Jim Furyk - Part 3 (Tour Wins, The Tour Championship and Shooting 58)

Mike Gonzalez 0:16

So Tiger Woods had his first win here back in the 1974 uh Western Open, I believe, uh that was played at uh at Olympia Fields.

SPEAKER_05 0:26

Uh Tiger Woods.

Mike Gonzalez 0:28

Sorry, sorry, not Tiger Woods, Tom Watson.

SPEAKER_05 0:30

Tom Watson.

Mike Gonzalez 0:30

Different TW, right? He had his first tournament.

SPEAKER_05 0:33

I didn't realize that. I didn't even know the Western Open was at Olympia Fields.

Mike Gonzalez 0:36

You know, they moved it around uh before it got to Butler National and uh and yeah, he won his first tournament there, didn't he?

Bruce Devlin 0:42

Played it beverly. They played quite a quite a bunch of different golf courses in the early days. Wow.

Mike Gonzalez 0:50

So you you you come off your high and uh go to the Buick Open and win that by two over several guys, including Mr. Woods.

Jim Furyk 0:57

Yeah. Uh so that was actually, I think, my one, my best year to that time. Not only won a major championship, but also won multiple events in a year. And so uh it was kind of fun to win uh more than one event in a season and and then also just just have such a good solid year. Um and and the uh Flint's always been uh I always loved that golf course. I had I think I played uh I had a number of top tens, maybe maybe ten top tens at that golf course throughout the years. Uh kind of a short, tight golf course, a lot of short irons in your hand. Uh it just really suited my style of game. I always enjoyed going there. And uh I also uh now it's on the champions tour, so I picked Flint out as uh a great place to start my champions tour career and was able to win my first event on the champions tour there in my first week. So uh really uh special spot for me. I enjoy Flint. Um Allies, now the title sponsor there, and they've been uh they've been wonderful for the event.

Mike Gonzalez 1:57

So, Jim, we come to 2004, and uh my notes say wrist surgery. I assume that stems from that football injury you mentioned earlier.

Jim Furyk 2:07

Different wrist. Different wrist, right? Yes, uh first one was the right, uh second one was the left, but same thing, tearing the TFCC. So uh again, overuse, um, nothing I did other than golf. Uh just started bothering me in the fall of 03 and just never really went away. And uh and then by the time I got to January, February of of uh 04, just couldn't couldn't get it done, couldn't play. So uh the only only you know kind of a scary moment really in your career because you start to have surgery, you start thinking, well, if it doesn't go well, if I never recover, don't get the strength back. Uh you know, well looking back, it wasn't that big of a deal. Um but uh at the time it was kind of a scary thought. So uh uh surgery in both 04 uh on my left wrist and then again in uh 16 on my left wrist. So both uh both both different spots. But uh for one reason or another, that's kind of what's you know, I've been lucky with some back injuries, I've been lucky with a lot of different things, and and never really having too much to worry about, but but uh the left wrist seems to be the it takes the brunt uh in my swing. And I mentioned earlier that you know when I first hurt my right wrist, I had to you know learn to become a little maybe more efficient in my practice, and I don't know if I heeded the warning so well uh in 01 and then in 04 I really uh had to learn how to how to practice better uh because I just didn't have the ability to uh to hit the number of balls and to bang the balls that I was used to. Um and the doc that I worked with has become a good friend, and and I had a pitch count uh of 25 golf balls a day uh for for quite a while in that recovery. That's not a lot of balls uh when you think about it. That's that's something that's including that's including your warm-up. And and man, I poured everything I could into those 25 balls. I mean, I I ground it out every day and and uh to try to get ready and get better, and and I was able to come back in 04 and bear barely get back. The goal was to try to make it back to uh Shinnecock to defend my uh U.S. Open title uh from 03, and uh I was able to do it, but uh you know, struggling. I didn't hit a driver at home and uh because I was kind of building up day by day, and the first drivers I hit were actually at Shinnecock uh in my recovery. So um, but it was fun to kind of go back and and get a chance to defend, and I was able to just kind of squeak in and make the cut. So uh, you know, I needed some time to kind of build up some uh some strength and and uh stamina. And the doc the doc was spot on. He said, I'll have you playing in three months. He goes, You're gonna think you're 100% at six months, but in all honesty, you'll be 100% at nine months. So, you know, uh he was right, he was right on. At six months, I was like, man, he's nuts. I feel great. And then I got to nine months kind of end of the year, and I go, Yeah, I'm a lot stronger now. It feels better. So uh I was kind of I was kind of ready to hit the ground running in 05 uh after that surgery in 04 because I had missed so much of the season.

Bruce Devlin 5:11

And oh five was pretty uh was pretty good because you uh you you uh uh were able to handle Tiger Woods again at the Western Open. You beat him by two shots there, so that had to make it feel good.

Jim Furyk 5:25

Yeah, I think the injury uh got me really focused again on on uh just trying to get better and playing. And uh when something gets taken away for a little while, you you realize how important it is to you, and I worked really hard. I think if you look at uh like world rankings, the best I'd ever gotten to in the rankings was kind of through that 05-06 era where I had a probably close to a 16-month stretch where I I sat on that number two number for a while. And to put it in, I guess to put it in in perspective, they give you a value, you know, on the official world golf ranking. Uh Tigers was somewhere around 18, like 16 to 18. Mine was six. So he had trip he had pretty much triple the number of points of the rest of the, you know, the rest of us uh at that time when he was number one. But um I was real proud of the way I played in 05 and 06, uh, the consistency, uh, the number of opportunities I had to win golf tournaments, and and uh and it was reflected in uh in the highest ranking I'd ever had.

Mike Gonzalez 6:28

And winning some golf tournaments on I mean over your career on some very, very challenging and solid golf courses. Uh you know, Cog Hills No Slouch, Dub's Dread. Uh that was 15 minutes from my house, so I had a chance to play it as a younger man quite often. Yep. And that's a that was a real toss there, wasn't it?

Jim Furyk 6:48

Absolutely. And I was able to play uh I played a Western Junior there as well. I won uh I won the Western Junior uh at Michigan State uh at their golf course. I think it was uh possibly Forrest Acres, but uh at Michigan State, and then defending that at the age of 18 was at Cog Hill. So it was kind of my first first chance to to see that golf course and um and then to actually have a PJ tour event there uh later on. I think uh they weren't playing the Western Open there when I played the junior event, but uh to go back and kind of see it as a as a professional and then also win the Western Open was a lot of fun.

Mike Gonzalez 7:23

Yeah, and our Chicago listeners will remember the name Joe Gemstick, too. Jim was really our uh uh Joe Gemstick was sort of the father of public golf in Chicago for many, many, many years. And uh Frank now runs uh runs the organization. It was a great tournament sponsored by uh the Western Golf Society. Of course, many of our listeners know what their mission is, which is the Evan Scholar program. It was uh really the the oldest uh uh running tournament around, except for probably a couple, the U.S. Open, maybe one other for the longest time until it then transitioned to the BMW uh series, didn't it? Right.

Jim Furyk 8:00

Yeah. Just proud. I'm actually I've always had a great relationship with the Western Open. And so uh I never won the amateur, it was one of my favorite events. It was at uh a place called Point of Woods in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Great golf course. Yeah, uh and never had never never played as well there as I would have liked, but uh I did win the junior and I did win the the open, so I've got two of the three. Yeah, two of the three of the of the Western Slam.

Mike Gonzalez 8:22

Yeah. The following year you went to Quail Hollow, another solid course, of course. That's hosted a number of uh different championships, uh, winning the Waukovia Championship uh in a playoff with Trevor Immelman.

Jim Furyk 8:33

Yep, uh kind of stole that one a little bit. Trevor played really well. We went up the 18th hole. Uh he's got me by a shot. Uh we both drove it in the fairway, and I think I missed the green right. And uh pin was front left. Trevor hit a shot kind of to pretty deep in the green, but in the center of the green. And the pin was in a spot where tough chip, tough putt. And I kind of had a feeling if I could somehow manage to get that one up and down, it would put a lot of pressure on him to two putt. You know, it was going to be tough for him to get that first putt inside five feet. And uh, I was able to get my my pitch shot to about 10 feet, make the putt, and he later missed the putt to win the event. So we went to a playoff and um I was able to able to win on the first extra hole. So uh Quail is a Quail is a place that was real good to me early in my career, and I had been in a couple at least two playoffs there. Uh I think I finished second there twice, won there once, uh big long, hard golf course. Big long um and as I again as I got a little older in my career, it kept getting longer and I kept getting shorter. It was uh it was a bad combo. It's one of one of those places that uh I really enjoyed playing, and it was one of my one of my favorite courses. So uh I think there's events that I could have won there that didn't work out. That's one that probably Trevor should have won, but uh you know I was able to uh come away from it with a W.

Bruce Devlin 10:00

Later that year you won the Canadian Open, and then guess what happened the year after that? You defended your championship at the Canadian Open, back-to-back winners.

Jim Furyk 10:09

Yeah, able to do that twice in my career. I uh I think I won Vegas in 98-99 and then won the uh Canadian in 06-07. So uh, you know, the interesting thing with that, though, the Canadian Open, it's held on two different golf courses.

Bruce Devlin 10:22

Right.

Jim Furyk 10:22

So uh, you know, one was I think at Hamilton in 06, which is a wonderful course, and then Angus Glenn in 07. Um it's always unique when you when you defend a tournament uh that's not on the same golf course, right? Because it's it's always fun to go back to that course where you hit so many good shots, where you made so many putts, and it gives you you know, if you're playing well, it oh man, I you know, I won here last year. It's this great feeling. If you're not playing well, you go in there and it's just that nostalgia sometimes can can draw you right out and you start playing well. But uh, you know, the Canadian Open uh played it a number of times, RBC, uh one of my sponsors for a number of years, and and also titles uh the Heritage, and the Heritage is one of my is is actually my favorite event on the PJ tour. So um, you know, the Canadians, you ever you go on the golf channel, you notice like there'll be 10 callers in. It seems like eight of them are always always from Canada. Uh they they they they they love golf. They love the golf. Season short, but they love golf.

Mike Gonzalez 11:18

Yeah, they do. Uh we're we're leading up to uh another outstanding year you had in 2010, but I gotta ask you, between 07 and 010, uh maybe you had a lot of seconds or thirds or fourths, uh, no wins, but what was going on during that time?

Jim Furyk 11:32

Uh playing well, but not not just not finishing it off. You know, not not not able to get some W's. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I think uh trying a little too hard at times. Um and really, yeah, I had a lot of opportunities, and sometimes I just got beat. Sometimes the guy just just played better, and other times I I beat myself and didn't close the door. So there's a little of both of that. And by the time O ten got there, I was or O ten, by the time 2010 got there, I um yeah, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I wanted to kind of get over the hump and get that W. And and uh I had played an event in Durral the week before uh Tampa, and it was a funny week. So you gotta bear with me on this story a little bit, because it you just brought you brought a memory up. Uh the first two days I was paired with Roy McElroy and Adam Scott. And they were hitting it about 30 yards by me. So, yeah, this is still I'm 40 years old, you know. I wasn't old, um, but they're hitting it a good 30 yards by me. I'm probably being being nice to myself, but we'll go with 30. Um and I was playing really well. Like I was in, you know, I was in the top 15 in the tournament. I was playing well, and then I got paired on Saturday with this guy that I never heard of from Europe named Alvaro Kiros. And so he kind of popped one, he kind of popped one up on the first hole and knocked it about 30 by me, but I didn't really pay attention that he didn't hit it really good. And uh, and everyone else had been hitting 30 by me, so I didn't really think about it. And then he tried to drive the second green. And uh when I saw him pull driver, I'm like, well, he's gonna knock it up there 40 yards short of the green, down win. You know, he's gonna have no shot with this wedge, the pins cut over a bunker. You know, this is the dumbest play I've ever seen. And it left the club and it flew like five yards short of the green. And I went, oh my goodness. Wow. I go, who is this guy? You know, like he he hits it, so now he's hitting it 50 by me or 60 by me all day. And then I get paired with another guy that I had never played with and didn't really know his game very well on Sunday by the name of Dustin Johnson.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Yeah.

Jim Furyk 13:39

He's hitting it 50 by me. And you know, hitting it then. He used to hit kind of a like a flat draw, like it was a boring, hard draw.

Bruce Devlin 13:48

Bullet.

Jim Furyk 13:49

And now he hits that high fade, but and he's hitting it 50 by me. And uh, the funny part about this event is I I finished ninth in the tournament. I finished top 10. I was playing good, but I left there going, I need another driver. Like I need to find a driver because I mean these guys are dropping mail on me left and right. This this game's getting hard. So I went to Tampa and Innisbrook and walked in the Cowway trailer Monday morning as early as I could get there, and I went, we need to build a driver. Like, we need to build something that goes farther than what I'm hitting. And so we talked about it, we tried a few things, and I put a new driver into play that week uh that I was hitting uh significantly farther and still pretty straight than what I had before.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Interesting.

Jim Furyk 14:35

And I won that week. Uh I was playing well, but it was kind of a nice that I got on a really good roll with that driver. Uh, I won there. I won a one about a month later, month and a half later at RBC.

Bruce Devlin 14:49

Right.

Jim Furyk 14:49

And right after that, that bro driver broke. It uh I blew out something in the soul, and I never found another one that I liked near as much as that. So I spent the rest of the rest of that summer kind of searching for a driver that I really liked. Um and then switched into a new driver uh later in the year that I won the tour championship with. So um 2010 has a great feel. The Tampa, the one thing I remember about Tampa, it was just I got the monkey off my back, to be honest with you. Um put a lot of pressure on myself to win a tournament, and then when I did, um, you know, I it was more instead of joy really winning at uh at Innisbrook, which is now the Valspar, I can't remember what it was then, um winning that event instead of joy, it was more a relief. It was kind of a sigh of relief. But getting that monkey off my back, that opened the floodgates. And and I had a heck, you know, I obviously had a heck of a year, and my the best year I've had in my career. And so um I can remember my first tour championship, they always named the the player of the year. My very first one, I want to say, was uh I made it to the tour championship in 96. And so 97 start the year tour championship, they're gonna award the player of the year who was Tom Lehman. And so we all went to this kind of banquet-like dinner sport coat and tie, and Tom was given this award of player of the year, and I was in my maybe third year on tour, fourth year on tour, and kind of looking up and saying, What you know, wow, what an amazing honor, you know, to to to to be the player that voted by your peers and voted by everyone on tour is the best player uh of the year. And I was thinking, you know, it that was like a wildish dream at that point, you know, to be that young on tour, and you think of all the great names and great players that we had, and and so to to kind of get in that position and um that tour championship kind of meant a lot. I knew if I won the tour championship, I was most likely going to win the FedEx Cup, which was kind of a really cool deal. Uh most likely was gonna get voted player of the year. I mean, there's a lot that went with it. So uh I put a lot a lot we had a rain delay. Uh I played eight holes on Sunday and we had a big rain delay and had to kind of sit it out for a couple hours uh that afternoon um and then went back out on the course. Um put a lot of pressure on myself to uh to kind of get through that round and and uh it was fun to get the win, but you know, the the the player of the year, the to like I said, to have your peers name you that and vote for you and is is really one of the coolest things in my career.

Mike Gonzalez 17:29

Great uh great year in 2010. You recounted it for us nicely. Uh let's move ahead to Conway Farms and the BMW Championship 2013. You had mentioned early, and I think this was probably your second tour school, talking about making the cut on the number. Uh yeah you did the same thing here, didn't you?

Jim Furyk 17:49

Oh no, that was in that was at uh 2016. That was the 58. Ah, sorry, that's right, that's right.

Mike Gonzalez 17:55

I I'm ahead of it.

Jim Furyk 17:56

Conway was uh playoff event, so I think it was uh no cut event.

Mike Gonzalez 18:01

Oh, that's that's right.

Jim Furyk 18:02

But didn't play very didn't play very well the first round. I shot one over. Um really felt like I hit the ball well. I just didn't score very well, didn't make some putts, just you know, one of those days where it just wouldn't go in the hole, and I was frustrated. Uh called my dad, just said I played so much better than one over a par. You know, I I uh that could have been a three or four under, no problem, and just was really disappointed um with where I kind of stood in the field. And as as much as the ball didn't go in the hole on Thursday, it you know, I got it all back and then some on Friday. It seemed like uh you know, we couldn't make a mistake, uh, kept hitting it stiff, kept knocking putts in. And uh it was it was a kind of a cool morning, uh a breezy day. I mean the wind blew 15 miles an hour for a lot of that day. Um I don't think it's in my mind it's not an easy golf course.

Mike Gonzalez 18:53

Um it isn't.

Jim Furyk 18:55

What what really why I think that's the best round I've ever played is that it just set the the next best score that day was 65. So I shot 59, but I beat the entire field uh in a 70 player playoff event by by six shots. And so I think when you look at numbers and you look at scores and you look at a guy that says shoot 62, uh, you know, if you're in Palm Springs and there's a 62 and 463s and 564s, you know it's still 62. Don't get me wrong. But but there's a lot of other good scores. When when you see a guy go out and shoot a real low number, uh Corey Paven shot a number at Riviera one day when I shot 75 or 76, made the cut, and I was thinking it was the hardest day of golf I'd ever played on tour at that point, and he shot 64 that day. And I still tell him, I go, that to this day, that that was one of the greatest rounds of golf I've ever ever heard of because I and I was playing right near him. Like he wasn't far from me in the field, and it was all I could do to shoot 75. I mean, I was killing myself out there in my rookie year, and uh, you know, so when you when you have a round like that where things are going well, but you separate yourself from the field, um, I was really proud of uh of the score and I really enjoyed kind of the finish. And I and just I was tight. I was playing with Duffner and playing with uh uh geez, I can That's what happens when you're 52.

Mike Gonzalez 20:20

Yeah, we could Google it.

Jim Furyk 20:20

I was playing with Duffner and um Gary Woodland. Gary Gary Woodland.

Mike Gonzalez 20:26

A couple of major winners.

Jim Furyk 20:28

We were we were on the eighth T, so my 17th hole, and I'm trying to strike up a conversation, but anytime I walked near them, they would just move. Like they would go somewhere else. And it it hit me like they're trying, they just don't want to get in the way. Like they don't and I needed someone to talk to. Like I was tight, nervous. Uh eight was a reachable par five. I didn't make I didn't make birdie. Uh I had to make like a hit in the greenside bunker and kind of pitched it by about maybe eight, ten feet, and it was downhill, and I missed a ten-footer, but it went like maybe four feet by, and those greens were getting kind of greasy in the wind. And the hardest part of the day was really the four-footer coming back. So I still had an opportunity to shoot 59, and then uh was able to hit like a driver and a gap wedge into the ninth hole, and I hit it in there about three feet, so uh two, three feet. So uh it was cool to see some guys came out of the locker room. I saw a bunch of tour players kind of on the side of the green. Um you know, there was a buzz about about the golf course, so the crowd on that front nine, like seven, eight, nine, it's just started to grow, and there was a bunch of people kind of surrounding the uh the ninth green. So uh always a fun, you know, fun time. The mistake I made is I did it on Friday. So now I've got to go through all the media and all the fun, but then I still have to play two more rounds. And Zach Johnson, Zach Johnson kicked my butt on the weekend, won the tournament.

Mike Gonzalez 21:45

Yeah, well, come coming down the stretch, you were the proverbial pitcher in the dugout close to a no hitter.

Jim Furyk 21:51

Yes, yeah, I had a no no going and no one wanted to say a word. So uh absolutely you were alone on the bench.

Mike Gonzalez 21:57

Well, anyway, uh great experience, I'm sure it Prepared you for what was to come. Let's just uh briefly mention your second RBC Heritage win at Harvardtown. That was in a playoff with Kisner. And uh you shot a pretty good Sunday round there, too, didn't you?

Jim Furyk 22:12

Uh I did. Uh kind of a rainy, uh windy morning. Um just got off to a good start. I actually didn't hit the ball very well for the first five or six holes and just you know, ball ended up in a good spot, kind of got through it, and then started picking up some momentum kind of late, you know, mid-late in that front nine, where I started striking some really good solid shots, hitting a lot of fairways, a lot of greens. But what strikes me is I I made everything that day. I I had a real good visual for um kind of reading the greens. Uh I'd been working on my alignment uh on both my right to left and and left to right putts, and and I just felt like everything, you know, Kiz made a great putt uh in the first playoff hole from about 20 feet for Birdie, and I had about a 12-footer, and it just it never dawned on me it wasn't going in. I mean, I made putt after putt after putt that day. Uh, and so I think I uh maybe I shot about eight or nine under and uh on Sunday, and then Birdie the first two playoff holes as well. So I think we played uh 20 holes, and I might have shot 10 or 11 under for those 20 holes uh on my favorite golf course. So uh great memory. I'm a little bummed. That's that's my last win on the PJ tour, but uh if there was a place to do it, I'm I'm uh actually really happy it was at RBC and and at Harbortown because that is that is my favorite golf course.

Bruce Devlin 23:34

It's a great track. Yeah, it really is. Well, you gotta talk about your 58 though in 2016 at TPC River Highlands. Okay, let's let's talk about that because that uh I know you said you felt the 59 was better playing, but I mean 58's a low, low number, Jay. Still 58. Still 58. Yeah, it sure is.

Jim Furyk 24:01

Uh a lot of the same a lot of the same it had a the round felt so similar to the 59 um in a number of different ways. And again, I didn't make the mistake. This time it was on Sunday. I just got to walk off and enjoy it. I didn't have to uh didn't have to go play the next two days. But uh I hadn't been playing very well leading up. Um that was uh if I remember it was an Olympic year, so the PGA had been moved back. Um I had been grinding, I'd been hitting a ton of balls, wasn't happy with my ball striking. I think I was out on the road for four straight weeks. It was like 29 days, and that was day 29, was uh the day I shot 58. I was pretty frustrated. I'd been working hard, hitting a lot of balls, kind of beat down, tired, and I woke up that morning just kind of happy. I was going home. Like I had a week off, and I knew I'd given it everything I could for the last four weeks, really hadn't played all that well. But uh, you know, Mike, you mentioned that I made the cut on the number. I made about an eight-footer on Friday to uh to make the cut. Uh shot one over on Saturday on a golf course that was wasn't playing tough, right? One over was like shooting 78. Yeah. Um and so I was tied for 70th, you know, going to um the final round and in in one of the first groups. And I can't tell you how many people said, Man, I was there when you shot 58, and I saw you hit every shot.

Bruce Devlin 25:24

Yeah. And it I've had Nobody was with you.

Jim Furyk 25:27

50 people say that, there was like seven people in the first T at 7.48 on Sunday morning. There wasn't that many people there. But the the rounds were very similar in that I got it going early. So uh in both rounds I shot eight under on the front nine.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

Yeah.

Jim Furyk 25:44

And in that one, uh, I missed a birdie putt at one, but I birdied two, I hold an iron at three, I birdied four, uh, I birdied six, I birdied seven, I birdied eight, and I birdied nine. And it was honestly, it was pretty darn easy. Um, you know, the the putt at two was about 15 feet, the putt at four was five feet or in, the putt at six was four feet or in, the putt at seven was a tap in, the putt at nine was a tap in, and I did make one pretty good putt at maybe about twenty foot or so at twenty, twenty-five feet at number eight. Um a lot of close putts. And then you shoot eight under, there's a buzz, right? There's another uh 59 watch, you know, hashtags, stuff going out, and I could see from the media room, I saw three or four of the beat riders kind of making their way to the 10th T as I was walking, you know, back left to nine, walking over to 10. And I think it was Doug Ferguson, but what one of the beat writers, I kind of looked and I said, Man, you know, surprise you guys are kind of out here so early and headed to the back nine, something special going on. And you know, I got I got I got a little bit of a snicker, uh, you know, like yeah, yeah, you smart in. And so, you know, I I had just birdied six, seven, eight, nine, and ten's always been an awkward hole for me, but I hit an eight iron about eight feet, made it, made it for birdie, eleven, you know, hit a an iron about fifteen feet long left of the hull, make it for birdie. I go into twelve, uh, hit hit like maybe a chippy eight iron in in there about five, six feet, make that for birdie. So I've just birdied seven in a row, and and I'm 11 under through twelve, and it's a par 70. So, you know, you're already breaking a barrier.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Yeah.

Jim Furyk 27:25

And I've got a reachable five and thirteen and a reachable four at fifteen yet left to play. And then some danger. 17's always been a dangerous hole for me, and I doubled it on uh on third Thursday or Friday, I made double on uh I think it was Thursday, I made double on 17. So, but I go to 13, it's a tough drive. You got OB left, you got water right. Uh, if you fit it in, though, you got a chance to reach it, and I was just striped to drive. It was one of my best drives of the week. Um, and lo and behold, I get out there and I'm sitting in a divot. So I got ribbed a lot because I was about 230 from the pin and I laid up.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

Laid up, yeah.

Jim Furyk 27:58

And people are like, you're 11 under par. You know, they're calling me names, and and uh, you know, you laid up from 230, and I said, I drove in a divot, and they go, Oh, well, all right, that's different. You know, I had no choice. Pin was kind of front left in a bowl, kind of on the water, and I hit my wedge a little too hard. I was trying to use like the ridge and the backstop, but also make sure I didn't spin it back in the water. And I just hit a little too hard, got it up on top, so I two putt. 14, I hit it in there about 12, 14 feet. You got a little downhill slider. I hit a good putt, doesn't go. Fifteen, I hit a driver, the pins back left, and you got the water left, and I hit this little driver, low draw, and it looks like it's gonna run and get up on the green, and it's right at the pin. I mean, I'm excited. And it kind of rolled up the slope and got to the very top and then rolled back down the slope. And I hit a little eight-iron chip and run back there that got just a little hot and it got about, I don't know, maybe eight feet past the hole. And I hit this eight-footer and I'm walking it in. I mean, I'm it is in the it's in the jaws, and it just kind of dips a little right at the end and it horseshoes and comes back at me. And so I'm like, I stepped, like I stepped like I was gonna go pick it up, and then I looked and went, oh, like, alright, they're not all gonna go in. Like it was a like, oh no, like that couldn't have missed, and it came right back at me. And so, you know, I still at still at 11 under, I got three to play, and those are the more, you know, there's some danger at 16, 17, 18. Yeah, 16 the pins front left. I put the ball where I'm supposed to, just a little long right of it. But now I've got like a 30-footer and it's breaking six feet, and I hit this button, kind of feed it out there, and it just it basically just dies and melts in the middle of the hole. Like perfect speed, perfect putt. And now I've got a 12 under and I'm stepping on 17, it's my nemesis, and I've made double on it, and I made the worst swing of the day off the 17th T. Um, I it was the for the first time I was tentative, and I kind of steered it and I towed it down the right side. I hit in the right water the first day, I towed it down the right side, and there was a moment of uh-oh, like when it left the club, and I looked up and realized, okay, it's gonna stay in the fairway and it's fine, but it was a reminder that you gotta stay aggressive. You can't you can't get tentative, you can't wish one out there, and so uh I took an eight iron right at it uh at the pin. The pin was kind of front right over the water. I was just jacked up and I hit it over the pin, but I hit it too long, and so now I've got you know 30, 40 feet coming down over a ridge, and I left that one. I don't know, I thought I hit a good putt, but I left that one three or four feet short. Now I got a little downhill shaker, just kind of like I did uh again, same similarities, you know, eight under on the front nine, same got off to a good start on the back nine, but second to last toll, I've got a little shaky one that I've got to get in the hull. And I put a good stroke on the four foot or knocked it in. I've got it 1200, 118, and I had not hit that fairway all week. Um, and if you hit the fairway, it was a little downbreeze, it's a short iron for the second shot. You know, if you if you hit the fairway, it's a green light. If you miss the fairway, it's a pretty easy bogey. And uh again, striped it, hit one of my best drives of the week. And it might be the only time of my career I've ever fist pumped a drive, but if you watch the replay, uh I hit the shot, I pick up my T and I like I'm I'm jacked up that I hit it. And and uh hit a decent, decent nine iron, a little thin, a little short ride of the hole, but have it 20 feet uphill. And the biggest surpriser and the biggest shock to me was I actually got the putt to the hole at 18. Like I didn't didn't lag it up there short and tap it in. I actually knocked it about a foot, foot and a half by and and ran it not far, you know, maybe a maybe an inch or two off the right edge. It was a pretty good pretty good look at it. And again, if you watch my reaction, I kind of give it a like, you know, I hit a good putt, but I was a little surprised that one got there. I thought uh by that point I was uh wasn't feeling my hands quite as well as I usually do. I was a little shaky.

Mike Gonzalez 31:49

Bruce, I I gotta I gotta tell you, I I watched yesterday uh something on YouTube that you know basically showed every one of Jim's shots in in pretty rapid succession. And two observations. One uh Jim mentioned the commentators absolutely noticed your reaction on your ball. And everybody was expecting you're gonna be hanging out the right rock or something. Well, maybe it didn't go quite as far as I thought it was. But the second observation is uh and you know, as golfers we're guilty of doing this all the time, the wulda shoulda coulda, but that could have been a 56 easy.

Jim Furyk 32:27

Well, yeah, could have been a 61 pretty easy too. So it uh that's uh that's all part of it. Um I guess even if I had shot 60, I mean, no regrets. I mean, I I poured everything I could into it and and uh I I'm feel very fortunate. Uh people uh one question that everyone always asks me is well, what is the lowest you've ever shot? I mean, like, have you ever you know you've broke 60 in practice, right? I'm like, not not even a chance. I mean, uh I I would say that golf professionals always shoot their lowest scores in competition because it's when they care the most, when they're most focused, when when it matters. Um, you know, I I don't go out with my buddies and I don't think I care enough to go shoot a 59. Uh uh, nor do you get that opportunity very often. You know, I I I always kind of marveled at when guys shot, you know, when they had a chance to break 60 or when they shot 59, and just thought, I mean, that's that's absolutely amazing. Um, not knowing I'd ever had that opportunity. So the fact that I've got two opportunities to do it, and then was able to kind of finish it off and uh you know birdie some holes on the way in and do it, it's been a lot of fun.

Mike Gonzalez 33:37

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game.

Lee Trevino 33:42

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