Jim Furyk
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| Jim Furyk |
 |
| Personal information |
| Full name | James Michael Furyk |
| Born | May 12, 1970 (1970-05-12) (age 39)
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 | 23 |
| Number of wins by tour |
| PGA Tour | 13 |
| Nationwide Tour | 1 |
Best results in Major Championships
(Wins: 1) |
| The Masters | 4th: 1998, 2003 |
| U.S. Open | Won: 2003 |
| Open Championship | 4th/T4: 1997, 1998, 2006 |
| PGA Championship | T6: 1997 |
| Achievements and awards |
| Vardon Trophy | 2006 |
James Michael Furyk (born May 12, 1970) is an American professional golfer, 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, his devoted fan base has given him the nickname "The Grinder". In September 2006 he reached a career high of second in the Official World Golf Rankings
He has ranked in the top-10 for over 270 weeks between 1999 and 2009.
Biography
Furyk was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. 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!"
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.
Jim 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."
[4]
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 (23)
PGA Tour wins (13)
| Legend | | Major Championships (1) | | Other PGA Tour (12) |
|
| 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 |
Nationwide Tour wins (1)
Other wins (9)
Major Championships
Wins (1)
Results timeline
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 of major championship performances
- Starts - 49
- Wins - 1
- 2nd place finishes - 2
- Top 3 finishes - 3
- Top 5 finishes - 10
- Top 10 finishes - 15
- Longest streak of top-10s in majors - 4
Results in World Golf Championship events
1Cancelled due to
9/11DNP = Did not play
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
NT = No tournament
Green background for wins. 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 |
| Career* | 13 (1) | 42,756,341 | 4 |
* Complete at end of 2009 season.
United States national team appearances
- Ryder Cup: 1997, 1999 (winners), 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 (winners)
- Presidents Cup: 1998, 2000 (winners), 2003 (tie), 2005 (winners), 2007 (winners), 2009 (winners)
- Presidents Cup record W-L-H: 10-6-2
- World Cup: 2003
