Last season on the PGA Tour, Jim Furyk earned $224,450 in 13 events. In two events on the Champions tour, he’s won $630,000.
The 50-year-old Furyk is having a rookie season to remember on the senior circuit.
The 17-time winner on the PGA Tour won his Champions debut in August at the Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Michigan, followed by another win in September in his second start at the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach.
While he still plans to play occasionally on the PGA Tour, the former FedEx Cup Champion said the Champions Tour is calling his name a little louder these days.
“I think this is going to be my home and just excited to play some golf,” Furyk said Thursday. “It was fun to compete, get in contention for two weeks. I’d definitely like to get that feeling again.”
Furyk still plans to occasionally compete in Tour events. He last competed on Tour at the 2020 Safeway Open last month and finished T-46. Last season on Tour, he competed in 13 Tour events, earning two top-25 finishes and making six cuts. His last top-10 was his second-place finish at the 2019 Players Championship.
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This week during the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club, the 2010 PGA Tour Player of the Year will attempt to win his first three starts — something no one’s ever done on the Champions.
“It’s real easy to get kind of caught up and think about trying to win, but I didn’t get to this position doing that,” Furyk said. “I got in this position really just worrying about my game and going out there and playing the best I could and playing a good Friday round, setting it up, playing a good Saturday round, getting myself in contention, and then kind of going through that same routine on Sunday. You know, I was fortunate to end up on top.”
If Furyk wins three in a row after this week’s event, it would the first time in a decade a golfer won three straight events on the Champions. Fred Couples won three consecutive starts in 2010 during his rookie season.
While Furyk answered the three-in-a-row question stone-faced like the veteran he is, there’s still some excitement to starting this new chapter of his career.
“When you get on a good roll like that, when you’re playing well and you’ve got some momentum, it’s a lot of fun,” he said. “Now the goal’s to try to keep that going. … I didn’t know six months ago when I turned 50 whether I was going to commit to playing the PGA Tour or the Champions Tour and, you know, coming out here and having some success but seeing some friends, seeing golf courses that are 7,000 yards, I kind of like the atmosphere, I’ve been enjoying it.”
Furyk isn’t the only PGA Tour alum to dip his toe into his senior pool of late. Phil Mickelson won his Champions debut in August by four shots at the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National. This week, Mickelson committed to his second Champions event Oct. 16-18 at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic. Furyk will also compete at The Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course.
While Furyk looked forward to joining Mickelson next week, the 2003 U.S. Open champion is first focused on this week’s event in Cary, North Carolina.
Among his 80 competitors, Furyk will face reigning champion Jerry Kelly. The two even played a practice round on Tuesday which helped the Champions rookie get a lay of the land.
“Prestonwood’s a pretty straightforward golf course,” he said. “It’s well-bunkered off the tee. Using the yardage book I got a feel real easy of where I was supposed to put the ball, and playing with (Kelly) helped out definitely to kind of just get around the golf course and see it a little bit.”
Furyk, Ernie Els and David Toms tee off their first rounds Friday at 11:40 a.m. from the first tee.
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