had been intense enough. Furyk knew this, but he could not find the shots to make the final holes more nerve-racking.

“I do wish I could have turned up the heat on him a little,” Furyk said Sunday evening, standing behind the Oak Hill clubhouse. “I wanted to do that but just couldn’t get the ball where I wanted it.”

Furyk is a grinder, a hard-nosed player who has built a reputation as a player of perseverance with a bulldog mentality. But on Sunday he was fighting an uphill battle throughout, and not just because his swing was slightly off.

The crowd at Oak Hill was decidedly for Dufner, the people’s champion with a paunch. Furyk was cheered for his good shots, but as the two walked down the fairways of the back nine, the hooting and hollering were all for Dufner. Furyk took long, steady strides with his head down.

Furyk’s last good chance to put some pressure on Dufner was at the shortish par-5 13th hole. With his second shot, instead of laying up 100 yards short of the green, Furyk tried to chase a shot as close to the green as he could.

It was a mistake. His ball ended up in deep rough, 50 yards from the hole. His pitch from there did not reach the green, and he settled for a par as Dufner, playing conservatively, also made par and held on to a two-stroke lead — the eventual margin of victory.

Furyk gritted his teeth and marched on. But he knew what had been lost.

“I tried to get aggressive there, and I had a wedge in my hand,” he said. “But it didn’t work out.”

When it was over, Furyk was defeated but not crestfallen.

“There have been other times when the tournament slipped through my fingers,” he said. “But I have no regrets this time. I played my heart out.”

Furyk is far from over the hill, but as Woods is increasingly becoming aware, there are only so many good opportunities to win a major golf championship, and Furyk acknowledged that on Sunday.

“We only get four shots a year at one of these,” he said. “Four chances every season. It’s hard to talk yourself into saying it’s just another tournament.”

With that, Furyk walked toward the clubhouse; kissed his wife, Tabitha, on the forehead; and started the long process of bringing his clubs to a courtesy car in the parking lot. He passed and waved at a gaggle of fans who cheered him.

There was another media interview, and Furyk went back 10 years to his lone major victory. He called that accomplishment more of a relief than fun.

Furyk recently began working with the sports psychologist Bob Rotella, and he said Saturday and Sunday that he was going to try to get more enjoyment out of championship moments, even if they ended in defeat.

“If I continued down the same road with the same attitude I had 10 years ago, it wasn’t as much fun as it needed to be,” he said. “I just didn’t want to be that way anymore.

“Last year at the U.S. Open, I feel like it was my tournament to win, and I wasn’t able to do it. Today, I feel like I got beat.”

Furyk then did something unusual for him and uncommon for the circumstances. He smiled. Answering another question a minute later, he laughed. He looked more at ease than he had all week.

“I’ve had some chances to close the door, and I haven’t done it,” Furyk said. “But I guess it’s the days like this that will make the next one sweeter.”