Jim Furyk Comes out Firing at the Transitions Championship

The Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club was built to reward players that keep the ball in the fairway and manage the course intelligently.

So, it should be no surprise that Jim Furyk went out and blistered the course on Thursday.

In this day and age of 7,800-yard courses and teenagers hitting 350-plus yard drives, Furyk has been the epitome of a player that has used accurate ball striking and highly intelligent course management to reach the upper echelons of the sport.

Through hitting nearly 85 percent of fairways off the tee and more than 72 percent of greens in regulation, Furyk tactically dissected the Copperhead course with a round of 65, which happened to be his sixth consecutive round in the 60s.

Furyk needed just 25 putts on Thursday, which is pretty easy to do when you’re hitting your approach shots to an average of just 24 feet from the hole.

Furyk averaged just 270 yards off the tee on Thursday, which ranked 90th in the field, and clearly demonstrated that hitting the ball long will do little to help your score this week.

When asked if his round on Thursday proved that you don’t have to be long to be good on the PGA Tour, Furyk responded by saying “I would hope the last 15 years proved that.  This isn't really a golf course to...I think you pick and choose your spots. I don't go to a lot of golf courses where I feel it's just a bomber's paradise and I'm at a severe disadvantage. I try to put myself in positions where I feel like I have the best opportunities to win.  It's not really the length of the golf course as much as it is the setup of the golf course.  If you make a long golf course kind of wide open, not much rough, it's probably not right down my alley.

“I wish I hit it farther, I'll promise you that. But it's not going to happen. I'm only going to get shorter probably from here on out.  I think the glaring weakness for me is that I'm very average length. I don't hit the ball that far. Most of the guys I play with hit it past me. My strengths have to be in other things, and I have to beat those guys in other areas, if that makes sense,” said Furyk.

On Thursday, Furyk was fortunate enough to play in the early morning before the hot Florida sun had dried out the greens.  

Today, Furyk will tee off at 1:02 p.m. ET and will be facing a course that Kenny Perry described as near-U.S. Open conditions after his late-afternoon round on Thursday.

“It's tough out there. It's U.S. Open conditions. The greens are hard, and that rough is brutal. You can't get out of the rough if you hit it in the rough,” said Perry of the course conditions on Thursday afternoon.

Whereas Furyk was certainly at an advantage on Thursday morning by being able to hit his approach shots into soft, receptive greens, he will be facing vastly different conditions on Friday.

But, the way Furyk has been striking the ball over the past couple of weeks, it is unlikely that any course conditions out there, no matter how difficult, will be able to cool his red-hot game.