Jim Furyk Finds Game at Harbour Town

Kathy Bissell

Hilton Head Island, SC — Jim Furyk, who has been struggling with his game since the beginning of 2011, is one back of the lead at the RBC Heritage. 

Playing in the morning session, Furyk faced tough conditions until mid-way through the round.

“It was chilly, quite breezy and gusty this morning,” he said. “I’m happy to get in with the score I did.” 

Furyk was three under par for the day with Vaughn Taylor and Chad Campbell tied at the top at four under par. 

Furyk’s recent drop in the World Rankings, to nearly 60th  position, was as a result of a poor play which he said came from a combination of factors. 

“I wasn’t happy with the way I played last year,” he explained. “I made mistakes mechanically. I think I made some mistakes in the way I was preparing for golf tournaments. I made some mistakes in equipment.”

He is now working on fixing those errors and said the Presidents Cup performance last fall gave him a boost of confidence.

One of his biggest mistakes in 2011, he believes, is that he was chasing more length.

“In trying to hit the ball farther, basically fit myself in products that didn’t spin as much as I needed to,” he said. He likes to work the ball a lot, and his ball in 2011 didn’t allow him to do that.

Now, he has followed the equipment people who moved from Hogan to Srixon to Callaway and with them, found a new set of irons and new driver that have made all the difference.

He got a new set of clubs before the Chevron last December and has not made a driver change or switched out any irons. He got them fitted in a two-day period and they have worked for him.

“Testing equipment and putting stuff in play was a painstaking process for me,” he admitted. “I haven’t done that in two months before, let alone two days.”

Since changing equipment, it has been a struggle to get his confidence back. A good finish at RBC Heritage would help that.  

His other challenge is to shore up his world ranking.

“When I was No. 2 in the world for 18 months, I used to make the World Golf Rankings people really mad when I said, I really don’t care where I’m ranked, and I’m not going to be hypocritical now,” he said about the system.

“The only reason I care now is because it matters whether I get in some golf tournaments or not. I wasn’t able to get in the Doral, the Cadillac Championship because of it. I was able to squeak in the Masters.” 

Furyk is now back in the top 50 and hopes to continue back to the top echelon. 

Kathy Bissell is a Golf Writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand or from official interview materials from the USGA, PGA Tour or PGA of America.