Jim Furyk

Jim Furyk
Personal information
Full name	James Michael Furyk
Born	May 12, 1970 (1970-05-12) West Chester, Pennsylvania
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight	185 lb (84 kg; 13.2 st)
Nationality	United States
Residence	Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Spouse	Tabitha
Children	Caleigh Lynn (b.2002) Tanner James (b.2003)
Career
College	University of Arizona
Turned professional	1992
Current tour(s)	PGA Tour (joined 1992)
Professional wins	26
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	16
Nationwide Tour	1
Best results in Major Championships (Wins: 1)
Masters Tournament	4th: 1998, 2003
U.S. Open	Won: 2003
The Open Championship	4th/T4: 1997, 1998, 2006
PGA Championship	T6: 1997
Achievements and awards
Vardon Trophy	2006
FedEx Cup Champion	2010
PGA Player of the Year	2010
PGA Tour Player of the Year	2010

James Michael Furyk (born May 12, 1970) is an American professional golfer, 2010 FedEx Cup champion, and 2010 PGA Tour Player of the Year. He has won one major championship, the 2003 U.S. Open. Furyk is known for consistently playing at the top level and for a visibly unconventional, looping golf swing. Due to his ability to perform at such a high level despite that swing and his deliberate approach to the game, his devoted fan base has given him the nicknames "The Grinder" and "The Businessman". In September 2006 he reached a career high of second in the Official World Golf Rankings. He ranked in the top-10 for over 350 weeks between 1999 and 2010.

Biography

Furyk was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. At that time, his father Mike was an assistant pro at Edgmont Country Club and later also spent time as a pro at West Chester Golf and Country Club as well as Hidden Springs Golf Course in Horsham. His early years were spent in the Pittsburgh suburbs learning the game from his father, who was head pro at Uniontown Country Club near Pittsburgh. He graduated from Manheim Township High School in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1988 where he was a standout basketball player in addition to being a state champion golfer. He attended the University of Arizona and turned professional in 1992.

Furyk at the 2004 Ryder Cup

Furyk won at least one tournament each year on the PGA Tour between 1998 and 2003. At the time, this was the second best streak of winning seasons behind Tiger Woods and he made the top ten in the Official World Golf Rankings. Furyk's biggest win to date came on June 16, 2003, when he tied the record for the lowest 72-hole score in U.S. Open history to win his first major championship.

In 2004 he only played in fourteen events after missing three months due to surgery to repair cartilage damage in his wrist and he fell out of the top hundred on the money list, but he returned to good form in 2005 and regained his top ten ranking, winning a PGA Tour event in that year and two in 2006.

In the 2006 season, he finished a career-high second on the money list and won the Vardon Trophy for the first time. He also had a career-best thirteen top-10 finishes, including nine top-3s, four second-place finishes, and two victories.

The only instructor he has ever used is his dad, Mike Furyk, which may account for his unusual swing. His caddy is Mike "Fluff" Cowan, who was Tiger Woods' caddy for Woods' first two years as a professional.

During the 2003 Buick Open on-course commentator Mike Hulbert interviewed Furyk from what appeared to be a snack bar during a rain delay while covering the early rounds on USA Network. Other players (who were not visible, nor identified) were in the room at the time of Furyk's interview and proceeded to throw popcorn at them from off camera as the interview progressed. At one point Furyk even held up a golf towel to block the popcorn as it got worse, and he stated that: "It looks like it's 'Pick on Hubby' Day!"

2010 was a banner year for Furyk. After going more than two seasons winless, he won a career-best three tournaments on Tour in 2010: The Transitions Championship, the Verizon Heritage, and the season-ending Tour Championship. Furyk's victory in the Tour Championship also earned him the 2010 FedEx Cup after winning by one stroke. His accomplishments in 2010 won him both the PGA Player of the Year and PGA Tour Player of the Year for the first time.

Jim Furyk at the 2008 Players Championship

The Swing

Jim Furyk's trademark looping golf swing begins with a setup that has the ball at the heel of the club instead of the center, or even out at the toe. This moves his 6'2" frame in so close that his hands are virtually touching his thighs. Most golfers would have a difficult time with a golf club from such a starting point. Compare Furyk's setup to the more textbook setup of Tiger Woods, who begins with his hands 8 inches or so away from his body, a position that promotes a take-away that will put the golf club over his right shoulder at the top, and keep his right elbow tucked against his body. For a human being, this is the classic launch position. Since the beginning of time it has been used to throw a stone, a spear, a baseball, or swing a club. The big muscles of the body—the back, shoulders and thighs—are in control, not the weaker ones in the hands and wrists. The athlete (or hunter in early times) is said to be "loaded." His entire body is poised in the optimum power position.

Furyk, by contrast, takes the club away in the manner of a basketball player shooting a hook shot. His arms move back vertically, and at the top his right elbow "flies" away from his body. Tall players tend toward more upright swings. While this manner of beginning doesn't promote power, it is an early step to facilitate accurate ball-striking. The club's shaft is nearly vertical, like a putter. It moves straight back and straight up, keeping it on path longer, which tends to reinforce in the mind the route along which to bring it back into the ball. At the top of the backswing, Furyk is in the same position as Jack Nicklaus would be—club shaft parallel to the intended line of flight, elbow flying off to who-knows-where. Starting the downswing, Furyk then "corrects" for his unconventional takeaway by dropping his right elbow into the slot where it needs to be, a move that brings the golf club onto the proper swing path to achieve sound results. It's this downswing beginning that produces the idiosyncratic loop in his swing.

As Mike Furyk describes in a Golf Digest issue in 2001, Jim Furyk's hips "underturn" during the backswing and "overturn" coming down. On the downswing, he draws the club in a large arc behind his body (viewing from his right hand side), then pastes his elbow against his right hip at impact. Commentator, Gary McCord, said it looked like Furyk was trying to swing inside a phone booth. Another commentator David Feherty memorably described Furyk's swing as "an octopus falling out of a tree". Others have noted it reminds them of "a one-armed golfer using an axe to kill a snake in a telephone booth."

This move was controversial during Jim Furyk's early career; however, his father never forced him to change what came naturally to him. Jim Furyk's well-known ball-striking precision is now serving him well on the professional tour.

Furyk, however, isn't the first professional golfer to show us that a swing that defies convention—and countless books and articles on golf—can be successful. Nicklaus' swing was upright, with a flying elbow—and one of the biggest loopers of all time was Lee Trevino.

Professional wins (26)

PGA Tour wins (16)

Legend

Major championships (1)

FedEx Cup playoff event (1)

Other PGA Tour (14)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning Score	Margin of Victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Oct 15, 1995	Las Vegas Invitational	-28 (67-65-65-67-67=331)	1 stroke	Billy Mayfair
2	Feb 18, 1996	United Airlines Hawaiian Open	-11 (68-71-69-69=277)	Playoff	Brad Faxon
3	Oct 18, 1998	Las Vegas Invitational	-25 (67-68-69-63-68=335)	1 stroke	Mark Calcavecchia
4	Oct 17, 1999	Las Vegas Invitational	-29 (67-64-63-71-66=331)	1 stroke	Jonathan Kaye
5	Mar 6, 2000	Doral-Ryder Open	-23 (65-67-68-65=265)	2 strokes	Franklin Langham
6	Jan 14, 2001	Mercedes Championships	-14 (69-69-69-67=274)	1 stroke	Rory Sabbatini
7	May 24, 2002	Memorial Tournament	-14 (71-70-68-65=274)	2 strokes	John Cook, David Peoples
8	Jun 15, 2003	U.S. Open	-8 (67-66-67-72=272)	3 strokes	Stephen Leaney
9	Aug 3, 2003	Buick Open	-21 (68-66-65-68=267)	2 strokes	Briny Baird, Chris DiMarco, Geoff Ogilvy, Tiger Woods
10	Jul 3, 2005	Cialis Western Open	-14 (64-70-67-69=270)	2 strokes	Tiger Woods
11	May 7, 2006	Wachovia Championship	-12 (68-69-68-71=276)	Playoff	Trevor Immelman
12	Sep 10, 2006	Canadian Open	-14 (63-71-67-65=266)	1 stroke	Bart Bryant
13	Jul 29, 2007	Canadian Open	-16 (69-66-69-64=268)	1 stroke	Vijay Singh
14	Mar 21, 2010	Transitions Championship	-13 (67-68-67-69=271)	1 stroke	K. J. Choi
15	Apr 18, 2010	Verizon Heritage	-13 (67-68-67-69=271)	Playoff	Brian Davis
16	Sep 26, 2010	The Tour Championship	-8 (67-65-70-70=272)	1 stroke	Luke Donald

PGA Tour playoff record (3-7)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1996	United Airlines Hawaiian Open	Brad Faxon	Won with birdie on third extra hole
2	1997	United Airlines Hawaiian Open	Mike Reid, Paul Stankowski	Stankowski won with birdie on fourth extra hole Reid eliminated with bogey on first hole
3	1998	Buick Classic	J.P. Hayes	Lost to birdie on first extra hole
4	2001	WGC-NEC Invitational	Tiger Woods	Lost to birdie on seventh extra hole
5	2003	Ford Championship at Doral	Scott Hoch	Lost to birdie on third extra hole
6	2005	Wachovia Championship	Sergio Garcia, Vijay Singh	Singh won with par on fourth extra hole Garcia eliminated with bogey on first
7	2005	Michelin Championship at Las Vegas	Wes Short, Jr.	Lost to par on second extra hole
8	2006	Wachovia Championship	Trevor Immelman	Won with par on first extra hole
9	2007	Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial	Bernhard Langer, Rory Sabbatini	Sabbatini won with birdie on first extra hole
10	2010	Verizon Heritage	Brian Davis	Won with par on first extra hole

Nationwide Tour wins (1)

• 1993 (1) NIKE Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic

Other wins (9)

• 1995 (1) Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua International
• 1997 (1) Argentine Open
• 1998 (1) Fred Meyer Challenge (with David Duval)
• 2002 (1) Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (with Rich Beem and John Daly)
• 2003 (1) PGA Grand Slam of Golf
• 2005 (1) Nedbank Golf Challenge (South Africa - unofficial money event)
• 2006 (1) Nedbank Golf Challenge (South Africa - unofficial money event)
• 2008 (1) PGA Grand Slam of Golf
• 2009 (1) Chevron World Challenge

Major championships

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	54 Holes	Winning Score	Margin	Runner(s)-up
2003	U.S. Open	3 shot lead	-8 (67-66-67-72=272)	3 strokes	Stephen Leaney

Results timeline

Tournament	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
The Masters	DNP	DNP	T29	T28	4	T14
U.S. Open	T28	DNP	T5	T5	T14	T17
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	T45	4	T4	T10
PGA Championship	DNP	T13	T17	T6	CUT	T8

Tournament	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
The Masters	T14	T6	CUT	4	DNP	28	T22	T13	T33	T10
U.S. Open	60	T62	CUT	1	T48	T28	T2	T2	T36	T33
The Open Championship	T41	CUT	CUT	CUT	CUT	CUT	4	T12	T5	T34
PGA Championship	T72	T7	9	T18	CUT	T34	T29	CUT	T29	T63

Tournament	2010	2011
The Masters	CUT	T24
U.S. Open	T16	CUT
The Open Championship	CUT	T48
PGA Championship	T24	T39

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Summary

• Starts - 65
• Wins - 1
• 2nd place finishes - 2
• Top 3 finishes - 3
• Top 5 finishes - 11
• Top 10 finishes - 18
• Longest streak of top-10s in majors - 4

Results in World Golf Championship events

Tournament	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Accenture Match Play Championship	R64	R16	DNP	R16	R16	DNP	R64	R64	R32	R64
Cadillac Championship	T11	DNP	NT1	T33	T12	T36	T15	4	T35	T2
Bridgestone Invitational	T10	T4	2	T6	T6	T22	T24	3	DNP	T27

Tournament	2009	2010	2011
Accenture Match Play Championship	R16	R32	R64
Cadillac Championship	3	T37	T49
Bridgestone Invitational	T51	T6	T23
HSBC Champions	DNP	DNP	T62

¹Cancelled due to 9/11
DNP = Did not play
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
NT = No tournament
Yellow background for top-10.
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

PGA Tour career summary

Year	Wins (Majors)	Earnings ($)	Rank
1994	0	236,603	78
1995	1	535,380	33
1996	1	738,950	26
1997	0	1,619,480	4
1998	1	2,054,334	3
1999	1	1,827,593	12
2000	1	1,940,519	17
2001	1	2,540,734	13
2002	1	2,363,250	14
2003	2 (1)	5,182,865	4
2004	0	691,675	116
2005	1	4,255,369	4
2006	2	7,213,316	2
2007	1	4,154,046	7
2008	0	3,455,714	12
2009	0	3,946,515	7
2010	3	4,809,622	2
2011	0	1,529,690	53
Career*	16 (1)	$49,095,654	4

*As of the 2011 season.

U.S. national team appearances

Professional

• Ryder Cup: 1997, 1999 (winners), 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 (winners), 2010
• Presidents Cup: 1998, 2000 (winners), 2003 (tie), 2005 (winners), 2007 (winners), 2009 (winners), 2011 (winners)
  • Presidents Cup record W-L-H: 10-6-2
• World Cup: 2003

See also

• Golfers with most PGA Tour wins

External links

• Jim Furyk at the PGA Tour official site
• Jim Furyk at the Official World Golf Ranking official site
• Site featuring Jim's instructional Short Game video.