“When you have total strangers working for you, it warms your heart,” Tabitha Furyk said.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It takes a village to host a professional golf tournament.
Actually, what it took to make Furyk & Friends, which debuted last week at Timuquana Golf Club, run like clockwork is a small army of approximately 600 volunteers, some who took vacation or flew in just to work long hours doing such trivial but vital chores as parking cars, shuttling players, picking up range balls and sorting them, and hauling trash.
Week after week, year after year, many of the same faces greet me at tournaments and make my job and those of so many people they touch that much easier. I always marvel when they inevitably tell me this is their 25th or 30th year volunteering at a particular tournament.
Why do they do it?
I decided I was long overdue to give back at a tournament and find out. There was no better place to do so than at one of my hometown events. Over the years, I’ve noticed ways that charitable causes big and small in the Greater Jacksonville area have benefited from the generosity of the Players Championship, most notably at Nemours Children Hospital, where my daughter has received care.
On Friday, I did the volunteer pu-pu platter of sorts, partaking in short stints working the driving range, walking with a standard-bearer and scorer, chatting with the guys who wash caddie bibs at night and even rode around with the chairman of ecology. He didn’t make me haul any trash, but that’s only because it would’ve spoiled the fun for Mike Crumpler, a lawyer by trade, who called volunteering for the tournament and tossing around trash the best week of his year.
In all, there were 26 committee leaders – everything from first aid to admissions and first tee announcers. They oversee teams of people, some of who take days off from work, pay for hotel rooms out of their own pocket or travel from out of town and spend $45 for the official volunteer uniform of shirt and hat. (Lesson learned: you must wear khaki pants or shorts).
Tabitha Furyk said she wore out her friends and family, who pitched in to make the tournament a success, including father-in-law Mike Furyk, who greeted players on the practice tee as he puffed on a cigar. But it takes a village and she couldn’t tout the work of her volunteers enough, some of whom never even saw a shot, depending on their assignment, which is why she couldn’t wait for the volunteer appreciation party on Sunday night.
“When you have total strangers working for you, it warms your heart,” she said. “I feel like I have new friends that I haven’t even met yet.”
Here are some of the incredible people I met on the job.
While Lefty is enjoying the PGA Tour Champions, maybe he’s less familiar with some of the golfers on the PGA Tour.
Phil Mickelson certainly sounds like he’s enjoying the PGA Tour Champions – winning three of the four events he has entered helps that. His latest victory came Sunday in Jacksonville, Florida, in the Constellation Furyk and Friends.
But it’s not just about the winning. The 51-year-old prefers the aggressive nature he can display on the senior circuit, and he said he’s having a good time playing with guys he knows better while he’s less familiar with the up-and-coming golfers on the PGA Tour.
“I don’t feel like there are tournaments on the regular tour that are really exciting me to get out and play, so it’s fun for me to get out here and work on a few things that I’m trying to improve on and play with guys that I know. I know all these guys here,” he said Sunday after winning at Timuquana Country Club .
A four-hour delay during Friday’s first round at Timuquana sent everyone inside.
“With that rain delay, I go into the locker room and everybody in there I know, whereas on the regular tour there’s so many new, young, fresh players, I don’t know who two-thirds of them are.”
Jim Furyk became the second golfer to win his first two times out on the senior circuit last year. It didn’t take long for Mickelson to become the third. Now he has three wins in four outings and more than $750,000 in earnings.
“It’s a good start. I’m having fun, I’m having fun playing here. I’m enjoying being around the guys, I’m enjoying the golf courses, how I can be a little bit more aggressive and like when I made a mistake on No. 5, I can still recover. You do that on the regular tour, you just get eaten alive. You just can’t make those mistakes there and have a chance to compete and contend and win. So I like how you don’t have to be perfect and I can get away with a shot or two here or there, so it makes it fun to play and play aggressive.”
Make no mistake: Mickelson is not declaring that he won’t play the PGA Tour from now on. After all, he is the reigning PGA Championship winner.
“I think if I can play well in tournaments on the regular tour and compete and maybe win a time or two like at the PGA and have some credibility when I come out here, I think that would be a good thing because it shows how high a level of performance goes on out here on the Champions Tour,” he said. “If I can continue to stay up in the world rankings and compete in some regular Tour events, when I do come out here, I hope to help out.”
Mickelson’s next PGA Tour Champions event will be Oct. 22-24 at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Virginia, when the PGA Tour will be at the Zozo Championship in Japan. He then most likely will play the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship on Nov. 11-14 in Phoenix, the same week as the PGA Tour’s Houston Open, which Mickelson chose to play in 2020 because it was the week before the pandemic-delayed Masters.
Phil Mickelson is now 3-for-4 on the PGA Tour Champions after holding off Miguel Angel Jimenez in Jacksonville.
Phil Mickelson is now 3-for-4 on the PGA Tour Champions after holding off Miguel Ángel Jiménez Sunday to claim the Constellation Furyk & Friends at the Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville.
Mickelson, the first reigning major champion to ever play in a Champions event, shot a final-round 68 to finish at 15 under. His scorecard featured three straight birdies to start his day. He had a double bogey on the sixth hole before recording birdies on Nos. 12 and 15.
Leading by one, Mickelson sank a clutch three-footer for par on 17 to keep his one-shot lead. On 18, he hit his drive 301 yards right down the middle. After he hit his approach, fans filled the fairway behind him as he walked to the green.
Jimenez faced a long putt for birdie to tie, but burned the edge and settled for par for a final-round 68 and a solo second-place finish. He now has five consecutive top-10s.
After Steve Flesch made a birdie to secure a solo third-place finish, Lefty then clinched a two-shot win by curling in a birdie putt.
“It was a hard-fought battle and I really enjoyed it. I enjoy playing out here,” Mickelson told Golf Channel after his win. He also had a lot of praise for his friend and tournament host Jim Furyk, who finished tied for fourth at 9 under with Ernie Els and Cameron Beckman.
Phil Mickelson, at 11-under-par through two rounds, thinks he’s got a lot more in the tank.
Here’s something scary: Phil Mickelson, at 11-under-par 133 through two rounds of the PGA Tour Champions Constellation Furyk & Friends, thinks he’s got a lot more in the tank than his two opening rounds of 66 on Friday and 67 on Saturday at the Timuquana Country Club.
“I felt like I played well, the scores were fine, but I feel like I have a really low one in me,” Mickelson said, looking ahead to Sunday’s final round. “I want to go try to shoot that number.”
Mickelson took off after a pedestrian front nine and played the first six holes of the back at 5-under, with a 12-foot eagle putt at the 13th hole. He surged past three players tied at 9-under, Miguel Angel Jimenez (65, the day’s low round), Steve Flesch (66, with a closing bogey after four birdies in a six-hole span) and playing partner Matt Gogel (69).
Tied at 8-under is Ernie Els (who turned in a blazing finish for a 67), David Toms (68) and Woody Austin (67). A group of six players at 6-under are led by U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker (67), tournament host Jim Furyk (69) and Mike Weir (69).
At one point when the final group was on the front nine, there was a four-way tie for first among Mickelson, Gogel, Weir and Darren Clarke, and 19 other players were within three shots of the lead.
But as a hot afternoon wore on, the leaders gave themselves more of a cushion and 13 players are within five shots of Mickelson, who had only one birdie on the front.
“I felt like I was hitting some good shots on the front nine, but they weren’t quite going the right distance or just weren’t quite working out,” he said. “Then the back … I went on a nice little tear. And I thought, ‘I’m having a lot of fun.’”
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Mickelson set up his eagle putt with a 7-iron from 195 yards out, then dropped a 30-foot birdie putt at the par-4 14th and scrambled out of the pine straw and trees at the par-5 15th to stitch together his final birdie of the day.
Mickelson nearly drove out-of-bounds at No. 16, found the ball to his relief, but had to pitch out and missed a 15-foot putt for par. He then two-putted the final two holes.
Fans line the area around the ninth green of the Timuquana Country Club on Saturday during the second round of the Constellation Furyk & Friends.
Mickelson said he’s left some shots on the course, but usually feels that way regardless of how low he goes.
“I’m sure we all do,” he said. “I had a bunch of good looks today, but I get a chance to come out here and play tomorrow. And I’m really enjoying the golf course, so it’s a fun opportunity to try to go low again and try to shoot the number that I feel I’m capable of.”
The two players who came from behind to catch Gogel at 9-under approach their scores in different ways — and both are on serious rolls in recent Champions Tour events.
Jimenez, the affable, cigar-smoking pro from Spain, was relentless with his iron shots to set up a series of short birdie putts on the back, four within a five-hole span.
“You can see [that he’s hitting his irons well] … hit it to 4 or 5 feet from the hole is very good, no?” Jimenez said. “It’s nice … nice course. You need to be very sharp with your irons.”
Jimenez has finished among the top-10 in his last four starts and on Saturday he posted a score in the 60s for the eighth time in his last nine rounds.
He will be gunning for his third PGA Tour Champions title this season, and the 11th of his career.
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Flesch, on the other hand, did his hard work on the tricky Timuquana greens.
He drained three putts of 15 feet or longer on the back nine and said going to an “armlock” method of putting has helped in recent events, in which he’s finished 13th or higher six times in seven starts, with four top-10s.
“The ball just gets on line better for me doing it,” he said. “The shorter ones tend to be easier because the ball’s on line, right off the bat. So I’m thrilled with it.”
Worth watching will be Els, the four-time major champion who was 1-over at the turn. He birdied the 10th hole to kick-start a back-nine 30 that included an eagle at No. 15 and three more birdies.
Mickelson wasn’t discounting anyone’s chances.
“They’re playing some good golf, so I have to keep doing the same thing,” he said. “Playing aggressive, driving the ball in play, hit some good iron shots and give myself some putts and hopefully make some.”
Weather prevented fans from seeing the best of what the field had to offer Friday at the PGA Tour Champions Constellation Furyk & Friends.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A sudden early-fall Florida thunderstorm on Friday prevented fans from seeing the best of what a star-studded field had to offer in the first round of the PGA Tour Champions Constellation Furyk & Friends.
But there’s nearly perfect weather coming up for the final two rounds this weekend at the Timuquana Country Club, fans are welcome back and these guys are just getting started.
Phil Mickelson, playing in his fourth PGA Tour Champions event and nearly six months after winning the PGA Championship, birdied his last hole before a three-hour weather delay, birdied his first hole after returning, and made the best of two loose shots on the final two holes to post a 6-under-par 66 for a share of the lead with Matt Gogel, who birdied his last two holes playing in the final group of the day.
Mickelson saved par on a 12-foot putt at the par-3 17th hole after pulling his tee shot into a deep patch of rough on a sloping bank, then did well to make a bogey at the par-4 18th after nearly driving his tee shot out-of-bounds on the left.
Just inches from the white line marking OB, Mickelson punched out, wedged to within 15 feet and left a par-putt attempt on the left edge.
“I hit a few wayward shots,” said the first reigning major champion to ever play in a PGA Tour Champions event. “I just didn’t feel great but fought to finish the round off and try to regroup for [Saturday]. It’s a good start, though. I didn’t do any damage and made some good birdies on that front nine.”
Frank Lickliter II of nearby Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, fought back after two consecutive bogeys when he returned from the delay and played the rest of his round at 3 under with no more blemishes to record a 5-under 67, matching Cameron Beckman.
“I’ve probably played this place, 40, 50 times … Gator Bowl [Pro-Ams] … I’ve always liked it,” said Lickliter, a two-time PGA Tour winner who is still searching for his first Champions Tour top-10 after 18 starts. “I was playing good, then after the storm, came back and made two bogeys in a row, immediately. But I settled down and made birdies coming in … I’ve been making birdies again this year.”
The eight players tied at 4-under are a mix of major champions and journeymen, led by World Golf Hall of Fame member and Schwab Cup points leader Bernhard Langer, plus past major winners Darren Clarke and David Toms.
“No wind and the greens are fantastic to putt on, so if you get it going, you can hole a lot of putts,” said Robert Karlsson of Sweden, one of the players who posted a 68. “But they’ve done a good job with the pins, there’s a few tough ones in there, especially on the back nine. But it’s very enjoyable.”
The tournament was halted at 11:50 a.m. because of approaching weather and the severe storm and lingering lightning forced tournament officials to send fans home and close the gates.
However, the field was able to return at 3 p.m. and with the sun breaking out, virtually no wind rustling the pine needles of the historic course, the players performed with only themselves, family members and a few media watching.
They put on a show. Mickelson made three birdies after his return, Gogel birdied four of his last five holes, Beckman birdied three of four at one point and Kevin Sutherland ran off five birdies in a row to get a share of the lead before a closing double.
Nineteen players shot in the 60s and 34 broke par, and most of the birdies came after the rain softened the slick greens.
Despite posting his seventh score in the 60s in 10 career Champions Tour rounds (he won his first two starts last fall), Mickelson, predictably, was kicking himself for not squeezing more out of his day.
“Granted, the golf course is challenging here and there’s some spots you’ve got to be careful,” he said. “But for the most part it’s just really fun being out here and playing fewer holes and being able to play aggressive, kind of like the way I like to play. It’s been fun the few events I’ve played.”
The field averaged 72.185 in Timuquana’s first round in hosting a major professional tour.
“They [the maintenance staff] did a great job getting the course ready, and draining it so quickly so we could go back out and play,” Mickelson said.
“People say, ‘you’re a perfectionist.’ I disagree because you’re never going to achieve that. But I love the process.”
Bernhard Langer dislikes a couple of public perceptions of him as having a methodical, A-to-B golf game and an impenetrable, cold personality.
In regards to the former, he merely points out that any player who has won two Masters, four Senior Opens and sports a winning record in 10 Ryder Cups has imagination and creativity.
As far as the latter, well, who was that guy in a fake beard and wig, running around the Timuquana Country Club during Wednesday’s Constellation Furyk & Friends pro-am rounds, pretending to be a course maintenance worker (moving tee markers around) or a member of the media, depending on which of his fellow players he encountered?
None other than Langer, who said he just got the bug to put on a disguise and act silly.
“It’s fun,” he said on Thursday before the second pro-am Furyk & Friends, which begins on Friday. “Some people think of me as this stoic, focused German and they don’t really know me. I like to laugh, I like to have fun. I have a personality that’s different from that. On the golf course I’m very focused and intense because it’s my job and I’m trying to win and do well. There’s another side of me that likes to have a good laugh.”
Indeed, Padraig Harrington said one of his enduring memories of the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills, where Langer captained the European team to a one-sided rout of the U.S., was discovering Langer’s sense of humor in the team room.
“Probably the most surprising thing about his captaincy is his sense of humor because he comes across as being very straight,” Harrington said. “But he had a great sense of humor that week. It was the one thing that jumped out that week that you didn’t know about.”
Langer chasing Hale Irwin
Langer also has been laughing all the way to the bank since joining the PGA Tour Champions in 2007. He won and had four top-10 finishes in five starts that year, won three in 2008 and hasn’t stopped yet. Langer has won 41 times on the senior circuit, four short of Hale Irwin’s record, and holds the record with 11 PGA Tour Champions majors, including four Senior Open titles and three Senior Players Championships.
Langer has been voted player of the year eight times, won 10 money titles and enters this week No. 1 on the Charles Schwab Cup points list, bidding for a record sixth Schwab Cup in a row.
Just for good measure, he shot his age of 64 in August, at the Ally Challenge — on his birthday.
All of that was after Langer carved out a career that was good enough to earn induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001: 42 European PGA Tour titles, second all-time, two Order or Merits, a 21-15-6 record in the Ryder Cup and his Masters titles in 1985 and 1993.
South Bend Tribune
In his 15th season on the PGA Tour Champions (all with longtime caddie Terry Holt of Ponte Vedra Beach), Langer said it’s getting harder to win. He has one victory in the merged 2020-21 season but is always lurking late Sunday, with 21 top-10s in 29 starts, and six in his last 10 starts.
With a trim waistline, an unlined face that looks 20 years younger and seemingly boundless energy, Langer shows no signs of slowing down.
I’ve always said that there are three major things [to keep him playing],” he said. “If I’m healthy enough to do, if I still love the game and if I’m successful. If one of those three is missing, or two, maybe it’s time to think about [retiring] Right now, I’m still reasonably healthy, I love what I’m doing and I’m still successful.”
Fellow pros praise Langer
Langer’s peers remain in awe of his longevity.
“It’s incredible … it’s one of those true incredible stories in golf, really,” said Ernie Els. “To do what he’s done and at 64 he’s leading the Charles Schwab Cup again, think about it … 64, you know? You’ve still got to practice and keep your game sharp, you’ve got to travel, you’ve got to get the body going. He plays like a young man and he’s got that desire still, which is incredible.”
Harrington said Langer survives and thrives because of his iron and wedge game, his boundless energy and his competitive heat.
He said he watched Langer practice at the PNC Father-Son one year (which Langer has won three times, two with his son Jason and one with his other son Stefan) and marveled at the shots Langer rained down on one flag from wedge distance.
“Just his personality, his nature,” Harrington said. “Obviously he’s physically very fit, always has been. If you stand behind him on the range, you know why he’s that good. From like 140 yards, if you watch any of those short flags out there, his ball just comes down all over it. He’s particularly good and you can see why he is competitive out here. One good wedge shot always equals a good drive anywhere. You can see Bernhard from 7-iron down is really good and he’s solid everywhere else.”
Chasing perfection
Langer said one reason he keeps grinding is the drive to master a game no one really does … and he admits it.
That doesn’t mean he won’t keep trying.
“It can be brutal … it can bring you back down,” he said. “It’s a very humbling game. You play great one day, you think you’ve got it and the next day it brings you right back down to earth. You never will achieve perfection. People say, ‘you’re a perfectionist.’ I disagree because you’re never going to achieve that. But I love the process.”
He should have a great chance this week at Timuquana, which plays right into Langer’s deadly combination of precision and imagination on the Donald Ross design.
“It’s in great shape … a beautiful spot,” he said of the course. “I enjoy most Donald Ross courses. His trademark are greens that slope back to front and fall off everywhere. You have to be very precise and think your way around it. You can’t attack every flag you look at and hope to get away with it.”
Langer said Irwin’s record is in his sights — even though he believed at one point that it was unbreakable.
He might have caught Irwin by now but has lost five playoffs in the last four years.
“To win 45 times in a few years is fantastic,” he said. “I thought it was never going to be broken. It may still never be broken. I haven’t given up on it yet but it’s getting harder.”
But Langer will keep coming back to the golf course until his passion and body run out. Don’t count on either any time soon.
Mickelson has played Timuquana once in the past, a round set up by long-time friend and attorney Glenn Cohen which included Tim Tebow.
Phil Mickelson will make some more history this week when he tees it up in the PGA Tour Champion’s Constellation Furyk & Friends.
The six-time major champion and World Golf Hall of Fame member will become the first reigning major winner to play in a PGA Tour Champions event.
But Mickelson said this was by default after winning the PGA Championship last May at Kiawah Island.
“It’s just math,” Mickelson said on Wednesday after playing in the first of two tournament pro-ams at the Timuquana Country Club. “Nobody in their 50s has won a major [before him].”
Since Julius Boros had been the oldest player to win a major before Mickelson, at 48 — and since Champions Tour eligibility starts at 50 — Mickelson’s point was that he didn’t have to do anything, except show up.
But he’s here, heading an all-star field of past PGA Tour and international stars who came running largely because of two factors: the historic Donald Ross course and the respect they have for tournament host Jim Furyk and his wife Tabitha, whose foundation is running the tournament.
“Basically because of Jim Furyk, because what a quality guy he is,” Mickelson said. “He and Tabitha had done an amazing job of getting a new tournament and making it unique and making it special. It’s fun for me to be a part of it and support them.”
Mickelson is playing on the Champions Tour for the first time since February and for the fourth time overall. He played twice last year, winning both, to get his Champions Tour phase off to a running start.
The fact that he won a major this year in the best indication as to why Mickelson is only playing his first Champions event of the calendar year: he’s still competitive on the PGA Tour. Mickelson finished 70th on the FedEx Cup points list last season, is currently 64th on the world golf rankings and is coming off a tie for 36th in the Fortinet Championship two weeks ago.
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Mickelson has played Timuquana once in the past, a round set up by long-time friend and attorney Glenn Cohen which included Tim Tebow. Mickelson loves the history and the challenges offered by the course.
“I love Donald Ross courses,” he said. “I think they’re terrific and this one’s no different. They’ve done a good job, this club has, of keeping it in great shape and showcasing his talents as a designer.”
While players often use the putter on the closely-mown areas around the greens, Mickelson said it’s not shaved enough that good players can’t get a wedge under the ball — which expands his versatility around the greens.
“There’s slight roll-offs on all sides, a little bit like Pinehurst but not as severe,” he said. “There’s very soft movements, so if you hit good shots and you get on the green, you have great looks at birdie. I thought the fringe area, like the chipping area maybe 30-yards short of the green and all around the green was some of the best I’ve ever seen. It allows you to get a wedge underneath the ball and actually hit decent chips and have options when you want to chip it or putt it.”
Mickelson said it’s a subtle difference between Timuquana and other course set-ups.
“Nowadays, I don’t know why, we’ve been making it so tight around the green that you simply can’t get a wedge underneath it,” he said. “This is different. You’ll see a lot of nice little pitches around the green, and the grass around it is incredible.”
“Monday morning was like maybe a feel of a major championship.”
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – When Jim Furyk was a young pup on the PGA Tour, he marveled at the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Chi Chi Rodriguez starring on the senior circuit. But he never envisioned that some day he’d be playing on PGA Tour Champions.
“As I got to 35, as I got to 40 and people would say, ‘Are you going to play the Champions Tour?’ Most of my peers would be like, ‘I don’t know, like I don’t know.’ Then as we got to 45, you go, ‘Well, you know, maybe.’ And then we got to like our late 40s, and we’re like, ‘Hey, who are we kidding? What the hell else are we going to do?’ That’s what we know how to do, that’s what we love to do, but there was always that, like at 42, ‘Hmm, I don’t know,’ ” Furyk said.
The 51-year-old has made a seamless transition to 50-and-older golf, winning in his first two starts and vying for both Rookie of the Year and the Charles Schwab Cup, the season-long competition. He hasn’t played a PGA Tour event since May, and noted that he may play a couple of old favorites over the next few years, but “95 percent of his golf will be on the Champions Tour.”
Jim Furyk celebrates with the trophy after winning the final round of the PURE Insurance Championship at the Pebble Beach Golf Links on September 20, 2020 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)
Furyk may have gotten off to a quick start in finding the winner’s circle, but he said it’s no cake walk. These guys are still good, and they still work at their game.
“There’s this idea that we’re all sitting around in the locker room and we’re having a beer and a glass of wine,” Furyk said. “I went to my first event in Flint and the range was packed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I mean packed. Putting green, it was hard to get a spot or a hole to putt at. The chipping green, they’ve got those three little chipping greens at Warwick Hills and it was hard to find a spot to go.”
“We’re blessed, and the guys understand it,” Furyk added. “They understand that it’s a second lease on life and I’m not sure there’s any other sport, maybe bowling, we have some professional bowlers over 50 that can still compete.”
“I’ve kind of fallen in love with the tour,” Furyk said. “I didn’t know if I’d like the three-round events; it’s a little bit of a track meet. You better get out there quick and make some birdies. You have to put the pedal down. I’m getting aggressive, I’m making more birdies. Golf is more fun that way.
“I’ve enjoyed getting in the fire a little bit more and winning a few events and had some heartbreaking losses as well. Every competitor wants to wake up on Sunday with a chance and I’ve had more opportunities on the Champions Tour and really enjoyed them. Guys are just as nervous and you get that throw up on your shoes on 18.”
“Monday morning was like maybe a feel of a major championship where I was just so excited to get things going, but also felt nervous, right?” Furyk said.
For a decade, Furyk & Friends existed as a one-day pro-am ahead of the Players Championship, raising about $500,000 each year for charity. Darius Rucker played at the inaugural tournament party.
“We had a nice niche and we were raising some good money, but we also didn’t have a formula for growth,” Furyk said.
As he neared his 50th birthday, he started seeing friends Davis Love III (RSM Classic) and Steve Stricker (American Family Insurance Open) host tournaments in their local community. When the Korn Ferry Finals moved from Atlantic Beach, Florida to Indiana, Furyk recognized an opportunity to create a tournament that would highlight downtown Jacksonville and the St. Johns River.
With the buy-in from PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, Furyk landed his long-time sponsor Constellation Energy to underwrite the title and Circle K as a presenting sponsor. (There’s a Slushie machine in the locker room this week.)
“At the time I hadn’t played a Champions Tour event yet. We’re trying to build an event on a tour that I never played an event on,” Furyk said. “It’s been over three years in the making, so it felt like this day or this week would never get here, and then the last few months have kind of flown by.”
Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson on the first hole during the second round of the WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club. (Photo: Stephen Spillman-USA TODAY Sports)
Turns out Furyk has a lot of friends. The field boasts the likes of Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, winning U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker and losing European captain Padraig Harrington, who is making his senior tour debut. Furyk, who said he didn’t need to twist any arms to get commitments, relayed a funny story of his recruitment of Stricker. Furyk was paired with the tournament host in Wisconsin and Fred Couples in the first round.
“Freddie hopped up on the first tee and said, ‘Man, I love that you two have an event. Strick, happy to be here. Jimmy, I can’t wait to come to your event.’ Then he looked at Strick and went, ‘You’re going, right?’ It was awesome. I couldn’t have said it better. I said to Strick, ‘Hunting season isn’t until Thanksgiving in Wisconsin, I checked.’ He laughed and said he’ll be here.”
Rucker was there on Tuesday night to bring everything full circle as the talent at the pro-am party along with Scotty McCreery, a former American Idol winner, and even John Daly took to the stage to sing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”
“We used to throw a concert for 400 people for our sponsors, now it’s a venue that holds 5,000 people, it’s amazing,” Furyk said. “I kind of pinch myself.”
Duval thinks the players will go low but “a lot depends on the greens.”
Bob Duval was the long-time Timuquana Country Club head professional and nurtured a future world No. 1-ranked golfer in the process on the classic Donald Ross design.
He also became a PGA Tour Champions winner and finished among the top-30 on the money list three years in a row to qualify for the Senior Tour Championship.
As a result, he’s got a keen interest in this week’s Constellation Furyk & Friends, which will be at Timuquana this week, marking the return of the PGA Tour Champions to the First Coast after a 19-year absence.
Duval last played full-time on the Champions Tour in 2001, with an elbow injury causing an early end to his second career. He had 134 career starts with 23 top-10s, had more than $2.25 in career earnings.
His victory in the 1999 Emerald Coast Classic in Pensacola came on the same day that his son David won the 1999 Players Championship, which still remains the only time a father and son have won on the same day in PGA Tour and Champions Tour events.
And through his son, who learned to play the game at Timuquana and went on to win 13 PGA Tour titles, including the Players and the 2001 Open Championship, Duval is well-acquainted with numerous players who are in the field this week.
His verdict on how they will play the tree-lined course with numerous doglegs and the trademark Ross push-up greens: “I think they’re probably going to tear it up.”
“A lot depends on the greens,” Duval said. “If they’re firm and fast, they might have some problems, especially if they let the Bermuda rough grow a little. But the course is right there in front of you. There are a lot of doglegs but there are no blind shots and these guys are damn good.”
Duval said that while there are no Bryson DeChambeaus on the senior circuit, there are still some big boppers — Phil Mickelson, among them, who will be the first reigning major champion to compete in a Champions Tour event.
“They may be on the Champions Tour but they’re still hitting it 290, 300 yards,” said Duval, They’ve benefited from equipment and the balls just like everyone else.”
Duval said Mickelson should be an obvious contender, but with a caveat.
“If Phil drives it crooked, he will have a rough time,” Duval said.
He also likes the tournament host, Jim Furyk, and Jerry Kelly, for their accuracy off the tee.
“It’s an old-school course and I think the guys are really going to like it,” Duval said. “They always look forward to a course where the short game is important. There are too many modern courses where if you can’t hit it high and right, you can’t play it. It’s going to be fun to watch how they play it.”
Duval had a prediction on the final winning score, unless weather is a factor.
“Twelve or 13-under will be pretty good on Sunday,” he said.
Duval also likes one change they made for tournament week: flipping the sides. That makes the 435-yard par-4 ninth hole, with a large fairway bunker on the left (and out of-bounds beyond that) and trees on the right, a tougher finishing hole than No. 18, which is about 12 yards shorter, with a larger green.
“No. 18 is a flat-out birdie hole now, a driver and a wedge for those guys,” Duval said. “No. 9, you’ve got OB left if you pull it and big trees on the right. That green is a little wobbly, terrain-wise. No. 9 is going to be a great finishing hole.”
The idea of reviving a Ryder Cup-style team event for the graybeards has been kicked around and talked about for years, and now it is set to come to fruition.
Rory McIlroy nailed it during the Ryder Cup when he said team golf is the best.
Do we really have to wait two years for the next Ryder and Solheim cups? Well, the Presidents Cup is less than a year away, but so is a new creation for the golf calendar: the World Champions Cup, which pits three teams of senior-aged golfers. How about these three captains: Jim Furyk for Team USA, Darren Clarke for Europe and Ernie Els for the International squad. Not too shabby at all. All three have been captains within the past five years in international competition and continue to thrive as winners this season on PGA Tour Champions.
“It’s a continuation of long rivalries,” said Peter Jacobsen, who is serving as chairman of the inaugural competition, which is scheduled for November 2022. “These guys are beyond interested in rekindling those competitive flames. For them to be able to do it as seniors is going to be very special.”
Darren Clarke will captain the European Team in the World Champions Cup. (Richard Graulich/Palm Beach Post)
As the saying goes, there are no new ideas, and a Ryder Cup style competition for the 50-and-over set previously existed a couple of decades ago. From 2001-04, Arnold Palmer captained a U.S. side in the UBS Cup against Gary Player and once Tony Jacklin. The idea of reviving something like it for the graybeards has been kicked around and talked about for years, Jacobsen said. Intersport, which founded and operates the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, is working on signing a title sponsor and securing a course for a November 2022 date. Originally the plan was to launch the tournament this fall, but COVID had other plans and pushed it back a year.
The format of the three-day competition will be twice daily nine-hole matches featuring both team and single play with points awarded for each hole won in each match. At the conclusion of the matches, the team with the highest point total wins.
“I guess you can call the scoring member-guest-ish,” Jacobsen said.
For the first time, the competitors of the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup will go head-to-head in the same competition, while older rivalries will be renewed.
“The World Champions Cup will give golf fans the opportunity to see the game’s greatest players come together in a team format on the world’s biggest stage,” said PGA Tour Champions president Miller Brady in a press release announcing the competition. “International team events are some of the most significant competitions in our game, and it will be fun to see Ernie, Jim and Darren, along with their teammates, compete for the inaugural World Champions Cup next year.”
