Steve Stricker withstood an early scare from Jerry Kelly but was able to hang to win the Bridgestone Senior Players.
AKRON, Ohio — Steve Stricker withstood an early scare from Jerry Kelly and nearly fell victim to some loose play on the back nine on Sunday but was able to hang to win the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club.
As sloppy as Stricker was on the first four holes on the back, his play was stellar over the final five and that’s what won him the tournament.
Kelly also faltered late, making bogey on two of the final three holes.
Stricker, 54, became the third wire-to-wire winner of the event and won his third major on the Tour Champions when he shot a final-round 33-37 70 to finish at 7–under 273 to win by six shots.
Kelly, attempting to win a second consecutive Senior Players, finished second after shooting 34-38 72 for a 72-hole score of 1-under 279.
Stricker, who earned $450,000 for the victory, joined Arnold Palmer and Bernhard Langer as previous wire-to-wire winners of this event, which moved to Firestone three years ago.
Palmer led from start to finish in winning the 1985 Senior Players at Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, and Langer, who has won 41 events on the Tour Champions list, followed suit in winning in 2015 at the Belmont Club outside of Boston.
Undoubtedly, their journeys were less stressful than Stricker’s, who for the second day in a row was nearly done in by the back nine on the South Course.
He began the day with a 4-shot lead over Kelly and had a 5-shot lead at the turn before things began to unravel a bit, just as they did during Saturday’s third round when his 9-shot lead shriveled to three when he bogeyed three of the first six holes and double-bogeyed another.
A similar scenario seemed to unfold Sunday when Stricker bogeyed the 11th and 13th holes and Kelly poured in a 15-foot putt for birdie on 13. The lead had dwindled to two shots.
A saving grace came on the 460-yard 14th hole. Kelly, who won here last year by two shots, left his second shot in a greenside bunker and it led to a bogey to Stricker’s par.
A bigger break came on the 625-yard 16th. Kelly attempted to reach the green in two but his shot hit the far bank and dribbled back into the pond that fronts the green. The penalty shot and two putts resulted in a bogey. Striker chose to lay up and a wedge to 15 feet led to a kick-in par.
Stricker made bogey on the fourth hole, which is where he made his first bogey of the tournament on Saturday. However, this time he responded with a routine par and consecutive birdies on the sixth and 190-yard seventh when his tee shot stopped a tidy four feet from the hole.
Ken Duke, who began the day five shots behind, shot himself out of contention when he bogeyed four of his first six holes.
Fred Couples turned in the lowest round of the day with a 3-under 67 for a total of even-280 to share third place with David Toms, who followed a third-round 66 with a final-round 70.
Phil Mickelson’s victory at the PGA raised questions of how it would play out in the minds of his peers who are about to turn 50.
ARKON, Ohio — Phil Mickelson becoming the oldest major winner in PGA Tour history at age 50 could have a ripple effect on the PGA Tour Champions.
Mickelson’s triumph in the PGA at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island last month will likely postpone his return to Firestone Country Club, which now hosts the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship after last staging the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational in 2018.
But his victory also raised the question of how it would play out in the minds of Mickelson’s peers who are about to turn 50.
Joining the Champions tour later this year are four-time PGA Tour winner Robert Allenby (July 12) and three-time major winner Padraig Harrington (Aug. 31). Australian John Senden (April 20) competed in this week’s Senior Players; Stuart Appleby (May 1) did not.
Former British Open champions David Duval (Nov. 9, 2021) and Justin Leonard (June 15), former PGA Championship winner Y.E. Yang (Jan. 15), as well as Brian Gay (Dec. 14, 2021) and Notah Begay III (Sept. 14) can join the Champions circuit in 2022. Duval, Leonard and Begay now work as television analysts.
Bridgestone’s agreement to host the Akron tournament runs through 2022.
While some like Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker have been able to straddle both tours, Mickelson’s success seemingly would prompt some PGA Tour players to hang on longer before making the leap to the senior circuit.
But Furyk, Stricker and Fred Couples consider Mickelson unique and don’t envision a Phil factor disrupting the Champions Tour.
“Phil’s a little bit of an anomaly,” Furyk said Wednesday. “He’s won 45 times, so other than Tiger [Woods] and maybe Vijay [Singh] in their 40s, no one else is really at that level in our era.”
Furyk, 51, said he’s been competing against — and losing to — Mickelson for decades. So he’s probably in no rush to see Mickelson come back to Firestone, one of Furyk’s favorite courses.
“He’s always been the guy at our age level that we had to beat,” Furyk said. “When he was a junior golfer, he was good enough to win in college. When he was in college, he was good enough and did win at the PGA Tour level. Then he went on to win all those events.
“I really take what he does with a bit of a grain of salt. Like if we were always comparing ourselves to him, we basically always got our butts kicked along the way.”
Stricker, 54, said players must listen to their bodies and consider how they’re playing when they approach 50.
“Phil’s a unique player, a special player, and he’s still got that flexibility and that length that most guys when they turn 48, 49, even before that they’re losing distance, and he picked up distance. He’s worked hard at it,” Stricker said. “For him to be able to do that was something extraordinary.
Steve Stricker watches his approach shot from the No. 8 fairway during the third round of the 2021 Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Akron, Ohio. Photo by Akron Beacon Journal
“I think you’ve just got to see where you’re at with your own game. Guys are going to see that and they’re going to say, ‘Hey, it’s possible,’ for sure, and maybe work towards that. But everybody’s a little bit different, especially the older we get.”
Furyk measured his driving distance against others on the PGA Tour to help him decide. He’s now fully committed to the Champions Tour save for occasional venues where he’s performed well.
“The longest I ever averaged in my career was 282 off the tee,” Furyk said of the 2015 season. “No. 100 [on the PGA Tour] was 289, so I was giving up seven yards, which is not a big deal. Cut to 2020, my last full year. At 50 I averaged 281, I was one yard off my all-time distance, but No. 100 was 298. Now, instead of giving up seven yards, I was giving up 17. I’m giving up two or three irons a hole for an entire week.
“That season I led the Tour in greens saves, but it’s a lot harder to be close when you’re giving up that much distance. So it was apparent to me there are courses I really feel I can compete, but to do it for an entire season was harder. And I really enjoy being out here. My wife and I now have a Champions tour event, so it made it even that much easier to support this tour 100 percent.”
Jim Furyk makes his second shot from the bunker on No. 7 during the third round of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Akron, Ohio. Photo by Akron Beacon Journal
Couples called Mickelson “a unique” individual and doesn’t expect PGA Tour players to try to copy his feat.
“I don’t see many 49- and 50-year-olds saying, ‘I’m going to win a PGA,”’ Couples said Wednesday. “Can Steve Stricker? Of course he can. Can Jim Furyk? Yeah. But I think as they get a little older, they’ll fall into [what’s] out here and love it.”
Jerry Kelly, 54, who won his first senior major last year in Akron, feels no pull to the PGA Tour, especially with a game built on accuracy, not length.
“I don’t have any kind of ego necessity to be out there at all,” Kelly said Tuesday. “I did well while I was out there. I would have loved to do more. But the things I want to do to make my career, win a major, things like that…
“That was incredible that Phil did that, but those majors are not in my cards. If they ever went back to Merion [in Haverford Township, Pennsylvania] again, I’d love to play in that one. But the distance, the way they’re setting up golf courses is not conducive to me. Really the last eight to 10 years was not conducive to me winning a major. That’s the only thing I could take away from playing consistently on the PGA Tour.
“Plus just hanging around the top 125, you wouldn’t get into the majors. My best way to get into the majors is playing here. I’m totally fine with where I’m at.”
A continued draw
The Senior Players offers a unique carrot that should continue to draw players to Akron. Since 2006, the winner has earned a spot in the Players Championship the following year. That event offers a $15 million purse, the largest on the PGA Tour, with Justin Thomas earning $2.7 million for his victory in March.
“I’d love to get back there and this is the way to do it,” Kelly said. “That course is right up my alley.”
Furyk talked to several players about when they knew it was time to choose the senior tour.
Hale Irwin initially split his tournaments 50-50, but that lasted less than a year. Players like Davis Love III and Vijay Singh, of whom Furyk said, “They weren’t wedge- and putter-type guys, they were guys that were built on power. … Davis always said, ‘If I putt well enough to win on the Champions Tour, I feel I putt well enough to win on the PGA Tour.’ He did at Greensboro.”
In 2015, at age 51, Love captured the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, firing a 6-under 64 on Sunday to become the third-oldest winner in PGA Tour history, a designation that still stands.
Stricker planned on playing more on the Champions tour in 2021, but then the U.S. Ryder Cup captain saw the competition postponed by COVID-19 until this year. That forced a change in his schedule because he wanted to stay close with potential members of his team.
But the senior tour’s stars are not concerned about the Phil factor convincing some in the class of 2021, 2022 and beyond to push back their commitment to the Champions tour.
“Guys are realizing that the competition on this tour is good enough to be able to say goodbye,” Kelly said.
Steve Stricker continued his run during the early going on Saturday of the Senior Players but showed signs of loose wheels later on.
AKRON, Ohio — Steve Stricker is either going to join Arnold Palmer and Bernhard Langer as a wire-to-wire winner or author a collapse of unimaginable proportions during Sunday’s final round of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club.
He showed signs of both on a sunny and windy Saturday.
Stricker continued his assault on the famed South Course during the early going on Saturday but showed signs of loose wheels in the later going and teetered on the brink of a stunning collapse.
A third-round 72 left Stricker still on top of the leaderboard at 7-under 203, but reigning champion Jerry Kelly crawled up Stricker’s back and is just four shots behind.
Only a birdie on the 625-yard 16th stopped the hemorrhaging and might have saved the day – and the tournament — for Stricker.
“It was a tough stretch of holes in there from 12, 13, 14, 15,” Stricker said. “I had a five-shot lead starting the day, I’ve got four now, so all in all I didn’t give away too many. But had an opportunity to kind of distance myself; that was the plan today. Go out, get going, be aggressive and make some birdies and get out ahead. But kind of got sidetracked there in the middle.”
He was able to right the ship with the birdie on 16.
“Yeah, I think so. It was a good drive, a good 4-iron that I hit there and a nice, chip, good putt. I played the hole well, played the next hole well, just got a gust of wind at 17, and played 18 well. I’m fine, I just I wish I didn’t have the little hiccups there in the middle.”
Stricker, 54, opened the third round with a 5-shot lead and birdied the first three holes to eventually make the turn at 2-under 33.
But he made three bogeys and one double-bogey on the back and tumbled back to the pack.
What had been a seemingly insurmountable 9-shot lead dwindled to four by day’s end as Kelly showed some heart with a third-round 2-under 68 to end 54 holes at 3-under 207.
Palmer led from start to finish in winning the 1985 Senior Players at Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, and Langer, who has won 41 events on the Tour Champions list, followed suit in winning in 2015 at the Belmont Club outside Boston.
Stricker, 54, suffered his first two bogeys of the tournament on the fourth and 10th holes and stumbled to a double-bogey on the par-3 12th, but his three consecutive opening birdies extended his lead to a whopping nine strokes, seemingly leaving the field in his wake.
Contenders Paul Broadhurst, Ken Duke and Marco Dawson – or anyone else, for that matter – were not able to mount any challenge to the U.S. Ryder Cup captain.
Broadhurst, a two-time Senior major winner who started the day in second place, five shots behind Stricker, bogeyed two holes on the front and fell into a tie for eighth with Dawson at 2 over, nine shots off the lead.
Dawson also bogeyed two holes to start and added another on the 12th.
Duke was the lone contender able to maintain an even level and eventually pulled into sole possession of third place, five shots behind. He made the turn at even-par and added a birdie on the 12th by making a putt from just off the back edge of the green.
Jim Furyk, Ernie Els and David Toms are tied for fourth at even par, seven shots behind Stricker.
Kelly, who won here last with a final score of 3-under 277, began the day eight shots behind Stricker. He bogeyed the first but rebounded with two birdies and eventually to 3-under.
“I enjoy the chase,” Kelly said. “I’d rather be in the lead and stretch it, that’s everybody’s ideal. But, I don’t mind the chase.”
Now that he is in the hunt, Kelly showed some renewed vigor.
“It feels great,” he said in answering a question as to how it felt to be in the hunt. “I feel the swing is getting better and better each day. I still feel good putting and the short game. I mean, I’ve just got to go out and play. These conditions are tough. It’s going to be even tougher tomorrow. Yeah, it’s going to be a dogfight.”
PGA Tour Champions player Brandt Jobe may be on the verge of reliving the career he wished he’d had.
PGA Tour Champions player Brandt Jobe may be on the verge of reliving the career he wished he’d had.
Jobe wanted to play Major League Baseball, but the shortstop and pitcher abandoned that pursuit after high school and went to UCLA on a golf scholarship. Turning pro in 1988, Jobe has competed around the world, racking up 13 international victories and two more on the senior tour.
With the MLB Draft approaching July 11-13, Jobe’s son Jackson is poised to act out his father’s dream.
Jackson Jobe, a shortstop and right-handed starter, exploded on the scene during his senior year at Heritage Hall High School in Oklahoma City. With a four-seam fastball that tops out at 96 mph, a devastating slider and a spin rate over 3,000, the younger Jobe is rated as the top prep pitcher in the 2021 draft class by Baseball America, ESPN, Fangraphs, and MLB Pipeline.
“I did the same things he does; he just does them a lot better than I do,” Jobe said.
Being selected in the top five is not out of the question, although Jackson Jobe also has the option to play college baseball. His father said Jackson is about to head to summer school at the University of Mississippi, but will return home in about two weeks for the draft.
As Brandt Jobe competes this week in the $3 million Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone County Club, his family life is a whirlwind, not to mention his to-be-determined draft day schedule.
“It’s going to be a really exciting time for him and for us,” Jobe said Thursday after his round at Firestone South. “Nerve-wracking, but at the same time, it’s a good nerve-wracking. He’s worked hard and earned it.”
As for the choice of college versus the pros, Jobe said, “I think right now it’s 50-50 each way. First of all, you have a team that likes you and second of all from a monetary standpoint it has to all work out for both parties to be good.
“You hope that the team that selects him, obviously we know a lot about some of the teams, too, we’re not going in it blind. He has an advisor, so we have some good people we’ve gained a lot of knowledge [from]. I think you just sit back and you enjoy the ride.”
Jackson Jobe has thrown two no-hitters and struck out 82 batters in 34 innings pitched this season while giving up just 11 hits and one earned run to tally a 0.20 ERA in Oklahoma high school baseball action. (Sarah Phipps/The Oklahoman/USA Today Network)
Jobe said Jackson had already committed to Ole Miss before his senior season. But the COVID-19 pandemic gave Jackson, now nearly 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds, more time to train and the effect was dramatic. Jobe said last season Jackson was out the door at 6 a.m. to work out six days a week and didn’t get home from practice until 6 p.m.
“It’s kind of been one of those crazy things. He’s been a real nice player and all of a sudden during COVID he worked out hard and put on weight, which is the big thing for him,” Jobe said. “All of a sudden when he came out, instead of 91, 92 [mph] it was 96, 97. That was a game-changer.
“And then everyone says, ‘We need to see you start’ because he was a shortstop and a closer. He doesn’t have that many innings under his belt. So this year he started and his velocity started the year maybe 93 to 95 and it was 95, 97 at the end of the year, touching 99. So he progressed and got stronger.”
It’s not just his velocity. Draft analysts say Jackson Jobe has the best slider among high school prospects.
Asked where he got it, Jobe said, “That’s a great question. He does give me a little credit. I kind of showed him when he was about 13 how I thought he should throw a curveball. It really wasn’t, it was a 12-6 pitch. He’s kind of developed that from a 12-6 to his own slider.”
Jobe also coached Jackson in youth football and baseball.
“Every time I got injured, I’m like, ‘It’s a year off, I can play coach.’ I did that a lot,” said Jobe, who suffered a shoulder injury in 2018 and a herniated disc in 2012.
Jobe thought back to the first time Jackson’s pitches were measured by Trackman, a device that provides such statistics as exit velocity and movement on pitched or hit balls. Jackson, also a high school quarterback, really opened eyes.
Brandt Jobe waves his ball after a birdie on the 18th green during the third round of the 2017 U.S. Senior Open Championship at Salem Country Club on July 1, 2017, in Peabody, Massachusetts. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)
“The Trackman craze … I remember the first event a year ago when this went crazy, some people were like, ‘Ah, Trackman’s broken.’ I’m like, ‘It isn’t broken. This is going to surprise everybody.’
“Most of the kids were 2,700, his popped out at 3,200, 3,300. I think that’s what makes people interested because you’re different. You have a unique skill. His fastball spins more than most. Everything he does, it must be how he grips it or his fingers, or the football. I don’t know it’s all tied in. We don’t have to figure that out, just keep doing it.”
Jackson Jobe is not the only son of a Champions Tour player who didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps athletically.
Jim Furyk’s son Tanner, 17, a senior at The Bolles School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., started playing lacrosse in the seventh grade and is now considering Division III schools. Furyk said Tanner, now a 12-handicap, gave up golf for about five years before taking it up again when he was 15. His father’s profession is now his second-favorite sport.
“He just came from a showcase in Connecticut,” Furyk said Wednesday of Tanner’s lacrosse career. “He started late, just fell in love with it, and worked hard at it. He likes to play with his buddies, teammates, schoolmates.
“Their team was real successful back in the ‘80s, ‘90s. … They’re building it back up. They went to the state final four last year, lost in the semis.”
Furyk realizes how hard it is for a son to follow his father into a golf career. He once discussed that pressure with Bill Haas, son of Champions Tour player Jay Haas. Haas’s other son, Jay Jr., an eight-year pro and former PGA Tour caddie, now serves as director of instruction and coaching at Haas Family Golf in Greenville, S.C.
“Billy said he’d go to the scoring tent at a junior tournament and everybody wanted to know how the Haas boys played,” Furyk said.
That was not the case for the Jobes. Jobe said Jackson won state titles in football and baseball, but never liked golf. Jackson’s performance as a senior proved he’d chosen the right path.
“It wasn’t like he was a slouch before this all happened. He took it upon himself to say, ‘I want to see how good I can get,’” Jobe said. “When you see [his fastball] coming out at 96 miles an hour easy, that’s when I was like, ‘OK.’ I knew how good his slider was.”
The draft starts on a Sunday, planned by MLB to lead into the All-Star Game in Atlanta, which will pose an issue for Jobe. He will be playing in the U.S. Senior Open at Omaha (Nebraska) Country Club.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet or how I’m going to do it,” Jobe said. “I thought the draft started at 7. If we finish by 5, that’s the last group in. I’m an hour and seven minutes on a flight, I can hire a plane and be home, right?
“Now I’m finding out [the draft] is at 6. It’s a good problem to have. It’s exciting.”
As for the best thing he ever taught his son to prepare him for a professional future, Jobe thought back to something Jackson mentioned in a recent interview.
“I said, ‘The one thing you’re going to find in this game, it’s so hard because people are always looking at you. So as good as you are on the field, you’ve got to be that good off the field,’” Jobe said. “’If you can do that, that will separate you from a lot of people because it’s very hard to do.’”
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.
Steve Stricker fired a second consecutive bogey-free round that kept in front at the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship.
Bogey-free golf.
Three of the sweetest words a player can hear.
Throw in a birdie or nine and it is golf nirvana. Maybe not the state of perfect happiness but it’s darn close.
Steve Stricker might not be feeling nirvana-ish but he has to be feeling pretty good about himself – as well he should – after a second consecutive bogey-free round that kept him semi-comfortably in front of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club.
Stricker’s 2-under 68 was not as dazzling as his opening 63 but it got the job done. His two-day total of 9-under 131 left him with a 5-shot lead over Englishman Paul Broadhurst (67-69) and a 7-shot bulge over Marco Dawson (69-69) and Ken Duke (67-71) at the halfway point of the $3 million event, one of five majors on the PGA Tour Champions schedule.
He is the only man in the 78-player field without a bogey.
Stricker’s five-stroke cushion matches the largest 36-hole lead in tournament history. J.C. Snead led by five after two rounds in 1992 but closed with rounds of 72-75 and finished tied for second behind Dave Stockton. And, it is the largest lead through 36 holes at a Champions Tour major since Bernhard Langer led by seven midway through the 2014 Senior Open Championship.
“You know, it was a little bit more of a grind today,” said Stricker, who parred the first nine holes before cashing in with the first of his two birdies on the 400-yard 10th. “I didn’t make a bogey, but I made a couple good saves for pars that kept the round going. But, overall, you know, really good, solid round again.”
That the 55-year-old Broadhurst is in contention is stunning. The winner of the 2016 Senior Open Championship revealed Friday that he has been suffering from vertigo for the past two months. The symptoms come and go, he said, after starting with an ear infection a few months ago.
“I’m just hoping my health holds out on me so it’s nice to find a bit a form and put a few good rounds together,” said Broadhurst, from Walsall, England. “It’s been tough. Putting’s so difficult, ball’s moving, you’re moving. I’m not swinging how I would like, balance is still not right through the ball. So I’m getting away with it at the moment, but as long as I stay OK for the weekend, I’ll give it my best shot.”
Broadhurst had four birdies and three bogeys to remain in contention in hopes of making a fourth top-10 this season. He said he fears that Stricker will have to come back to the field rather than the field catching Stricker.
“How impressive is what he’s doing?” Broadhurst asked rhetorically. “It’s not a course where you can shoot 6-under but then he shot 7-under yesterday so he proved that theory wrong. That’s what we’ve come to expect from Stricks. He continues to amaze us with some of the scores he puts on the board.”
Stricker, who will captain the Ryder Cup team in three months, had two close calls to having his bogey-free display disrupted.
On the 460-yard 14th he was able to save par after escaping the left rough and avoiding tree trouble from 116 yards. He had hoped to give himself a makeable putt from 10 to 15 feet, but a masterful 8-iron shot stopped about three feet from the hole.
“I wasn’t sitting too well after two shots and just tried to chop an 8-iron, keep it underneath the tree limbs in front of me and try to gauge it coming out of that rough properly. It was a lucky shot. It was like stealing one.”
Stricker hit 3-wood off the tee on the 395-yard 17th but ended up in the right rough, again with a tree in front of him. His 5-iron shot avoided the tree but bounced into some thick rough just off the back of the green, leaving him with a testy chip. He ran his third about four feet past but made the slightly uphill come-backer to keep his streak intact.
His lone birdies came on the 400-yard 10th when he made a 12-footer and on the famed 625-yard 16th. A 3-iron shot from 220 yards found the back bunker but he blasted out to two feet and made the putt.
“It’s a tough test,” Stricker said of the South Course, which is playing to an approximate length of 7,136 yards for the over-50 group “So, I’m happy to get out of here with another bogey-free round. And, if I can continue to do that I’ll be all right.”
Ernie Els, who finished in a tie for fifth here last year after a strong weekend, turned in the day’s lowest round at 3-under 67 and is one of six players tied for fifth at 1-under 139.
Marco Dawson posted his second 69 and shared third place with Ken Duke, each at 138. Dawson, from Freising, Germany, won the 2015 Senior Open Championship but has not had a top-10 finish on the Tour Champions since September of 2020.
Fast starts and low rounds at Firestone Country Club are nothing new to Steve Stricker.
AKRON, Ohio – Fast starts and low rounds at Firestone Country Club are nothing new to Steve Stricker.
But, if the Ryder Cup captain gets any faster or goes any lower during the final three rounds he’ll likely leave the field distantly in his rearview mirror as the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship unfolds.
Stricker, 54, birdied five of his first nine holes on Thursday, including three in a row to close out his front nine, and went on to shoot 7-under 63 to take the first-round lead.
The 63 was Stricker’s personal best on the South Course, bettering the 64 he shot on two other occasions. It also was the lowest first round in Bridgestone Senior Players history.
Stricker’s nines of 33-30 gave him a 4-shot lead over two relative unknowns to Firestone fans. Ken Duke (35-32) and Englishman Paul Broadhurst (32-35) shared second place.
Reigning champion Jerry Kelly, who was paired with Stricker, was one of four players tied for fourth at 1-under 69 after nines of 35-34. The others are Marco Dawson (33-36), Bob Estes (34-35) and Gene Sauers (35-34).
Fast starts and superlative rounds on the South Course are part of Stricker’s Firestone DNA.
In the 2020 version of the Senior Players he opened with a 2-under 68 only to shoot 11-over during his final three rounds to finish at 9-over 289 and in a tie for 23d.
Part of that 68 including a hole-in-one on the par-3 seventh hole that helped get him to 5-under at one point.
In 2019, when Retief Goosen won by two shots, Stricker opened with a 6-under 64 then failed to break 70 the rest of the way and finished at 1-under 279.
He also laid a 6-under 64 on the field during the final round of the 2012 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. That lifted him into a tie for second place with Jim Furyk, each one shot behind winner Keegan Bradley. The 64 followed three consecutive rounds of 68.
“I have gotten off to good starts here before so I’ve got to continue with that,” he said, while acknowledging he is winless on the South Course. “Just have to keep playing with the confidence level that I played with today and keep trying to hit the shots I hit today.”
Stricker, who has been toying with his putter, its grip and how he holds it, needed just 22 putts on 14 holes and was not required to make many monsters as he hit the ball close to the hole all day. His longest birdie putts were 20 feet on the 17th and 15 feet on the 18th. His other birdie putts were close to or less than 6 feet.
“I’ve been struggling with my putting, the consistency of it,” he said. “I just haven’t been feeling that great on the greens lately and today was a good day. I putted well. I cleaned up nicely. I made all the little three, four, five-footers and those are what keeps the round going.”
After a roller-coaster front nine in which he had three birdies and three bogeys, Duke settled in for the final nine holes. He birdied three of his final four, including a chip-in from just off the 18th green for his seventh birdie of the day.
Broadhurst, who won the 2018 Senior PGA and the 2016 Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie, was nearly as steady as Stricker. The 55-year-old birdied the eighth and ninth holes that led to making the turn at 3-under, then reeled off nine consecutive pars to shoot himself into contention.
Stricker began play on the 10th hole on a sunny and windy day in which the winds grew progressively stronger as the day wore on.
“It got obviously windier as the day went on,” Stricker said. “There was a little bit of breeze right at the start and then it kept picking up, especially on our second nine. Coming down the stretch it was blowing pretty good.”
Fred Couples has finished tied for sixth or better in four of his last five events on the PGA Tour Champions.
He may play only occasionally on the PGA and Champions Tours, but Fred Couples is still chasing trophies.
That was evident Wednesday as Couples warmed up for the pro-am before the $3 million Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, which opened Thursday at Firestone Country Club’s famed South Course.
Couples has finished tied for sixth or better in four of his last five events on the PGA Tour Champions. He tied for second his last time out on June 13 at the American Family Insurance Championship in Madison, Wisconsin, one stroke behind winner Jerry Kelly.
Some might consider themselves on a roll with such 2021 results. But not Couples, who remains driven to succeed at age 61.
“Yeah, I was on a roll a couple weeks ago and bogeyed the last hole to lose to Jerry Kelly, but I played very well. In April I was in the last group in Naples and there were a couple really, really good scores the last round and I had kind of a so-so last day,” he said of the Chubb Classic, where he carded a 71 in the final round and tied for sixth.
“I mean, on a roll, yeah. I’d like to win, but I’m playing pretty well. I don’t play that much, so my rolls are just getting to the tournaments and getting going.”
Couples has recorded 13 Champions Tour victories, the last in 2017, when he captured the Chubb Classic and the American Family Insurance Championship. He’s won 15 times on the PGA Tour, including the 1992 Masters, 1984 and 1996 Players Championship and the 1998 Memorial Tournament.
Part of Couples’ frustration likely comes from the preparation he put in before this year’s Masters, only to shoot 79-78 and miss the cut by eight shots.
“I worked hard to go to Augusta and what I shot, 78, 77 or something crazy, and I practiced and played and I ended up saying I can’t do this,” he said on the Firestone driving range. “Then I went to Naples and really liked the course. Going to Sunday, honestly, I was I think tied for the lead and I played pretty well, I just didn’t putt very well.
Fred Couples stretches as he makes his way to the 18th hole during the first day of the Chubb Classic, Friday, April 16, 2021, at the Tiburon Golf Club in North Naples, Florida.
“So I changed putters, and since then I’ve started to putt pretty well, so it makes the game a little easier when you’re making four-, five-, six-footers for pars. I’m going to definitely have to putt well here.”
In Madison, Couples was paired with Miguel Angel Jimenez (who tied him for second) and Retief Goosen (who tied for fourth). Couples shot 68 in the final round and lost to Kelly, who carded a 66.
“Even if I’m behind this Sunday and I come out and play a good Sunday and move my way up, it’s always a good feeling,” Couples said. “In Madison, I really played very well on Sunday. I hit the ball great, had a great pairing with Jimenez and Goosen and I thought one of us was going to win.
“Next thing I know Kelly starts birdieing every hole.”
Couples tied for eighth last year in the Bridgestone Senior Players, when only champion Kelly and runner-up Scott Parel shot under par. In 2019, the first year of the Champions event in Akron, Couples tied for 22nd, his 285 total leaving him 11 strokes behind of winner Goosen, who fired a 62 on Friday.
Couples started participating in the NEC World Series of Golf at Firestone in 1983. His best finish in that event was third in 1992. In five World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitationals, his best was a tie for 15th in 1999, the inaugural year.
But Couples loves returning to Firestone, even though friends at home in Newport Beach, California still believe Akron hosts a PGA Tour event. The WGC moved to Memphis, Tennessee, after the 2018 tournament.
“At home, everyone’s shocked that when I tell them I’m going to Akron. They don’t even realize that the Tour players don’t play here anymore and that the old guys play here, so it’s kind of funny,” Couples said.
“The guy who won the California State Open, he’s my age, and he said, ‘Where are you going next?’ I said, ‘To Akron.’ He said, ‘Akron? You’re not in the World Series?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not, but I’m in the Bridgestone event there.’ Then I told him the winner gets to go play in the Players Championship, so that got a rise out of him.”
This is the third year for the Bridgestone Senior Players at Firestone. The club has hosted a professional golf event for 68 years, and Couples considers himself lucky to compete on a course he considers U.S. Open-quality. He was honored as the event’s 2019 Ambassador of Golf.
“Like I said a couple years ago, this is amazing that we’re playing here,” Couples said. “We have a lot of great tournaments, don’t get me wrong, but we don’t play golf courses like this.
“We’re lucky to be here, thanks to Bridgestone and the local charities. You know, it’s one of my favorite places.”
Couples said the memories flood back when he returns. He played with eight-time WGC-Bridgestone Invitational champion Tiger Woods when Woods won at Firestone for the first time in 1999.
“I played on Sunday with Tiger when he won one year, that was crazy. Crazy fun just to see that,” Couples recalled.
That flashback helped Couples see the good in his game, despite what he considers disappointing results.
“I know right now what I have to do well and that is drive the ball well,” he said. “I feel like I am, so I just have to play smart and not panic if I make some bogeys and start thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to hit a driver on this hole.’
“I played probably 25 events here and hitting driver on holes you shouldn’t doesn’t work out very well in your favor. It may work one day out of the four, but not if you’re going to play four rounds.”
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.
Jerry Kelly returns to Firestone Country Club this week, no longer cranking the club head of his unstable driver.
AKRON, Ohio — Jerry Kelly returns to Firestone Country Club this week riding an ultimate high, now that he is no longer cranking the club head of his unstable driver.
On June 13, Kelly defended his title in the American Family Insurance Championship in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. He captured his first victory on the PGA Tour Champions since he claimed his first major, the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, in Akron last August.
“That was much needed for my psyche,” Kelly said of his one-shot triumph over Fred Couples and Miguel Angel Jimenez at University Ridge Golf Club. “That’s what that major can do for you confidence-wise. It was huge for me to win the Players, but last week was just incredible and I’m not quite two feet on the ground yet.”
Kelly will need to return to earth if he hopes to prevail for the second consecutive year in the $3 million Bridgestone Senior Players that opens Thursday at Firestone’s famed South Course. The last man to take home consecutive Senior Players trophies was Bernhard Langer from 2014-16. The last to post back-to-back victories at Firestone was Tiger Woods from 2005-07 in the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.
“When we get to a world-class golf course — no two ways about it, this is completely world-class, it’s major quality — and we all know it and we all want to win at courses like that because it just proves the game can hold up under any circumstance,” Kelly said Wednesday. “Having won at Firestone Country Club … I know I can win just about anywhere now because it’s that great of a golf course.”
He got a lift from the American Family triumph in more than one regard. It followed what he called his worst round in 2021, a 75 on the final day of the Principal Charity Classic in Des Moines, Iowa, where he finished tied for 23rd.
Kelly said he broke his driver about six weeks ago and had been struggling since. Going into the American Family, in his previous four tournaments dating back to May 9 he had tied for 19th, tied for 14th, tied for 12th and tied for 52nd in the field in driving accuracy, normally his strong suit.
He remained third in the Champions Tour driving accuracy standings for the 2020-21 wraparound season, but in Des Moines hit only 42.86 percent of the fairways, well below his season average of 79.20 percent.
Kelly has an endorsement deal with Srixon but was playing with a PING driver, and said his game wasn’t the same after it was broken.
“The internal threading stripped,” he said. “I hit a shot once and my head looked [bent] and I’m like, ‘That’s not good.’ Basically, I cranked it back down; I could hold onto the grip and twist the head.”
Kelly said he thought it was a problem with the ferrule, the covering between the shaft and club head, so he replaced that. He tried a different driver, but couldn’t find the right shaft-club head combination, so he went back to the broken one.
“I played with it for a few weeks that way,” he said. “It was stable for solid hits, but it was not stable for mishits. I think it moved enough on mishits that I was not hitting shots that I’m used to seeing.
“Even though it probably was the ferrule, just me cranking that thing to show everybody what was going on I think I stripped the head as well.”
He was finally sent a new head and shaft before the Wisconsin tournament, and he said the driver “worked out perfectly.”
Kelly said it’s the kind of problem all pros encounter. He joked that what he did wasn’t nearly as bad as what happened to Rod Pampling in Des Moines. Pampling ducked under a spectator rope and dropped the rope across his bag on the back of his cart. When the cart pulled away, two of his clubs fell out and snapped.
“It’s good comedy if you haven’t seen that one,” Kelly said.
Hitting fairways with his rebuilt driver will be key for Kelly at Firestone, where he and runner-up Scott Parel were the only two in the field to finish under par in 2020.
“You can’t just hit straight drives, you have to actually shape it in the fairways,” Kelly said. “The way that they’re sloped, even when a fairway is wide, you probably only have half to a quarter of that fairway to actually hit. If I’m confident with my driver, I really enjoy the way I’m hitting my irons, the way I’m putting and my short game. So that course especially comes down to the driver.
“If it plays firm and fast. Even though you’re hitting it farther, you need more control over your ball off the tee. I really love that about that golf course because that’s my strong point.”
Kelly explained why his victory in Madison was so important, especially coming off that round of 75 in Des Moines.
“I knew I hadn’t won this year,” he said. “It was great to actually outplay the guys on the backside on Sunday. I knew I was close. But after making double bogey on Saturday to finish my round and then starting my round with a bogey the next day, to come back from those on two separate days, you had the same feeling both times.
“I had to dig deep. That’s probably what I’m most proud of, the comeback that I posed from those two spots. I was in the lead and faltered. And when you come back from something like that, that just makes you that much more proud rather than having everything go so smoothly, which obviously never happens.”
Kelly, 54, also had his mother, Lee, in the gallery. She said in an interview with the Champions Tour staff that she has been keeping his scorecard since he was 5 and making scrapbooks with clippings of his accomplishments.
But her most unusual quirk is burying feathers at the course he’s playing for luck.
“If you bury a feather, you grow a birdie,” Kelly explained in the video.
“She’s been doing it forever,” he said Wednesday. “I played at my regular golf course yesterday, I had a charity outing, and I’m walking down the fairway and I’m like, ‘Wow, there’s an eagle feather, she’d really like that one.’ And I eagled the next hole. It’s crazy, it really is.”
Eagles can be rare at Firestone, but Kelly got one with a hole-in-one at the par-3 No. 12 in the final round last year. Coming into 2020, Kelly had played in four NEC-Bridgestone Invitationals from 2003-09. His best finish in that span was a tie for 11th in 2009, when his 277 total was nine shots behind winner Woods. Last year Kelly also posted a 277 and beat Parel by two strokes.
As he looked forward to competing again in Akron, where he likes to relax at the restaurants beside the water at Portage Lakes, Kelly set another goal besides winning.
“I am going to hit the fairway on the eighth hole this year,” he said, shaking his head affirmatively. “I am, I know I am. Every time I step up on that tee, I say, ‘This is the day that I finally hit you, fairway.’”
The vehicle he was driving in Iraq hit a 250-pound roadside bomb. Pulido swerved right, saving the lives of those with him.
AKRON, Ohio — John Daly has tried to help those in need throughout his PGA Tour career.
But a gregarious retired U.S. Army major with a Purple Heart and a prosthetic leg helped Daly when he reached a turning point with his 2020 bladder cancer diagnosis. Their partnership has given Daly’s charity work a newfound focus.
Major Ed Pulido teamed with PGA Tour Champions star Daly to launch the John Daly-Major Ed Heart of a Lion Foundation last October. Pulido said their fundraising events brought in $260,000 in the first three months and they’re on track to total $1 million in the inaugural year.
On Tuesday, Pulido stood at the 17th tee at Firestone Country Club’s North Course, greeting participants and posing for pictures during a pro-am put on by the Wentz Family Foundation to benefit Heart of a Lion.
The fundraiser precedes the $3 million Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, which opens Thursday at Firestone South.
First discussed by Bud Wentz, president of Wentz Financial Group in Hudson, and Daly during a pro-am two years ago, Daly’s event was capped by a Jake Owen concert hours later at the Archbishop Hoban High School football field. Most of the proceeds will benefit Daly’s and Pulido’s 501c3 charity that serves children, veterans and first responders.
“We do events all across the country. What we try to do that’s different, we try to keep at least 60 to 70 percent of the dollars local,” Pulido said.
Major Ed Pulido, the founder and CEO of the John Daly-Major Ed Heart of a Lion Foundation, swings on the North Course at Firestone Country Club Tuesday, June 22, 2021 in Akron, Ohio. Photo by Karen Schiely, Akron Beacon Journal/USA Today Network
Pulido, 53, of Edmond, Oklahoma, said he met Daly, 55, about 15 years ago at Whistling Straits Golf Course in Kohler, Wisconsin, and they did some charity work together.
But it wasn’t until last year when Daly began planning the new foundation that they reconnected and became partners.
“A turning point, he had a cancer diagnosis and for him it was like, ‘What’s next? How long can I continue doing what I’m doing?’ and making some changes to not only his philanthropy footprint, but his life,” Pulido said. “I think all of us have a point in life when that comes to be.”
Pulido’s came when he was 37 in 2005, when he was forced to retire from the military after 20 years of service and three tours of duty.
On Aug. 17, 2004, the vehicle he was driving in Baqubah, Iraq, hit a 250-pound roadside bomb. Pulido said he had been trained to swerve right or left in such an instance. He swerved right, saving the lives of those with him.
“The first fragment broke my knee in three places, the fragment is still in the left side of my body,” Pulido said. “A combat medic pulls me out. I spent about 17 hours in surgery after I got back to Bagdad. Then Germany, Walter Reed, and Brooke Army Medical Center [in San Antonio, Texas]. I spent almost 40 days in ICU with e-coli, two staph infections and some kind of chemical infection in my leg. On Oct. 1, there was no other remedy except to amputate.”
With retirement inevitable, Pulido remembered the words of his father Manuel, a chief warrant officer 4 in the Army with whom he served when he enlisted at age 17.
“I’m thinking, ‘What’s next?’ I could have sat down and said, ‘I’m going to take my retirement and hang out at the house,”’ Pulido said. “But it was my father, he said, ‘Be resilient. Never quit. Move forward.’ That’s what John represents.”
Pulido went to work for the United Way, then spent 13 years with Folds of Honor, which aids families of fallen or disabled servicemen and women. Pulido gained valuable experience he’s now using to help Daly.
Manuel Pulido, who lives in Lakeland, Florida, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in June 2020, which Polido said coincided with Daly’s test results. Daly revealed in September that he’d undergone surgery, but the bladder cancer had an 85 percent likelihood of returning. That strengthened Ed Pulido’s bond with Daly.
The Heart of a Lion Foundation soon followed. The lion in the logo represents Daly, the Purple Heart Pulido’s service and the American flag in a heart shape says to Pulido, “America’s heart is with all of us and we should do our part to make a difference.”
[vertical-gallery id=778101580]
The foundation has worked on a house project for a veteran in Oklahoma. Some battling suicidal thoughts have had help in seeking counseling. Injured first responders have received assistance. The foundation also aids St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Boys & Girls Clubs.
“We try to empower veterans to be difference-makers,” Pulido said. “We have veterans who are selling coffee, they’ve started a coffee business, veterans who are doing woodworking. Some are doing long drive and playing golf.
“A lot of it is morale, welfare and recreation, taking care of their families and connections to organizations that can provide support and healing and educational opportunities.”
Pulido said Tuesday’s pro-am and concert would not have happened without Wentz, Heart of a Lion’s first corporate sponsor.
“We talk about unity and we talk about all of these words, but what’s our action?” Pulido said. “Our action is we’re not going to leave anyone behind on the field of battle for our military, but also on the homefront. That’s what’s Bud’s all about. For us to do our part with him and raise a substantial amount of money, tonight (Tuesday night) the concert with Jake Owen is going to be a pretty powerful thing.”
Pulido agreed that his partnership with Daly centered Daly’s charitable efforts that had been well-intentioned but somewhat scattershot before.
“We gave it focus, we gave it horsepower, we gave it connection,” Pulido said. “We reconnected with our network of people that have helped us with other things. Now it’s inventoried and we know what we’re doing.
“We’ve got people coming at us with golf course management, square (toed) shoes. We’ve got a coin coming out soon with John’s logo and name on it. I’m just re-starting this new brand. We’re the heart of a lion, the heart of America, the heartbeat of our nation. That’s the focus that we want to give. We want to change lives.”
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.
Furyk, 51, returns to Akron for the first time in five years for the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, one of five senior majors.
Jim Furyk can’t believe 20 years have passed since his epic seven-hole playoff with Tiger Woods at Firestone Country Club.
“No. Might feel like 30 … ” Furyk said.
While the loss remains “bittersweet,” Furyk was able to joke about the memory and his advancing age as he shifts his commitment to the PGA Tour Champions.
Furyk, 51, returns to Akron for the first time in five years for the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, one of five senior majors that opens Thursday at Firestone’s famed South Course.
When he arrives at a venue that he played for decades on the PGA Tour, Furyk said he’s usually first struck by his body of work. That will certainly be the case in the Rubber City.
In 17 appearances at Firestone for the World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational from 1999-2016, Furyk recorded five top-five finishes and eight top-10s, including his first five tournaments. He finished second twice, to Woods in 2001 and to Keegan Bradley in 2012, took solo third in 2006 and tied for third in 2015.
“Definitely feel like it was a place that I should have won in my career,” Furyk said in a June 9 telephone interview. “I’m definitely a little bit heartbroken because I like the golf course so much and it’s a place I didn’t win.
“Riviera in LA would be a golf course I would say something like that about, Colonial in Fort Worth. Three of my favorite courses and I’ve had very good finishes at all of them. I think I finished second at Colonial a couple times (1998, 2007). Those are the kind of golf courses I’ve loved in my career, but wasn’t able to win at.”
When asked to recall a few Firestone memories, Furyk turned back the clock to the duel with Woods in the 2001 NEC Invitational. The playoff remains CBS’ highest-rated golf broadcast from Firestone. That bested 1988 (Mike Reid beat Tom Watson in a playoff), 1989 (David Frost beat Ben Crenshaw in a playoff), 2005 (Woods won by one shot over Chris DiMarco) and 2000 (Woods’ “Shot in the dark” victory finish).
Jim Nantz, the voice of CBS, wasn’t surprised by the playoff’s ratings distinction.
Jim Furyk walks past a lake to the third green during the second round of the Bridgestone Invitational golf tournament at Firestone Country Club, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012, in Akron, Ohio.
“Tiger won a lot of the tournaments there in a runaway,” Nantz said in a 2018 Beacon Journal interview as Woods recorded eight victories at Firestone. “People would still watch because it was Tiger. But that was a playoff that lasted seven holes. It was high-stakes drama.”
Remembering the 2001 NEC Invitational playoff with Tiger Woods
The two alternated playing Nos. 17 and 18, and Woods won with a two-foot birdie putt at No. 18, while Furyk sliced his tee shot under a pine tree and made bogey. Furyk, who led or stood tied for the lead after the first three rounds, also missed three birdie putts of 12 feet or less.
“I have great memories of that and also disappointing as well,” Furyk said. “Tiger definitely pulled some magic out a few different times, as I did. But it did have some drama.”
Furyk’s most stunning shot came when he holed out from the sand to save par on the first playoff hole. He failed to get out of the bunker at No. 18 on his third shot, but his fourth rolled straight to the hole, circled the cup 360 degrees, and fell in.
“Holing the bunker shot, that would have been the best shot of the day, that’s the one I remember. I probably don’t remember them all, I’ll have to go back and read [the] articles, I’m over 50 now,” he joked.
Akron provides plenty of memories for Furyk family
Furyk also called the 2012 loss to Bradley “a heartbreaker,” accurately remembering his double bogey at 18. He was beaten by a shot as Bradley sank a 15-foot putt for par.
But when it was pointed out that Furyk led that tournament for 71 holes, he said, “Yes, I’ve got some good memories there.”
This year those will be amplified. Furyk said his daughter Caleigh, 19, a sophomore at Belmont University, and son Tanner, 17, a senior at The Bolles School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., are attending only one to three of his tournaments in 2021 and chose to accompany him and wife Tabitha to Akron.
“They have some great memories from when they were younger,” he said of his children.
Furyk said the family used to bring their dog, stay in Cuyahoga Falls and go on hikes together. They attended Rubber Ducks (then-Akron Aeros) minor league baseball games and ate at their favorite restaurants, later supplemented by recommendations from 2003 British Open champion Ben Curtis, who lives in Stow.
Jim Furyk during the second round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
“We went to the drive-in in Ravenna, which they thought was the coolest thing, we don’t have any of those near our home in Florida,” Furyk said. “When they were young, we’d get an SUV and open the hatch and watch a movie. We were all together in middle America, a fun place for families to be.”
The Jim & Tabitha Furyk Foundation hosted its 9th annual Hope for the Holidays event to fill bags of food for needy families. The Furyks — Tanner (from left), Jim, Tabitha and Caleigh — were pleased that the event raised food to feed more than 5,000 Jacksonville area families.
These days are different, but Furyk’s success has continued.
Turning focus to PGA Champions Tour
In 2020, he won his first two events on the Champions Tour, choosing familiar courses where he’d excelled. He captured the Ally Challenge at Warwick Hills (Michigan) and the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach (California). He’s finished in the top 25 in all 13 Champions Tour events he’s entered in 2020-21, also with a second, a tie for fourth (on June 13 in Madison, Wisconsin) and eight top 10s.
But it wasn’t until May that Furyk decided to commit to the Champions Tour.
“Early in the year we had some events overseas that got canceled on the Champions Tour, so I played two of the three Champions Tour events, but I played mostly on the PGA Tour,” Furyk said. “As soon as May hit, I’ve focused just on the Champions Tour and that’s kind of what I’ll do for the future. I’m happy and comfortable out here. Not that I won’t go play the PGA Tour anymore, but I’m going to play 90% of my golf out here.
“Just kind of felt it was time to turn the page and move out here.”
Furyk has won 17 PGA Tour events, including the 2003 U.S. Open and 2010 Tour Championship, which earned him that year’s FedEx Cup and player of the year honors. He shot the official record for the lowest 18 holes on the PGA Tour, carding a 58 in the final round of the 2016 Travelers Championship. He played on nine Ryder Cup teams and seven Presidents Cup teams. He served as the U.S. Ryder Cup captain for the 2018 loss to Europe at Le Golf National, Paris.
That’s why it took some time for Furyk to come to grips with the decision to play on the 50-and-over circuit, even though he’s seen an influx of friends join him of late.
“I had to get it kind of right in my head that’s what I wanted to do,” he said. “Was it hard? I don’t know. I wanted to make sure I was positive. A couple of my friends turned 50 and they just said ‘Adios,’ never saw them again.
“I probably got six months into it before I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s the right time and I want to turn the page.’”
Furyk said in the future, he will be wise on the courses he chooses.
“I think Torrey Pines is a fine golf course, but it makes no sense for me to go play the event in February there when it’s cold and wet and damp and the course is 7,600 yards long and I’m giving up 40 yards off the tee,” he said. “I’ve got a lot more opportunities out here to compete and put myself in contention more often. Everyone likes to wake up on Sundays with opportunities to win tournaments.”
For a time on the Champions Tour, Furyk said he felt like a rookie because he had to use MapQuest to get to unfamiliar courses. He didn’t know the location of the locker room or the registration area, where to stay or where to eat.
That will not be the case in Akron for Furyk and his family.
When one of the players’ favorites, the Diamond Grille, was mentioned, Furyk said, “Probably still cash, I imagine.”
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.
