Jim Furyk returns with sights set on one 

more Ryder Cup - as a player

FROM GOLFWEEK.COM

By Jeff Babineau

Jim Furyk (Getty)

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – By the time the two players reached the fourth tee of a practice round at the Wells Fargo Championship earlier this week, Davis Love III finally had to intervene to keep Jim Furyk from saying – yet once more – what he’ll do at the Ryder Cup “if I don’t make it” as a player.
Furyk agreed last fall to serve as one of Love’s assistant captains at Hazeltine in Minnesota this September – if, of course, he isn’t one of the 12 competitors composing the U.S. team. So Love finally interrupted him to say, “You know, I want you to play well to make the team.”
Furyk simply assuming he’d be one of Love’s 12 just isn’t in his personality. He’s a man who earns his keep, and right now, he sits 41st in the U.S. points table.
Furyk is one of golf’s ultimate grinders, a man who has parlayed one of golf’s most highly-critiqued swing actions into a career in which he’s won 17 times, including a U.S. Open, and has amassed more than $65 million in career earnings – fourth all-time behind Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh. Before Jordan Spieth came around to shine a light on a lost art in the game – finding a way, any way, to score – there was Jim Furyk.
Unfortunately, he has been on the sideline since September, forced to step away when he no longer could endure the pain that was wringing through his left wrist. Eventually, he was asked to test himself by hitting 60 balls a day for five days, and he did not get past Day 3. It led to him having surgery Feb. 1, and this week at Quail Hollow marks Furyk’s return to competition.
He’s admittedly rusty. He could stay at home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, keep practising and playing – the man only started hitting drivers (three) 17 days ago – but again, that’s not his style. The best way he believes he can get ready for a heavy stretch of golf ahead is to get back inside the ropes and swing away.
“I still think the best way to get ready is out here,” said Furyk, who plans to play seven events in nine weeks. “I don’t think I’ve come out early, but I definitely couldn’t come out any sooner. One of the reasons I came out as quick as possible is really because it’s going to be the best way to improve my game.”
He won’t lie. Being home with his wife, Tabitha, and two children for seven-plus months has been nice. (“I enjoyed it probably more than they know, if that makes sense,” he said.) As he nears 46 (May 12), he believes there could be a hidden benefit in such a long layoff. He feels as fresh as he has in a long time. He said his wife joked when he headed off to work earlier this week it was as if he was a youngster headed to his first day of school. By building in some shorter, three-month winter breaks the past few seasons, Furyk has stayed hungry.
“I’m maybe not as sharp physically as I would like to be (this week), but mentally, I’m refreshed and excited,” he said. “There may be a silver lining, and I’ll want to play a little longer, and a little more, because of this.”
Furyk, ranked ninth in the world when he withdrew from the BMW Championship (he now is ranked 25th), said he’d thought about cutting back his schedule to 18 starts a season, but now might push it back to 20. Love and others on the Tour are happy to see him back, and the respect he carries as a player is palpable.
Furyk is a medium-length hitter and Quail Hollow, inundated by early-week rains, will play long on Thursday and Friday. It shouldn’t be a great ballpark for him. But Rickie Fowler says the conditions won’t faze Furyk in the least.
“I played with him at Bethpage, one of the longest courses we ever play, and he got it around there just fine,” Fowler said. “He finds a way. Doesn’t matter if it’s a long course, short course, narrow, wide open, whatever. … Just the kind of player he is. He figures it out.”
Which brings us back to the Ryder Cup. Furyk has a spot reserved as an assistant, but don’t be fooled. He has a sour taste about his teams going 2-7 in his nine Ryder Cup appearances, and desperately wants to be part of a winning solution. Surely there will be assistant captain’s and captain’s roles in his near future, but he wouldn’t mind putting those on hold for at least one more go-around as a player.
“Well,” he said. “I’ve played the last nine. Ten sounds good. It’s a good whole number.”
Furyk said he holds a special appreciation for the older Ryder Cup players who have returned to the event to help out in any way possible, driving carts and running sandwiches to players, sometimes dashing back to the team room to fetch umbrellas, all for the good of the team. He knows he’ll be there doing that one day, too. But for now, as he gets ready to re-start the engine, he’d like to be there competing.
“You can’t play forever,” Furyk said, offering a dose of reality. “So I really do hope that I got, you know, at least another one in me. We’ll see. But if not, I’m going to be there in full support of the guys on the team, and in full support of Davis.”