Jim Furyk rode his unique swing to 17 PGA Tour wins and $71 million in career earnings.
He’s long had one of the more unusual swings in pro golf.
But players are rare to knock it because Jim Furyk made his unique approach to ballstriking work, his 17 PGA Tour wins and $71 million in career earnings are all the evidence you need.
This week, the three-time PGA Tour Champions winner is hosting his Furyk & Friends event on the senior circuit in Jacksonville, Florida. In advance of the event, some of his fellow pros talked about his swing, tried their best to recreate it and ultimately they all had nothing but praise for him.
“Just because it didn’t look like everything else doesn’t mean it doesn’t work,” said Rocco Mediate, who stressed Furyk was consistently getting the club in the right spot at impact.
The smooth-hitting Ernie Els tried to mimic Furyk’s signature move but the Big Easy’s swing is so buttery, he couldn’t quite contort himself enough to pull it off.
The funniest explanation, though, came through the thick Southern drawl of Boo Weekley.
The Constellation Furyk & Friends was in crisis mode around 4 a.m. on Thursday.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. â The Constellation Furyk & Friends was in crisis mode around 4 a.m. on Thursday.
The issue was solved before noon due to the efforts of the tournament and Timuquana Country Club staffs and outside help from the TPC Sawgrass agronomy staff and Maccurrach Golf Construction.
Four greens on the course and one practice green were damaged in the early morning hours on Thursday by vandals wielding tools believed to be shovels or hoes.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is investigating and the PGA Tour Champions event, which will be played for the third year, will start as scheduled on Friday at 9:20 a.m.
“Obviously disappointing but the story of the day is the team effort and everyone being able to pivot,” said tournament host Jim Furyk.
Greens still have room for pins
The 10th, 12th, 16th and 17th greens had huge gouges taken out of them. The damage was discovered about 3 a.m. by a member of the Timuquana agronomy staff, who began arriving between that hour and 4 a.m. to begin preparing the course for the Thursday pro-am.
Timuquana superintendent Alan Brown, who had around 20 workers at his disposal, made a few phone calls. Within an hour, his counterpart at the TPC Sawgrass, Jeff Plots, and Maccurrach Golf owner Alan Maccurrach’s son Sonny arrived with another two dozen workers and by late morning the damage had been patched with sod.
The Thursday pro-am groups could not play the holes and played a 14-hole tournament. Additional work may be done overnight and before the first shots are struck at 9:20 a.m.
“The folks [pro-am players] come out to support us and they pay good money to come out to support us,” Furyk said. “That money goes to charity and at the end of the day, they were super, super-understanding. No one was feeling bad for themselves. They felt bad for the tournament and the club and what they went through but they went out and had a great day. They pivoted too and we’re very appreciative for that.”
Iâm hearing that four greens were destroyed overnight at Timuquana CC in Jacksonville. Unclear as to how or why.
It didn’t take long for the crews from the TPC Sawgrass and MacCurracch Golf (located on the Northside) to get to Timuquana.
“MacCurrach, they’re just across the river so luckily you’ve got a great crew that’s been through a couple of renovations, and you’ve got a great crew from the TPC Sawgrass,” said Davis Love III. “So they’ll get it. The sponsors are going to have a great time, business as usual … it’s just going to look bad on a couple of holes.”
Another player in the field, Jeff Sluman, was surveying the damage on the greens and said the grounds crews and rules officials are fortunate that there are areas of the damaged green that still give them three pins for the three tournament rounds.
“It looks like they’re not going to interrupt anything,” Sluman said.
Furyk, Els praise repairs
Ernie Els, who played the morning pro-am after seeing videos of the damage, called the work by the combined crews, “amazing … they’ve done a hell of a job.”
“It was really bad,” Els said of the damage. “They really went in there. Someone was really, very angry, obviously. For them [the work crews] to do what they’ve done already is really amazing. The tournament will continue and it will be a success.”
Furyk said Brown’s agronomy staff at Timuquana has had to deal with a different issue every year. There was a deluge that interrupted the first round in 2021 and repairs were needed after Hurricane Ian brushed the area last year.
PGA Tour Champions player Jeff Sluman surveys the damage done to the 16th green of the Timuquana Country Club by vandals. Four greens on the course and one practice green were vandalized by what is believed to be a tool such as a shovel or hoe. (Photo: Garry Smits/Florida Times-Union)
“I’ve been singing the praises of Alan Brown and his staff for three years,” Furyk said. “They’ve done an amazing job. And this morning they made some phone calls and everyone came running.”
PGA Tour Champions president Miller Brady said the joint effort will result in another successful tournament, in its third year.
“PGA Tour Champions Rules and Competitions have been working with the tournament team and the outstanding Timuquana Country Club staff to repair the damages to the course,” he said in a statement. “Thanks to their efforts, we will have the course ready for the first round of competition tomorrow morning. We encourage everyone in the Jacksonville community to come out and support this great event and the charitable work of Jim and Tabitha Furyk throughout Northeast Florida.”
Furyk & Friends first round will start as scheduled
Tournament director Adam Renfroe said the vandalism hasn’t deterred the staff’s preparation for the first round of competition.
“What took place is unfortunate, as we want to represent the best of Jacksonville with this tournament,” he said in a statement. “We wonât let the actions of a few individuals take away from a great week for our city and our ability to give back and create impact here in the community. We appreciate the swift action taken by the PGA Tour Champions team to make sure the course is ready for the start of the competition and look forward to fans joining us at Timuquana Country Club this weekend.”
Love was in agreement from a player’s perspective.
“The mission of this tournament isn’t going to slow down,” he said. “Tab and Jim do a great job with everything they’ve done. I just hate it for the guys with the shovels and the sod cutters because they’re going to have a long day and probably a long night.”[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=451196875]
Steve Stricker earned his fourth win on the PGA Tour Champions this season, 11th overall.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. â First there was a sore throat and a cough.
Then a fever as high as 103 degrees.
Next came Pericarditis, irregular heartbeat, jaundice, high white and red cell blood counts, high liver function tests, an inability to eat solid food and the loss of nearly 30 pounds from an already slim build.
Steve Stricker had a long list of ailments beginning last fall after he led the U.S. to a Ryder Cup victory in his home state of Wisconsin. It lasted into the early spring and doctors couldn’t pinpoint anything.
The only thing they knew was that it wasn’t COVID-19, it wasn’t cancer and it wasn’t the Crohn’s Disease and liver transplant that contributed to the death of his older brother Scott in 2014.
But after six months away from golf, a variety of antibiotics and more rest than he wanted, Stricker was able to return to play on the PGA Tour Champions in May.
Call it a new lease on life. Call it relief that he got his health back. But one thing’s for certain: Since returning, Stricker has played some of the best golf of his career this season.
Attacking the par-5s and making only one bad swing on the final hole when it didn’t matter, Stricker broke a five-way tie for the most victories on the Champions Tour by winning his fourth title this season, the Constellation Furyk & Friends on Sunday, by two shots over Harrison Frazar and three over tournament host Jim Furyk at the Timuquana Country Club.
Stricker slams door on the field
Stricker (69) had a streak of 46 bogey-free holes in a row going back to the front nine of Friday’s first round and finished at 14-under 202. Frazar (65), a Monday qualifier, birdied four of his first five holes and wound up getting as close as anyone to Stricker, who began the day with a three-shot lead over Furyk (69) and Mike Weir (75).
Steve Stricker celebrates with the trophy after winning the 2022 Constellation Furyk & Friends at Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
“I felt like if I could go around here and not make a bogey today and take care of the par-5s, birdie two or three of them, shoot 3-under par or 4-under par, it was going to take a really special round [to catch him],” he said, standing by his wife of nearly 30 years, Nikki, who has been his caddie this season. “I didn’t make a mistake really until the last shot out of the fairway and at that point I figured it was over. It was a good day … a tough day when you have a three-shot lead, but I did all the things I was supposed to do.”
Stricker has played lights-out since capturing the Regions Tradition on May 15, his fourth Champions tour major. He’s finished among the top-three in seven of 10 starts, and in the last six weeks, he’s won three times and finished third in four starts.
Stricker has been in the 60s in his last 11 rounds and has a scoring average of 67.0. The $300,000 first-place check vaulted him to third on the money list with $2,473,725.
“We never take any of these for granted,” Nikki Stricker said of her husband’s 35 worldwide victories. “It was just about staying patient and kind of doing his thing.”
Stricker ready for bow season
Here’s the scary part: Stricker said he’s only beginning to feel at full strength.
“I think the last month or so, I feel like I’m showing better signs,” he said. “I still feel like it’s not all quite there. My body, the way it feels isn’t quite the same, strength-wise. I’ve played a lot of golf lately, I’ve lost some weight again lately, so I don’t know if I just need to get going again, put some weight back on, start working out harder again and try to get back up there 10 more pounds.”
And at any rate, it’s getting close to Stricker’s favorite time of year: hunting season, where he loses himself deep in the Wisconsin woods to use a bow to hunt whitetail deer.
“I’m 55 years old, I’ve had a nice career, I’ve been fortunate enough to play a long time, but I still feel like that’s my passion [hunting], that’s what I love to do,” he said. “So I wait for this time period all year long. It’s really only about a month of good hunting and then it goes away, so it’s like I hate to miss that month. Unfortunately, the Schwab Cup playoffs are right in that month time frame. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens at home and I’ll go from there.”
Furyk, who tied for fourth and third in the first two years of his tournament, said it was going to take an extraordinary round to catch Stricker on yet another day of Chamber of Commerce weather.
“Steve’s not going to give the tournament away and he’s not going to back up,” Furyk said. “Someone’s going to have to go chase him.”
Frazar makes a run
Frazar nearly did. After making the field by winning a Monday qualifier with a 65 at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley, the former University of Texas player posted his first career top-10 on the Champions Tour.
His early run was fueled by precise iron shots that set up four birdie putts of 8 feet or less. He posted three more birdies on the back nine but missed two long birdie attempts on his last two holes.
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)
Frazar is still content. With a top-10, he’s automatically in the field for next week’s SAS Championship in Raleigh, North Carolina, the final regular-season event, and his $176,000 second-place check gave him $333,527 and at 52nd place, he’s inside the top-72 that will qualify for the Schwab Cup playoffs.
He’s had his own health issues, such as back injuries, and didn’t play much golf for about five years until becoming eligible for the PGA Tour Champions.
“I’ve felt very good about my game for about the last five or six week,” said Frazar, who is a fellow member with world No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler at the Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas. “I’m finally getting to the point where I’m saving strokes instead of throwing them away.”
Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GSmitter
Steve Stricker went nuts on the back nine of the Timuquana Country Club on Saturday.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. â Patience is a virtue on courses such as the Timuquana Country Club, but when opportunity strikes â as it did on the back nine Saturday for Steve Stricker â it’s time to take charge.
Stricker came from two shots off the lead through 12 holes by playing the next four at 5 under, and with a tournament-record 64, seized the second-round lead in the Constellation Furyk & Friends at 11-under 133.
Tournament host Jim Furyk (69) and Mike Weir (68) are tied for second at 8 under and will play with Stricker in the last group for Sundayâs final round.
Not to be dismissed are Lee Janzen (68) and Thongchai Jaidee (65) at 7 under. Thereâs a crowd at 6 under led by 65-year-old Bernhard Langer (68), who had three birdies and an eagle on the back nine, Ken Duke (68), who aced the par-3 17th hole, Padraig Harrington (69), Steve Flesch (71) and Rob Labritz (71).
Harrington and Labritz both birdied the final hole.
Stricker will be trying to break a five-way tie for the most victories on the PGA Tour Champions this season with three, and he will be gunning for his third victory in four starts. Since finishing second in the U.S. Senior Open, heâs finished among the top three in five of his last six starts and Saturday was his 10th consecutive round in the 60s and his 17th in a row at par or lower.
He started his move to the top with an 8-foot birdie putt at the par-5 13th, converting a bunker shot. Stricker made a 15-footer for birdie at the par-3 14th, eagled the par-5 15th on a 25-foot putt and then dropped another one of similar length at the par-4 16th.
âYou never know when a run like that’s going to come,â he said. âYou just try to keep plugging along. Some of these par 3s you’re just trying to get it on the green. You literally are just trying to get it on the green and go from there, make a par and move on. They’re difficult to hit.â
Stricker played the par-5s at 5 under and made par all six times he missed a green.
âHe’s playing really solid right now,â Furyk said. âWe’re going to have to go catch him.â
Furyk made only one birdie among his first 12 holes but he drove the ball better (hitting 11 fairways) and failed to get up and down only once after missing five greens.
âI’m actually real happy with the round today,â said the Jacksonville resident. âTo be honest with you, more solid. [Friday] I got a little loose, hit some awkward tee shots, had some really good saves, especially on the way in.
âToday was a little bit more textbook, kind of kept it in the fairway a lot,â he added. âI hit a bunch of greens. When I did miss greens, I put the ball usually in pretty good positions to get the ball up and down. Really, I was more comfortable if that made sense.â
Weir had a run of four birdies on his first six holes on the front nine, rapping in short putts at Nos. 2 and 5 along with a 25-footer at No. 4 and a 17-footer at No. 6. He missed only two greens.
Weir briefly took the lead with a birdie at No. 9 but played the back even par, swapping a birdie at No. 15 for a bogey at the 16th.
âI gave myself a lot of chances, especially on the back nine,â he said. âThey [putts] just didn’t want to go in. I got on a run there on the front nine, hit some close shots. IÂ felt like I could have got on another run, but sometimes they go in and they don’t. It will be tough to catch [Stricker] tomorrow.â
Duke made his sixth hole-in-one in PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions competition, using a 9-iron from 138 yards out at the 17th. Itâs the second ace in the two-year history of the Furyk & Friends, with both coming on the same hole. Tom Lehman made one at the 17th last year.
Duke said he was getting frustrated after taking a bogey at the par-5 15th, courtesy of a water shot.
âI was telling [his caddie], âletâs make something,ââ he said. âJust hit a green.â
Duke broke into an awkward victory dance of sorts, prompting some judging from the Golf Channel announcers.
âDancing with the Stars is not calling me any time soon,â he said.
Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GSmitter
Who’s leading after the first round of the Constellation Furyk & Friends?
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. â Constellation Furyk & Friends host Jim Furyk isnât getting too distracted by his off-course duties this week.
Heâll never be too busy to focus on trying to win his own event.
Furyk birdied three of his last four holes on the front nine of the Timuquana Country Club on Friday and then had a clean card with two birdies on the back to finish with a 5-under 67 and a share of the lead with the last PGA Tour Champions winner, Steve Flesch, and Rob Labritz.
âI didnât think much about it today,â Furyk said of being the tournament host. âI played well here last year [tying for fourth] and I was happy with the way I scored and played and got the ball in the hole. When Iâm off the course I’m thinking about our celebrities finishing, the party for the caddies, a cocktail party downtown for Constellation ⌠I think itâs kind of healthy. It gets my mind off golf. Then when I do step in the ropes, Iâm locked in and try to flip the switch.â
Furyk hit only half the 14 fairways and missed five green but got up-and-down four times and needed only 25 putts.
His best escape was when he recovered from a drive at No. 16 that went low and left, between two trees and in a sandy lie. He considered laying up but decided on a wedge shot between a gap in the trees, with the ball landing a foot from the hole.
âI hit some bad drives, got some good breaks,â he said.
Vijay Singh of Ponte Vedra Beach punches out from the trees during the first round of the Constellation Furyk & Friends on Friday at the Timuquana Country Club. (Photo: Bob Self/Florida Times-Union)
Flesch won the Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach two weeks ago for his second Champions Tour title of the season and his third overall. He got off to a quick start with birdies on two of his first three holes and birdied the last.
Heâs also the low returning left-hander in the field: 2021 champion Phil Mickelson isnât playing because of his suspension from the Tour. Flesch was solo third last year and has played his first four rounds at Timuquana at 15-under.
Flesch missed only three greens on Friday and said the course is playing tougher than last season after a renovation firmed up the greens and dry weather since Ian passed the area last week has made them even more difficult.
âGreens are tough to get the ball close this year,â he said. âSeems like the runoffs are a little more severe. It kind of suits my conservative style of play. Iâve never been a guy who kind of aims at a lot of flags. Drove it well, made some great putts and it added up to a great score.â
Labritz, who was a club pro from Pound Ridge, New York, was the Champions Tour national qualifying tournament medalist and has had a solid season, entering the week 38th on the Schwab Cup points race.
He tied for fourth in the U.S. Senior Open and has seven top-25 finishes.
Labritz said heâs played enough Donald Ross courses in the Northeast to feel comfortable at Timuquana.
âWe have a lot of those,â he said of course designed by the World Golf Hall of Fame architect from Scotland. âItâs more middle of the green sort of thing, because all of the greens are crowned but if youâre patient out there and you get yourself in the fairways you can attack some of these pins with wedges.â
The trio at the top shouldnât feel comfortable in Saturdayâs second round.
Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters champion, and Ken Tanigawa are tied at 4-under and a crowd of eight players at 3-under includes two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal, three-time major champion Padraig Harrington, last yearâs runner-up at Timuquana, Miguel Angel Jimenez, and two-time U.S. Open champion and 1995 Players champion Lee Janzen.
John Daly got into contention with three birdies in a row on the front but had four bogeys among his last 11 holes and finished with a 1-under 71. Paul Stankowski led at 4-under through 12 holes but played his last four holes 4-over, with a double-bogey at the par-4 16th.
Vijay Singh of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, eagled the par-5 sixth hole and shot 70. Jacksonville native David Duval, playing at the course when he learned the game, bogeyed two of his first four holes and was steady after that, logging a 1-over 73.
Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GSmitter
“When you have total strangers working for you, it warms your heart,” Tabitha Furyk said.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. â 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, Iâve 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 didnât make me haul any trash, but thatâs only because it wouldâve 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 â 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 couldnât tout the work of her volunteers enough, some of whom never even saw a shot, depending on their assignment, which is why she couldnât wait for the volunteer appreciation party on Sunday night.
âWhen you have total strangers working for you, it warms your heart,â she said. âI feel like I have new friends that I havenât even met yet.â
Here are some of the incredible people I met on the job.
There, among fairways lined with trees dripping with Spanish Moss, on the banks of the St. Johns River, 17-time PGA Tour winner Jim Furyk and his wife, Tabitha, are hosting the first PGA Tour Champions event in the area since 2002, the final year of the Legends of Golf at the World Golf Hall of Fame King & Bear.
It’s a new generation of Champions Tour stars who have come out to test their skills on the meandering fairways and tricky push-up greens of Timuquana.
The field is led by reigning PGA champion Phil Mickelson, who became the oldest player in history to win a major championship in May at Kiawah Island, S.C., plus other major champions such as Schwab Cup points leader Bernhard Langer, Vijay Singh, Davis Love III, Furyk, Fred Couples, John Daly, Ernie Els, Mark O’Meara and Jose Maria Olazabal — plus Ryder Cup captains Steve Stricker and Padraig Harrington.
Times-Union file
If all of the players who have committed or indicated they will have committed by the Oct. 1 deadline show up at Timuquana, the field will have 58 past PGA Tour winners who have combined for 438 titles; 20 players combining for 38 major championships; 56 past PGA Tour Champions winners combining for 261 titles; and 23 PGA Tour Champion major winners who have combined to win 50 majors.
The tournament has the backing of Constellation Energy for five years — which means a commitment of $2.6 million to charity — and the presenting sponsor is Circle K.
Other corporate support will be seen in the number of restaurants that set up shop at the course (such as M Shack and Taco Lu), participants in three pro-ams (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday of tournament week) and the purchase of hospitality packages.
Also coming will be musical stars Darius Rucker and Scott McCreery, who will perform at a concert on Oct. 5 at Daily’s Place.
The Furyk factor
Why the strong support from both players, the entertainers and the First Coast business community, in the tournament’s first year, in the middle of football season?
PGA Tour Champions President Brady Miller has an easy answer.
“It’s Jim and Tabitha,” he said of one of the First Coast’s leading power couples in golf. “They have supported charities; Tabitha is on numerous boards and everyone wanted to be a part of because of them. The question was, what level?”
Tournament director Adam Renfroe said there was some uncertainty about how the tournament would be received. The dates were announced several days before the Tour was forced to cancel The Players and officials have been monitoring the impact of the COVID surge this summer.
Renfroe called the overall response by the business community and fans a “pleasant surprise.”
“It speaks to the relationship Jim and Tabitha have in Jacksonville and their charity work,” Renfroe said. “I think there’s confidence in the corporate community that their money and their sponsorships are going to be put to good use. We’re really proud of Jacksonville and the response we’ve gotten.”
The race to Schwab playoffs
The competition will be important to the players since the Furyk & Friends is the next-to-last tournament to insure a top-72 finish on the Schwab Cup points list and qualify for the three-tournament Schwab Cup series.
It’s been a two-year process, because of the pandemic, with 2020 and 2021 folded into one race.
Langer’s runnerup finish to K.J. Choi last week at Pebble Beach gave him a lead of more than $164,000 over Furyk, with Jerry Kelly, Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez rounding out the top-five.
Langer is seeking his sixth Schwab Cup title.
Dylan Buell/Getty Images
And what golf purist from the First Coast won’t want to see how the field attacks Timuquana?
“It will be set up firm and fast and the greens allow for defense,” Furyk said. “Depending on the weather, single-digits [under par] could win. If you drive the ball well you will have a short iron in your hand a reasonable number of times. The par-5s are reachable. But with the pushup greens and some putts that can break a little funny, you can make bogeys as well.”
When Furyk first approach Miller about holding a PGA Tour Champions event, he said they both had the same idea: play at Timuquana.
“It’s a hidden gem,” Miller said. “I don’t think it’s going to favor a certain style and I think the guys are going to love having to hit different shots into and around the greens.”
Come for the golf, stay for the party
But just as much as it will be a golf tournament, Tabitha Furyk wants it to be a community celebration. The 2020 Players Championship was canceled because of the onset of the pandemic. The 2021 Players was held with limited spectators.
Furyk & Friends could be a way for golf fans to unwind in a comfortable setting.
“We want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to feel like they own part of this tournament,” she said. “It’s super-important to us that this just isn’t about golf, but also about the great food the Jacksonville restaurants have to offer and the music. It’s a party in our community and we want everyone to come.”
There will still be safety measures in place. All hospitality venues are open-air, hand sanitizers will be plentiful and social distancing is being encouraged. Masks are required for those with clubhouse access.
But autographs will be allowed and Miller said that close to 90 percent of the PGA Tour Champions members are vaccinated.
Furyk said another reason he’s enthused about the tournament: almost every player in the field competed in The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra for years but most of them have never seen Timuquana, downtown Jacksonville or the Ortega area.
“They’ve really only seen the airport, the beach and the TPC Sawgrass,” Furyk said. “Now they’re going to get a chance to see our downtown area and the beautiful areas on the river we have.”
PGA Tour Champions on the First Coast
Senior Players Championship
1987: Gary Player shot 8-under 208 at the Sawgrass Country Club to beat Chi Chi Rodriguez and Bruce Crampton by one shot at the Sawgrass Country Club.
1988: Billy Casper’s 10-under 278 at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course beat Al Geiberger by two shots.
1989: Orville Moody lit up the Valley Course for a 17-under 271, the lowest 72-hole individual score in a Champions Tour event on the First Coast. He beat Charles Coody by two shots.
Legends of Golf
1998: The tournament was played at the Golf Club of Amelia for one year when the World Golf Hall of Fame Slammer & Squire Course wasn’t ready. Charles Coody and Dale Douglass won the team competition for the third time in sudden death against Hugh Baiocchi and David Graham after both teams finished 24-under 192.
1999: Hubert Green and Gil Morgan shot 22-under 194 at the Slammer & Squire to beat John Mahaffy and Tom Wargo by three shots.
2000: Jim Colbert and Andy North won at 25-under 191 at the Slammer & Squire, outlasting Bruce Fleisher and David Graham by one shot.
2001: The same two teams remained at the top after a rain-shortened 36-hole event, which was moved to the King & Bear. Colbert and North shot 20-under 124 and nipped Fleisher and Graham by one shot.
2002: The tournament format changed to individual stroke play for the Senior Division, with earnings counting for the first time. Doug Tewell edged Bobby Wadkins by one shot at 11-under 205 at the King & Bear. It was late announced that the tournament was moving to Savannah.
Jim Furyk and wife, Tabitha, are putting on the Furyk and Friends PGA Tour Champions event in 2021.
The Timuquana Country Club, the PGA Tour Champions and the Furyk family are throwing a party.
Everyone’s invited.
More than a year out from the first PGA Tour Champions event on the First Coast since 2002, Jim and Tabitha Furyk met with the media on Monday to lay out some of the plans for the Constellation Energy Furyk and Friends tournament on Oct. 4-10, 2021, at Timuquana.
The tournament, which evolved from the Furyk and Friends charity tournament at the Sawgrass Country Club from 2011-2020, will benefit charities that help children, families and the military on the First Coast.
Constellation, a Baltimore-based energy company, has pledged $500,000 per year to the foundation beginning in 2021, and already made an initial donation of $100,000 this year. Over the duration of the first contract, at least $2.6 million will go to charity.
The purse will be $2 million and the event carried by Golf Channel. It will be the first nationwide TV exposure for Timuquana, the Donald Ross-designed course that was built in 1923.
The par-4 ninth hole of the Timuquana Country Club will be No. 18 for the Constellation Furyk and Friends PGA Tour Champions event Oct. 4-10, 2021. Photo by Gary Smits/Florida Times-Union
Furyk has a sponsor relationship with Constellation’s parent company, Exelon, that goes back two decades. Constellation also was the title sponsor for the Senior Players Championship from 2007-2018.
“Tabitha and I like to have a good time and we have a lot of friends who like that as well … golf, food, drink and fun, though not in that order,” Furyk said. “Golf is probably fourth.”
But the main priority will be charity. In the past, the Jim and Tabitha Furyk Foundation has raised money for charities such as Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Blessings in a Backpack, Operation Shower (a baby shower for military mothers), Community PedsCare and the Monique Burr Foundation.
“Our relationship with Jim and the PGA Tour has just gotten better and better over time,” said Mark Huston, president of Constellation Retail. “Jim is a standup person, a good family man who gives back to the community and is recognized as a leader among PGA Tour players. It’s great to be associated with a family and a sport that has such a positive reputation.”
Plans were released for three hospitality venues at Timuquana, the 18th hole Skybox, Cabanas on 17 and Club 58 (which commemorates Furyk’s record PGA Tour score for one round), also near the 17th green.
The sides will be flipped for the tournament, with No. 17 the short par-3 and No. 18 the par-4 adjacent to the cart area and tennis courts. Furyk said the Constellation hospitality venue will be on the back left of the green, a presenting sponsor venue on the right to right-rear of the green and the right side will have spectator viewing.
Furyk said plans will be fluid, based on whether the COVID-19 pandemic has eased within the 13 months before the tournament.
“We know there are no guarantees,” he said. “We hope by next October we can have fans but we want to do it in the safest manner possible. Our job is to make sure we have options.”
Furyk noted that the PGA Tour Champions has had pro-ams since returning in late July (Furyk won the first event back, at Warwick Hills in Grand Blanc, Michigan, his first PGA Tour Champions start) and next week, at the Tour’s stop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, fans will be allowed on the course.
Jim Furyk after winning the Ally Challenge at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club on August 2, 2020 in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images
“The Tour has done a good job of getting us back to tournament golf, but also changing and reacting to the climate,” Furyk said. “A lot depends on area governments and where are the hot spots.”
But the organization is planning for the best.
“Our mission and goal is to have a great event, draw in the fans and showcase our city,” Furyk said. “You look at the view of the St. Johns River and downtown from this course and it’s a great opportunity to bring in a lot of folks to watch this, raise more money and help more people.”
The military will have a strong presence at the tournament, given that Timuquana is adjacent to NAS Jacksonville, the third-largest naval base in the U.S.
Tournament director Adam Renfroe said the 21,000 military and civilian personnel who are at the base on a daily basis will be offered complimentary admission, and a military hospitality venue will be built near one of the closing holes.
“We will have a strong relationship with NAS Jacksonville,” Renfroe said. “There will be a number of military-driven initiatives during tournament week and we anticipate a lot of people coming from the base. Supporting them will be a central part of the week.”
The timing of launching the tournament also couldn’t be better. A new wave of marquee players has become eligible for the Champions Tour and two of them, Furyk and Phil Mickelson, won their first starts last month.
Also becoming eligible within the past two years have been World Golf Hall of Fame members Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, plus K.J. Choi, Darren Clarke, Mike Weir and Rich Beem.
Three-time major champion Padraig Harrington will join the list next year.
“It’s amazing all these guys are jumping right in and playing well,” said Davis Love III. “The competition is tough. If you make five pars in a row you feel like you’re out of it.”
Other possible participants will be Fred Couples, John Daly, Bernhard Langer, Mark O’Meara and Colin Montgomerie.
Renfroe said marketing a tournament with a potential field like that â and with the Furyks’ name on it â won’t be difficult.
“The name recognition of those players goes a long way, and the reputation of Jim and Tabitha in this community goes a long way,” Renfroe said. “The players have had long and successful careers, with a lot of history. There are a lot of legends who will be playing here.”
