Q & A: Jim Furyk
With Tom Lang
PGA Tour sensation Jim Furyk took time out to Zoom with the Michigan Golf Journal in August before the 2021 Ally Challenge. I cover several topics below with the 17-time PGA Tour winner and FedEx Cup champion from 2010, who not only won the Ally Challenge last year, but the very next event as well to capture wins in his first two tries on the PGA Tour Champions. This summer he added U.S. Sr. Open champion.
Question: You won here in Grand Blanc last year in your inaugural event playing on the PGA Tour Champions. Phil won his first try, Ernie (Els) did too. Is there more to it than just reaching the magic age of 50 and you’re the youngest one out here?
FURYK: “I was actually amazed, when I was able to win there at Ally, I was like the 18th or 19th person to win their first event on the Champions Tour. It seemed like a pretty darn good feat until I found out so many others did it, Phil did it right after me. So, I think maybe it’s just an excitement of starting new. I was teasing my wife it’s kind of like starting the first day of school again.
“I was able to go play a great week of golf, and it was probably a huge help that I started at Warwick Hills. It’s a golf course that I know very, very well, and I’ve had a lot of success on throughout my career. To be on a place I was very comfortable and enjoyed playing, was a big help.”
Q: With your success here winning the Buick Open in 2003 and the 2020 Ally Challenge, you must love Warwick Hills.
A: “I do. I was bummed when it (Buick Open) fell off the schedule, and then really excited to see it ended up on the Champions Tour schedule. Another favorite for me is Firestone… and now we’re playing the Senior Players there as well. It’s good to see some of those old golf courses that I played throughout my career many times are back on our schedule now.”
Q: Jim, you have caught some flack over the years for your unique and unusual swing. Would you teach the same to your own kids or others starting the game? What would you tell them about finding their own way?
A: “I think where my dad was so smart, he didn’t teach me to swing that way, he didn’t teach me to take the club up really vertical or re-route it. It’s just something that was very natural to me. My dad’s a bit of an underrated teacher… And he was kind of on the front end of fitting equipment to students. He realized I wasn’t very mechanically inclined, that I wasn’t a color-by-the-numbers, and my swing wasn’t going to look like everyone else’s.
“So, we worked through shot shape and through feel. We worked on my fundamentals really hard. And he was a firm believer in what comes natural is repeatable. And so, we know if you can repeat it, it really doesn’t matter what it looks like. So, if it’s natural to you, we’ll work on the fundamentals and let your natural ability take over and you can repeat that under pressure. It was a good lesson for me.
“If he had probably tried to take my golf swing and break it down and try to look like everyone else’s, then I probably wouldn’t have played golf for a living.”
Q: I try to catch the Payne Stewart Award ceremony every year, and you were genuinely humble, and you seemed overcome by winning that award in 2016. How did that award compare to a lot of the tournament wins we’ve seen you accumulate in your career?
A: “For one thing, having Payne’s family in the room made it very emotional. I didn’t know Payne as well as other players but I had some pretty good times with Payne. When you spent time with him you were always going to have fun. He was going to make sure that was going to happen. So, to win an award with his name, first and foremost meant a lot, but I think to receive an award (based) more on the things you do off the golf course rather than on the course, means a lot to the players as well. It kind of puts things in perspective and is something you can be very proud of in the long run.
“When I go through the list of guys that won that before me, and now after me, it’s just a wonderful group to be included in, and an honor.”
