“Keegan is a tremendous competitor with a bulldog mentality.”
U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Jim Furyk made the obvious official, announcing Keegan Bradley as his fourth captain’s assistant for the 2024 Presidents Cup.
Bradley, recently named the 2025 United States Ryder Cup Captain, joins Stewart Cink, Justin Leonard and Kevin Kisner as fellow assistants when the Presidents Cup returns to The Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Canada, Sept. 24-29.
Speaking on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio on Friday, Furyk eluded that this announcement was imminent. “Maybe I’ve already had conversations with Keegan,” he said with a laugh. “I definitely…maybe want to offer that up to him.”
“Keegan is a tremendous competitor with a bulldog mentality and we are looking forward to having his voice in the team room in Montreal,” said Furyk in a statement on Wednesday. “He has a strong passion for match play competition and I know he will be an asset to our players in 2024, as well as 2025, as he leads them into Bethpage Black for the 2025 Ryder Cup.”
Bradley, 38, represented the U.S. team in the 2013 Presidents Cup at Murifield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, compiling a 2-2-1 record. The Vermont native also played for the United States in the 2012 and 2014 Ryder Cups, where he amassed a combined 4-3-0 record.
Keegan Bradley on the final day of the U.S.’ 2013 Presidents Cup win at Muirfield Village.
Bradley owns six career wins on the PGA Tour, with his most recent victory coming at the 2023 Travelers Championship. He won his first major championship at the 2011 PGA Championship, where he defeated Jason Dufner in a playoff at Atlanta Athletic Club.
Ever since the U.S. lost the 2014 Ryder Cup in Scotland and reacted by creating a task force to try to reverse America’s losing record, the next Ryder Cup captain has served a stint as an assistant captain for the U.S. Presidents Cup.
“I was ecstatic to get the call from Jim and looking forward to doing all I can to help our team in Montreal,” said Bradley. “With the Ryder Cup on the horizon next year, this will be a great experience for me to understand the other side of the team room and how that camaraderie and coaching helps our guys play their best.”
“I wanted to finish my career working for Jim Furyk.”
Jim Furyk has a new caddie on his bag this week that looks a lot like the old one, down to the white, fluffy mustache.
That’s because it is none other than Mike “Fluff” Cowan.
Fluff, 76, and Furyk, 54, parted ways amicably after a 25-year run earlier this season. While Furyk was sidelined with injuries, Fluff worked for Taiwan’s C.T. Pan and took up his bag permanently at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in May. Furyk told him he couldn’t pass up the chance to work for larger purses on the junior circuit and he was prepared to fire Fluff if he didn’t take the job with Pan.
Furyk filled in with friends and his son, Tanner, since resuming play. Fluff suffered an injury when he slipped and fell on wet grass going down a hill at the RBC Canadian Open on June 2 during the final round north of the border. Pan, 32, has not competed since finishing T-35 at the RBC Canadian Open. He’s currently 114th in the FedEx Cup and earned $757,714, including a T-3 finish at the Vidanta Mexico Open.
After a change of heart, Fluff has decided to return to Jim Furyk’s bag full-time.
Furyk, in contrast, has made $46,416 in six starts with just one top-20 finish to his credit. What’s the old saying about absence makes the heart grow fonder? Fluff, who has worked for Peter Jacobsen and Tiger Woods during a career spanning nearly 50 years, said it was a simple decision for him.
“I wanted to finish my career working for Jim Furyk,” Fluff told PGA Tour.com.
Fittingly, they are reuniting at the PGA Tour Champions Dick’s Sporting Goods Open at Enjoie Golf Club in Endicott, N.Y., the former home of the B.C. Open, a PGA Tour stop from 1971-2006.
Three have been named to Furyk’s contingent, although he can still name two more assistants prior to the event.
U.S. Team Captain Jim Furyk has announced his captain’s assistant for the 2024 Presidents Cup, scheduled for Sept. 24-29, 2024, at The Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Stewart Cink, Justin Leonard and Kevin Kisner were named to Furyk’s contingent, although he can still name two more assistants before the event.
The International team will turn to Canadian and 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir as captain.
“I am excited to announce Stewart, Justin and Kevin as my captain’s assistants for the 2024 Presidents Cup in Montreal,” said Furyk. “The three of them have a tremendous history with this event, but more importantly, they will be trusted voices in the team room and on the course for our guys. I look forward to working with them closely as we build a 12-man U.S. Team that is ready to compete at Royal Montreal this fall.”
This will be the debut as an assistant for Kisner, who has made his love of match play well known, winning the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in 2019 and finishing as the event’s runner-up in both 2018 and 2022.
The University of Georgia product was a member of the U.S. President’s Cup team in both 2017 and 2022 and has a 2-2-3 career record in Presidents Cup competition.
Jim Furyk observes the driving range during the practice round of The 2017 Presidents Cup golf tournament at Liberty National Golf Course. (Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
“Match play is my favorite format in golf and I’m looking forward to adding some expertise and insight to our team room as we lead an incredible contingent of players into Montreal,” Kisner said in a media release. “Jim is someone I’ve looked up to throughout my career and is naturally just a great leader, so it was a thrill when he called and asked me to serve as a captain’s assistant this fall.”
Six players will automatically qualify for each team after the completion of the BMW Championship on Aug. 25th, 2024, and each captain will then pick six players to round out their 12-man squads.
Cink has played in four Presidents Cups and had a perfect 4-0-0 mark during his 2000 debut.
Leonard, 51, has been a member of the Presidents Cup team five times and was paired with Furyk four times.
“Sometimes the right thing to do is staring you right in the face and you’ve got to have the guts to do it.”
McKINNEY, Texas – For the last 25 years, Jim Furyk and Mike “Fluff” Cowan have gone together like Forrest Gump and a box of chocolates. But all good things must come to an end. Fluff has a new steady bag, working at this week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson for C.T. Pan.
“It’s hard to part ways after 25 years,” Cowan said. “Sometimes the right thing to do is staring you right in the face and you’ve got to have the guts to do it.”
But to hear Fluff tell it, Furyk had to threaten to fire him — “Don’t make me do it because I will,” he joked — before Fluff would officially end what has been one of the game’s endearing partnerships of more than two decades dating to the 1999 Masters. It might be one of the few cases where a player and caddie truly split amicably.
C.T. Pan and Mike “Fluff” Cowan on the seventh the at the CJ CUP (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)
“Love the guy,” Furyk wrote in a text while fishing with his father in South Carolina. “I’m still struggling with injuries and I pushed him to work for C.T. full time.”
The reason was a simple case of economics. Furyk, who has been dealing with injuries that sidelined him for much of last season, is 53 and has been able to make only limited starts on PGA Tour Champions.
“We play for $2 million. They play for $8-, $20-, $25-million,” Furyk said. “I knew it was a good opportunity for him, and C.T. has been playing pretty good (T-3 at the Mexico Open being his best result). (Fluff) was hesitant. Because he’s a great person at heart. But I pushed and we both knew it was best for him and his family.”
Fluff hooked up with Pan earlier this season in Hawaii and this week marks their ninth event together. Pan has banked $674,187 so far this season. Fluff worked for Furyk at two senior events, most recently at the Galleri Classic in late March. Furyk has earned $19,464 this season and hasn’t finished better than T-33.
Furyk, who had a friend from his junior golf days in Pennsylvania on his bag at the Invited Celebrity Classic two weeks ago in Dallas, said he expects to play next week at the Regions Tradition in Birmingham, Alabama, a Champions tour major. Who is going to caddie for him? His son, Tanner, a sophomore lacrosse player at Sewanee, is scheduled to work for his old man at 3-4 upcoming tournaments.
On Wednesday, Fluff and his trademark fluffy, walrus mustache were as popular as ever. Fans, calling him “Mr. Fluff,” asked for his autograph and he obliged. At the tee of the sixth hole, a short par 4, Pan pulled a fairway wood and Fluff told him that there was an argument to be made for hitting the big stick but he loved the play for him. After the shot, a member of the Salesmanship Club of Dallas, the host organization that runs the annual Tour stop here, came over and hugged Fluff. It was Matt Weibring, son of D.A. Weibring, who turned pro in 1975 a year before Fluff showed up in a Tour parking lot looking for a bag. The iron man of golf caddies says he’s planning to caddie for at least one more year; that is until his daughter, who is wrapping up her junior year at Clemson University, graduates. “I’ve got one more year of payments,” he said with a sigh. A hole later, during a backup on the par-3 seventh, Pan met a couple of young girls from Momentous Institute, the tournament’s main charity. Pan introduced Angela, 10, to Fluff and said if she could guess how old he was he’d sign a glove to her.
“Sixty-seven,” she said with a smile.
“You’re sweet,” said Fluff, whispering in her ear the correct age of 76.
“I came out for one summer 47 years ago,” he said. “It’s been a very long summer.”
The endless summer continues, just with a new boss.
It’s one of the hardest things to achieve in the game.
The first one came in 1977.
It was another 14 years before someone did it again.
It was then eight years after that before it happened a third time.
Breaking 60 has always held mythical status in golf.
Al Geiberger (1977), Chip Beck (1991) and David Duval (1999) were the first three to pull it off.
Since 2010, there have been eight more PGA Tour golfers who shot a 59, including Jim Furyk, who also shot a record-setting 58 from in 2016. He remains the only golfer to shoot a 58 on Tour and he’s the only golfer to break 60 twice.
Bryson DeChambeau joined the 58 Club after his 12-under round in a LIV Golf event.
Scottie Scheffler is the latest to break 60 on the PGA Tour, shooting a 59 in the second round of the 2020 Northern Trust. It’s the 12th time that a Tour golfer broke 60.
On the LPGA, there has only been one 59. It came in 2001 and was accomplished by Annika Sorenstam.
Joaquinn Niemann’s 59 in the 2024 LIV opener made him the second on that circuit to do it.
And in 2024, a golfer on the Korn Ferry Tour became the first to shoot 57 in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.
Here’s a closer look at the sub-60 rounds in pro golf.
Chris Kirk now has a chance to join the short list.
The PGA Tour’s 2024 season is off and running.
The first event of the new year is in the books with Chris Kirk winning The Sentry on the Plantation course at Kapalua in Maui. He bested a field of 59 golfers who vied for a $20 million prize in the first signature event of the new year.
With that victory, Kirk now has a chance to join a short list of golfers who have put the career Hawaii double dip on their resumes.
Here’s a closer look at the six golfers who have won both The Sentry and the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Former U.S. Open winner Jim Furyk is planning a nice practice spot for former British Open champ Cam Smith in Jacksonville.
Glen Kernan Golf and Country Club’s new ownership group has one Claret Jug to its credit, plus a U.S. Open trophy won by its new course designer.
The Jacksonville, Florida-based private club was purchased Friday by local developer Corner Lot, which counts 2022 British Open champion Cam Smith as an investor and 2003 U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk as heading up the course renovation. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
“I’ve had the pleasure of becoming friends with Cam and Jim over the past couple of years,” wrote Andy Allen, CEO of Corner Lot Development Group, a privately-owned real estate developer in North Florida, in a text. “When this opportunity came up, I wanted to put a team and partnership in place with an aligned vision for a golf club that will have a greater impact on our community by bringing a golf experience second to none in Jacksonville. Corner Lot’s mission is to build up our city through smart development and partnerships. This one may take the cake.”
Smith, who defected to LIV Golf shortly after winning the Open at St. Andrews in 2022, the same year he won the Players Championship, initially struggled to find a permanent place to play in his adopted hometown after losing access to TPC Sawgrass in the wake of his leaving for LIV. He has since become a member at Ponte Vedra Inn & Club and March Landing Country Club. But this will be Smith’s first foray into the golf ownership business.
“Andy Allen kept saying I want you to meet with Cam Smith, and that’s how it happened,” said Travis Norman, an executive with Hampton Golf, which will manage Glen Kernan. “I went and met with his business team, and he’s in.”
Smith may have to wait a little while to make Glen Kernan, which was designed by Robert Walker and opened in 1999, his home course. The plan is to shut it down for a year and renovate the course, which sits on 260 acres. Lot lines and home sites are more removed from the golf holes than on some other courses in the area, leaving wide corridors for the golf.
“There’s a significant amount of deferred maintenance to be addressed in the first year to make it a premier club in the area,” Norman said. “We know that demand is high for a high-end private club with limited membership, and the supply is lower in this market.”
Norman said they also will expand the clubhouse and freshen other amenities at its athletic park including pickleball, tennis and a fitness center.
Furyk, a 16-time winner on the PGA Tour who at age 53 remains active on PGA Tour Champions, already has been engaged by another course to be managed by Hampton Golf: Glynlea Country Club at Wylder, a new community planned for Port St. Lucie on the southeast coast of Florida.
“I got the opportunity to walk the first six holes at Glynlea with Jim, and just to hear him talk and see the shaping and his green complexes and bunker design, it was very impressive,” said Norman, whose company already manages Palencia Club, Blue Sky Golf Club and Eagle Harbor among others on Florida’s First Coast. “So his design ability coupled with his knowledge and passion for this golf course made him an obvious choice. Plus, he’s been around this golf course for 20 years. He’s played it with his son and father and he knows every mound on this golf course.”
Furyk has been a longtime member at Glen Kernan. His parents eat there regularly. Furyk said the course is one exit away from Pablo Creek Golf Club, where he practices often, and so it will be convenient to make regular visits.
“The golf course has a lot of promise and good bones,” Furyk said. “Our plan is to make a few holes a little more playable for our average golfers and extend some tee boxes to lengthen the course for our better players.”
Asked if he expects Smith to be involved in some of the design decisions, Furyk said, “I’m sure he’ll be interested. I think Andy has let him know that he can have some input on the practice facilities (at the double-sided range) and such, so I’ll talk to him a little bit about that. I’m sure Cam will want some privacy at the back of the range to get his work done and get ready for tournament golf.” (Smith’s management team didn’t return a call seeking comment.)
Friday was the last day the club was open for play as Corner Lot officially assumed control, and construction is scheduled to begin next week. “We want to create the premier experience in this market,” Norman said. “We think we have the right footprint, the right designer and we’re going to make something special.”
The seller (the Hodges family) also sold land to a local developer who plans to build in the neighborhood of 100 homes.
“It’s beaten every expectation I had. It was just incredible.”
BRADENTON, Florida ― After Friday’s second round of the World Champions Cup, which saw Team International clinging to a half-point lead over Team USA, International captain Ernie Els opined that any lead didn’t really mean anything until maybe the last putt.
The inaugural event at The Concession Golf Club didn’t come down to the last putt. But it did the last hole.
Trailing Team International on Sunday by 2.5 points with three holes to play, Team USA got clutch play down the stretch from David Toms and Billy Andrade and overcame the margin to win the inaugural event at The Concession Golf Club.
Team USA finished with 221 points, Team International was second with 219, and Team Europe third with 208. Over the final three holes, the 56-year-old Toms, who won 13 PGA titles from 1992 to 2017, earned 4.5 out of a possible 6 points. One match earlier, Andrade, filling in for injured Team USA captain Jim Furyk, registered 11 points, besting International’s Vijay Singh and Europe’s Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Team USA’s vice captain Bill Andrade, left, watches David Toms drink out of the World Champions Cup trophy to celebrate at The Concession Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports
But trailing by half a point after leading for much of Sunday, Team International had a chance to pick up two points and the tournament championship on the par-4 No. 9 closing hole when Toms and Team Europe’s Bernhard Langer bogeyed.
All International’s Retief Goosen had to do was make par to collect the two points and give his team the victory. But Goosen, a winner of two U.S. Opens, hit his approach shot into the penalty area. His double-bogey earned him zero points, while the USA and Europe each earned a half-point.
The format called for three points to be available for each hole. The lowest score earned 2 points, the second lowest 1 point, and the third lowest earned zero. If teams tied with a score, the points were split. If two teams tied with a low score, they each earned 1.5 points, with third place earning nothing.
After the post-match ceremony, each member of Team USA walked into the media interview room draped in an American flag. Later, they poured champagne into the championship trophy and drank from it.
Team International’s Stephen Ames reacts after his birdie putt on the ninth at The Concession Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports
Toms’ play over the final three holes keyed the USA’s victory. Before taking the half-point lead heading into the final hole, USA had trailed by as many as six points.
“I think, really, what I really liked about this team,” Furyk said, “and I always talk about the personalities and how easy these guys are to get along with, but this is a feisty group. I think we’ve got a bunch of guys who have good short games, good putters, guys that don’t give up, guys that will grind it out and finish a hole for you.”
Another big contributor to Team USA was Jerry Kelly, who played a bogey-free nine holes to earn 12.5 points, the most of any player during the morning singles. Team International captain Els, who earned 12 points during the bogey-free nine-hole morning singles, felt for Goosin, his teammate.
Team InternationalÕs Retief Goosen chips up to the eighth hole during their morning round at The Concession Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports
“I really feel for Retief,” he said. “He had such a tough lie there. To be this close at the end of the day . . . yeah, we lost basically the last couple of matches.”
Even Toms didn’t think his team had a chance, particularly when USA trailed by 6 points.
“On No. 8, I had a putt to win the hole,” he said, “and one of the guys in the crowd said something to the effect that it was a big putt. I was like, at that point, I didn’t even know it would mean anything, honestly, because I didn’t know where we stood. I made the putt, so that was good. Then I got to the 18th tee and I heard “USA! USA!” after Billy (Andrade) made his putt and I was like, man, we have to be in good shape.”
Said Team USA Brett Quigley about the format, “It’s beaten every expectation I had. It was just incredible. It was way more fun than I thought it would be and just so much love. The team aspect of it, because every week we’re doing our own thing and we go home and we go to the next week. This week, to have our families here, our caddies so involved and all the players genuinely pulling for each other made it so special.”
“The U.S. guys kept grinding out the 18th,” Els said. “We just couldn’t make that one putt up the hill. I missed it, K.J. missed it, Vijay (Singh) missed it. Unfortunately, Retief had such a tough lie.
For his first signature layout, Jim Furyk plans to create a course focused on playability at Glynlea in Florida.
Jim Furyk has signed on to design a golf course at the recently announced Glynlea Country Club at Wylder, a new community planned for Port St. Lucie on the southeast coast of Florida.
Furyk, the 2003 U.S. Open champion and a 17-time PGA Tour winner, was hired by GreenPointe Developers, LLC to build his first signature course. Furyk has served as a consultant on several course designs in the past and has been interested in course design since he was a boy. Hampton Golf will manage the course.
The 53-year-old Furyk, who lives up the Atlantic coast in Jacksonville, said he is focused on designing a course that can be enjoyed by any level of golfer. Plans are for the course to open in late 2024.
“People may see a Tour player as the designer and immediately think it’s going to be hard, but we’re designing a golf course that’s fun and very playable at all skill levels,” Furyk, who has won three PGA Tour Champions titles, said in a media release announcing the news of Glynlea.
“I’ve played all over the world and have seen a variety of golf course styles. I’ve played a lot of golf with my mom and dad and in pro-ams on the PGA Tour, so I also understand how the amateur plays and gets around a golf course. Beginners, average players and pros alike will enjoy the great challenges of this course.”
Jim Furyk, third from left, with MG Orender of Hampton Golf, Ashley Larsen of Hampton Golf, Justin Kuehn of Hampton Golf, Travis Norman of Hampton Golf and Ed Burr of GreenPointe Developers (Courtesy of Glynlea Country Club)
Wylder is a master-planned community of more than 4,000 homes that was launched in 1975. As part of that community, the gated Glynlea will encompass some 560 acres and include a variety of lot and home sizes with prices starting in the $800,000 range.
Neither event is a major force, but they lend themselves to a more laid-back, casual atmosphere.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Two tournaments less than 90 miles apart have developed a sort of symbiotic relationship, mostly due to the friendship of the two hosts.
They’re on different tours with a different demographic of players and for different stakes. But they have a few things in common: they’re hosted by two of the top PGA Tour players of their generation, the old-school courses and clubhouses offer breathtaking water views and they’re all about the fan experience.
This week’s Constellation Furyk & Friends, which began on Friday, is a PGA Tour Champions event at the Timuquana Country Club. It’s in its third year and last December was voted the best tournament experience of the year by the Champions Tour membership. The tournament is hosted by Jim Furyk, a 17-time PGA Tour winner and the 2003 U.S. Open champion, and his wife Tabitha.
Forty days after the final putt on Sunday, the 14th RSM Classic will tee off at the Sea Island Club on St. Simons Island, Ga., on Nov. 16. It’s a PGA Tour event that began in 2010 and has quickly become a staple of the fall schedule. World Golf Hall of Fame member Davis Love III, who won the 1992 and 2003 Players Championships and the 1997 PGA, among 21 PGA Tour titles, is the host.
Neither event is a major force in worldwide golf. But because of that, they perhaps lend themselves to a more laid-back, casual atmosphere that appeals to some players who have been through the wringer this season with major championships, the FedEx Cup and international match play events.
Schwab Cup and FedEx Fall
The Furyk & Friends does come with a certain late-season cachet: the PGA Tour Champions Schwab Cup race has only two tournaments left for players to get among the top 72 for the Schwab Cup playoffs. But the stars, such as defending Furyk champion Steve Stricker, Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer, Stephen Ames and Steven Alker are secure and the fight is at the bottom end.
For the record, the tournament host is the bubble boy at No. 72, with a scant $2,037 lead over Jason Bohn.
The RSM Classic is the final event of “FedEx Cup Fall,” a new competitive format for the PGA Tour in which players who finished outside the top 70 (which qualified them for the FedEx Cup playoffs) have seven tournaments to earn points to stay among the top 125 and keep their PGA Tour card for 2024.
Tournament host Jim Furyk talks with caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan ahead of the 2021 Constellation Furyk & Friends at the Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida. Photo by Bob Self/Florida Times-Union
Tournaments share best practices
Love said the tournaments have something else in common: they borrow ideas freely from each other — with never a hard feeling — and go after experienced tournament organizers.
“Jim obviously saw us pop out of the ground as a really well-run tournament because we went and stole from people like [Quail Hollow Club president] Johnny Harris and the PGA Tour and we jumped right in with good operations,” Love said. “So, Jim and Tab did the same thing, they went and found the right people [such as tournament director Adam Renfroe, who ran the Web.com Tour Championship]. Obviously being here in town with the support of the Tour is very helpful.”
Furyk has no problem crediting the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions with helping the tournament evolve from his two-day pro-am at the Sawgrass Country Club between 2010-2020 to the Champions Tour schedule.
“Having [PGA Tour commissioner] Jay Monahan and [Champions Tour president] Miller Brady give us the stamp of approval and let us go out there and find Constellation and Timuquana has been wonderful,” Furyk said. “It seems like a big mountain to climb but it goes by so fast … we have a lot of fun with it. It’s a labor of love and I’m really proud of Tab and our team. We have a very small team but they work really hard all year.”
The Furyk & Friends has a staff of six people, including Renfroe and Tabitha Furyk.
Love’s structure at the RSM Classic is similar. His brother Mark is the executive director and his daughter Lexie Whatley is the event and merchandise manager. The tournament staff consists of 10 people but Love not only plays but has been seen vacuuming the merchandise tent floor to help his daughter close each night.
Both tournaments have been tireless in raising money for charity. The RSM Classic has raised more than $35 million in charity in the first 13 years and Furyk & Friends has raised more than $2.5 million in its first two.
Jim Furyk, wife Tabitha Furyk, Nicki Stricker and Steve Stricker celebrate with the trophy after Steve Stricker won the 2022 Constellation Furyk & Friends at Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
Fun outside the ropes
Then there are the activities for fans outside the ropes. Both have numerous hospitality venues, both private and public and being in the fall, neither tries to fight the pull of college football and the NFL.
A large courtyard behind the 18th green at Sea Island has huge TVs that are tuned into the games of the day on Saturday and Sunday, as well as the golf. There is also a sports bar-like venue on the back nine of the Seaside Course.
The Public Tailgate Village at Furyk & Friends offers multiple TVs to keep up with the games and it’s opening early on Sunday for Jaguars fans to watch the game against the Buffalo Bills in London.
There’s also the Kid Zone, with a petting zoo and playground equipment. And if kids want to climb one of Timuquana’s stately trees, no one’s going to stop them.
“Now I want to copy what they’re doing,” Love said. “They sell more than us, they build a lot more than us. It’s incredible. In the pro-am, I was just counting skyboxes and tents and venues. Shoot, my granddaughters want to come back because of the Kid Zone they played in last year. Little things like that, every tournament goes and looks at other tournaments and sees the successes. So we’re definitely doing that with Jim and Tab.”
Both tournaments have concerts. Both have highly successful pro-ams. And both take good care of the players.
Listening to the players
“We’ve all played many, many tournaments on the PGA Tour and around the world, so you know what works,” Ernie Els said. “They [Furyk and his wife] listen to the players. They listened to the players through the first couple of years and went from there. From day one it’s just been a fabulous experience. The venue helps so much, too. Everything works.”
Players and their families on the PGA Tour also enjoy the RSM Classic for its venue and atmosphere: in the heart of the Golden Isles, at a historic resort.
“It gets better by the year,” Zach Johnson said last year. “The community rallies behind it every year. Everybody’s just excited for RSM week. It’s a perfect synergy between the Tour, Sea Island, RSM and stewardship. That’s what the Tour’s all about.”
Furyk said the key is to give hard-core golf fans what they want, and a party atmosphere for people who are only casual fans.
“It’s really just about bringing people out,” he said. “The golf tournament itself is the vehicle.”
