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GolfWRX talks with Jim Furyk ahead of the FedEx Cup Playoffs
2010 FedEx Cup champion and newly minted “Mr. 58,” Jim Furyk was kind enough to speak to us as he gets ready for The Barclays at Bethpage Black this week.
Furyk starts his 2016 playoffs in a pair of precarious positions, owing mainly to the time he missed while recovering from wrist surgery. He’s 15th in the current Ryder Cup standings, needing to impress captain Love to earn a captain’s pick, and he’s 94th in the FedEx Cup standings, needing a good week at Bethpage to advance in the playoffs.
Fresh off a T10 finish at the Wyndham Championship, Furyk spoke with us by phone.
I told him that my very first PGA Tour event was the 2001 NEC Invitational at Firestone Country Club, in which he holed a majestic bunker shot and valiantly battled Tiger Woods for seven playoff holes before coming up short. “Cool event. Wish I would have won, but…” Furyk said.
Our conversation, below.
B.A.: A couple of weeks removed from shooting the 58. Any new perspective on it? Still surreal?
J.F.: Well, it’s a catch-22. I’m proud, and it’s been a little bit surreal that it happened. Also I had to go play…events. This week I’m at The Barclays. I kind of have to put it behind me and move forward. I’ve got a lot of golf in front of me. Right now I’m sitting at 94th in the points race, so I need to play week this week to move on and head to the Deutsche Bank.
What’s the mentality here as the playoffs are starting? Is it all about positioning and does that dictate attitude?
Yeah. Well I got off to a late start…I didn’t start the season until May. I’ve only played 12 events this year. I started a little bit behind the eight-ball, but I’ve been playing well here recently, and I was just trying to move up. Right now, I’m kind of just playing to extend the season. I think everyone knows the situation. If you’re in the top 30, you’re trying to stay, or you’re trying to move up to give yourself a [better] chance to win the FedEx Cup. If you’re outside the top 100, you’re trying to move in this week. It’s always about extending your season.
On the subject of “this week,” tell me a little bit about this Dress for Success campaign you and Tabitha are spearheading at The Barclays.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday [between 9 and 12] bring an article of clothing [to the general parking lot for The Barclays]—women’s clothing, business attire—and get a ticket for one of the tournament rounds.
Good deal. Regarding the playoffs: Good play and strong finishes and winning and all that will necessarily lead to moving on, but I’ve always wondered what the calculus is, round by round and tournament by tournament, do you guys try to stay on top of the scenarios to figure out exactly what you need to do?
I think there are some folks who are just scoreboard watchers. They’re going to check their prediction, which moves around significantly based not only on what you’re shooting but what everyone else is doing. Then you’ve got other folks who don’t want to know, don’t want to worry about it. They just want to go play golf and know that the better they play, the better opportunity they have. I probably fall in the middle of both of those.
When you get down to it, at the end of the season, whether you’re trying to win a golf tournament or you’re trying to move on in the playoffs, it gets real easy to start worrying about the end product. And really, you kind of have to put that to the back of your mind. You have to worry about this week, this round, and what’s going to get me to that end result.
Yeah. I imagine it’s something you want to be aware of but it’s very easy to get caught up in, especially as it’s constantly shifting. And from our standpoint in the media, there’s so many storylines with the constant shifts, so we’re fixating on that…
But that’s part of it. I’m going to go out there Tuesday and Wednesday before the tournament and the media is going to talk about me being in the 94th spot. They’ll say I’m 15th on the Ryder Cup points list. I’m aware of all that. It’s not like any of it’s news. It’s my job to talk about it, and then I’ll put it in the back of my mind and go play golf.
That leads into your thoughts on Ryder Cup and your position there. I’m not sure mathematically if you can move into the top 8 this week with a win.
I’m not sure…[I’m] Trying to catch the captain’s eye. If I were to play well, have the opportunity to go to Deutsche Bank and do it all over again. And I’ve played well as of late. But if I don’t move on to Deutsche Bank, that’ll leave me with other guys playing and me not.
Just wanted to close with a couple of questions about equipment here, as we started as a forum of equipment enthusiasts. Do you see yourself as a tinkerer? Do you think about equipment from week to week, or do you kind of set it and forget it? What’s your orientation?
I would say I’m not a tinkerer. But if I’m not happy with my equipment, I have no problem switching or changing, if that makes sense. But once I get locked into something I like…driver-wise, iron-wise…I’m playing a set of irons from 2011. If I find a driver I like, I’ll play it for three years. As far as my lofts and lies, being able to grind the sole of a wedge to my fit, or talking about the center of gravity in my driver, I’m very knowledgable about that.
And I couldn’t tell you what any other company has out there, I can tell you quite a bit about Callaway’s products, but I can tell you a lot about my products.
So as long as the performance is there you’re happy week to week?
Yeah. Absolutely. Right now Callaway is testing drivers that are coming out next year, so they’re trying to get some feedback from the players, and I really enjoy being involved with the process. Telling them what I feel, what I see, what I think. As players, hopefully we can help them design better equipment. But ultimately it comes back to us in better equipment for the next year.
Thank you for the time, sir, and play well this week.
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Tour Photo Galleries
Photos from the 2024 RBC Heritage
GolfWRX is on site this week at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island for the RBC Heritage. Plenty of golfers who competed in the Masters last week will be making the quick turnaround in the Lowcountry of South Carolina as the Heritage is again one of the Tour’s Signature Events.
We have general albums for you to check out, as well as plenty of WITBs — including Justin Thomas and Justin Rose.
We’ll continue to update as more photos flow in from SC.
Check out links to all our photos, below.
General Albums
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Monday #1
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Monday #2
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Tuesday #1
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Tuesday #2
WITB Albums
- Justin Thomas – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Justin Rose – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Chandler Phillips – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Nick Dunlap – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Thomas Detry – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Austin Eckroat – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Xander Schauffele – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Jason Day – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Will Zalatoris – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Patrick Cantlay – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Ludvig Aberg – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Collin Morikawa – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Sam Burns – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Stephen Jaeger – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
Pullout Albums
- Wyndham Clark’s Odyssey putter – 2024 RBC Heritage
- JT’s new Cameron putter – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Justin Thomas testing new Titleist 2 wood – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Cameron putters – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Odyssey putter with triple track alignment aid – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Scotty Cameron The Blk Box putting alignment aid/training aid – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Cameron putter – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Odyssey Ai One Eleven T putters – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Christian Bezuidenhout – testing new Callaway Ti 340 mini driver – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Rory McIlroy testing the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Xander Schauffele testing the Callaway Ti 340 mini driver & the DUW – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Byeong Hun An, two new L.A.B. Golf putter builds with “T” alignment – 2024 RBC Heritage
See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.
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