BUICK CLASSIC

June 23, 1999

Jim Furyk

JIM FURYK: Well, obviously I have some good memories coming back here, but I have played well here in the last couple of years but even before that I really enjoyed the golf course. I played here as an amateur here in 1991 through Monday qualifying, so I have always enjoyed coming back to Westchester and I think it is a great golf course. It is one of the best. With a couple good finishes last couple of years I am excited about the week. Hoping to do it again.

JIM FURYK: Anything that was close to home where I could without -- being at school, I was in college, and I tried for the Kemper, tried here, of course the U.S. Open. I think those were the three I tried that summer and I got into Westchester.

JIM FURYK: I had already played previously on Tour. In college we used to -- everyone on the team would try to qualify for the Tucson Open, so I had been in that, I think two times already before and my impression was obviously it was a different league than I was used to. I came out here and played what I thought was really good round. About 30th place. Obviously I wasn't ready for the Tour yet, but it was a great experience.

JIM FURYK: It definitely was grueling. I think mentally and physically it takes a lot out of you, to grind it out all week and the battle there. Obviously the conditions weren't real favorable for shooting low scores. So it takes a lot out of you. But I really enjoy this golf course and this tournament so I was scheduled to come no matter what. I think you just kind of take it a little easy. Monday was pretty much a travel day up here and yesterday I went and played Winged Foot with some friends. I won't really grind it out too hard today. I like the way I am playing and just I have already hit some balls at the Pro-Am. I am going to work on my short game a little bit, try to get out of here and get some rest.

JIM FURYK: No one likes playing with slow guys. No one. (laughs). Do I think it is a major obstacle and a chance to win a tournament? Not really. I think it is nice to go out there; especially maybe Thursday and Friday to be paired with somebody you are friends with or you get along with. I think someone like Mark O'Meara is a pretty good playing partner because he is real easy going, he doesn't get real upset. He doesn't get real excited. He is a real nice guy, great conversations with him, and he has just got really good rhythm, good pace to his game. Being around guy like that I think is good for playing. If a guy gets distracted, starts throwing clubs, gets really upset, that could affect his playing partners, and if a guy is slow that could affect his playing partner. That is stuff we should be used to. We do this for a living and we should be able to adjust and block everything else out that on the golf course and play our own game. It definitely -- we have to do this for a living and I can -- what you do for a living hopefully you enjoy it, or else it is going to make your life miserable so it is more fun for us to be around people that we know, like and are comfortable with. It makes the days more enjoyable.

JIM FURYK: I don't think the golf course is really extremely dry right now. The fairways -- I hit a few shots that barely rolled after hitting the ground on the fairways today. The greens weren't brick hard like I can remember them in some years past. So I am expecting they still have some time to dry out the course and by the end of the week it will be that way. As of right now maybe that is for Pro-Am purposes or whatever. It wasn't extremely firm like I remember it in some of years, but obviously it is not a puddle out there either like last year.

JIM FURYK: Growing up in Pennsylvania I grew up on courses built in this era. I would guess Westchester was built in the 1920's or 30s or early 1900s. It is a traditional golf course. Most of the greens are very round in shape, sloping back to front. It just -- it is not target golf. I think there is more than one way to play shots on this golf course and you can use your imagination a little bit. I have always been very open that I am not a real good fan of TPC golf courses where it is target oriented, placement in the fairway, you hit the clover shaped greens, where you feel like you never have a shot at the pin. I am just not a real big fan of that. Last week Donald Ross golf course I am a fan of, of those older more traditional golf courses.

JIM FURYK: I don't think the rain delay wasn't that grueling. I sat in the clubhouse for what seemed like four hours at least last year one day where I played about seven holes and my second round then came in and waited all day. Actually had some friends up here from Pennsylvania watching the tournament and sat kind of under one of the tents and watched it rain for a few hours, spent a lot of time in the locker room and then to go back out and finish a round I had got done late that evening. So yeah, that is a little hard to just sit around all day. It tires you out more than anything, not doing anything. Losing the tournament and really coming so close and losing, that obviously leaves a sour taste in your mouth at the time. I am happy I played well. When I look back on it was a good week, but at the time five minutes, ten minutes after walking off the golf course you really don't want to speak to too many people or do too many things. You came close, you know you gave it your best shot; you just came up a little short. Hardest thing after the event was trying to get to the Olympic Club. Playoff ran late. . I missed my flight. I tried to shuttle around. I think it was Kennedy Airport, which I won't suggest for anyone, and missed two flights that night, made another, missed it. Then just got so fed up by the time we were going to get to San Francisco it was going to be, I think, 1:00 in the morning there, 4:00 in the morning here and I just -- I said that is enough. We just got a hotel room by the airport and took off Monday and got there Monday afternoon. So that hurt my preparation a little bit for the U.S. Open. Also wore me out a little bit there. But it was worth it. I had a chance to win. That is what it is all about.

JIM FURYK: If I were in the Ryder Cup who I like to play with in the four-ball or -- is that what you mean?

JIM FURYK: Depending. I think in the four-ball, in better ball, I'd like to play with -- in the past couple of years hopefully -- I don't want to put the cart before the horse. I still have to play really well for the rest of the year to make the team. But in that situation I like to play with someone that has kind of a different game than I do, like David Duval or John Huston, or a guy that has just got an explosive game, maybe a guy that hits the ball long and far, that is really not my strength. I am more of a mid-length accurate player, kind of methodical player to get the ball around the golf course. In that situation where you have a better ball event, I'd like to play with a guy that just lets it fly and can overpower a golf course and maybe play in a different fashion than do. I like David and I had a really good Fred Meyer challenge last year. Then alternate shot in a two-ball format, foursomes, I would rather play with someone that had a game very similar to mine that we attack the golf course the same way. Hit tee shots in the same place, and really could -- playing us -- playing the same ball would look like kind of almost the same person. So I think that style would be someone like a Justin Leonard or someone that is just very unwavering, I think I like his game he has a lot of control. He works the ball both ways. He doesn't overpower the golf course but he out-thinks a lot of players, so I'd like to play with somebody like that.

JIM FURYK: Yeah, I would be lying if I said I didn't want to make the team. If I don't make the team it doesn't mean this year is going to be a terrible year. Just because I make the team doesn't mean I am going to be satisfied with the entire year. Two years ago I really enjoyed it. It was one of the highlights of my career in 1997, so I would like to do it again and obviously would really like to be there this year.

JIM FURYK: Well, I will say that the 63 functions we packed into seven days was a little difficult. And it is very tiring. I didn't sleep very much that week, not because I was nervous. It was just because I was doing something every hour of the day. But I think the best part about the week is really the time that you get to spend with the team and team dinners or team meetings, spend time with your captain, get to meet everyone's wife or girlfriend and really spend time, a lot of time together as a group of about 25 people and really get to know those people and root for them. And while they are playing you are cheering for them and vice-versa and really kind of coming together as a group is probably -- it is kind of a neat feeling, it is just special. I think our team, even though we played lousy, like this year at The Presidents Cup we had a really close group and other than the time we spent on the golf course getting our tails kicked, we had a great time.

JIM FURYK: You didn't know everyone's wife. I had never met like say Mark O'Meara's. I never met Alicia O'Meara. We kind of both went to dinner. She had introduced herself; I had introduced myself. So I think I got to meet a lot of people and I always say by end of the week you are giving everyone a hug and telling them what a great week you had.

JIM FURYK: I think you just get to know them better. I am not sure you learn any more about your golf game or anything like that from anyone else. I think you learn about yourself and about your golf game just from being under a lot of pressure during the tournament. I mean all of us are good -- we have some close friends out here that we travel with and we are together whatever, 20 to 25 weeks a year, so, you get to know a lot of the guys very well; you have some close friends, but there are some guys on the team that I didn't know very well and wasn't very good friends with. You become a lot closer after those experiences. For me that is probably -- I enjoy -- obviously I enjoy the golf and playing under pressure for my country but what you pull from it is the relationships with everyone.

JIM FURYK: I think it a helluva lot easier for David to say that he has won with 50% of the ones he has played this year or last two years. Really I think that is sort of more -- that type of mindset starts after winning your first event that you got over the hump, you win your first event and it is a great feeling. I mean, it is something that you don't want to wait long again to feel again. So maybe it is a greedy feeling that I won in Las Vegas for the first time in 1995 and immediately I mean, I could see myself kind of pushing it out there and really not being very patient on the golf course because I was thinking about I just wanted to do it again. I was really happy about it. It took me a while to actually, I won very quickly after that and early 1996, but I didn't play well for the first few events in 1996 because I think that the only thing I was concentrating on and really you have to realize that I am going to play about that, 26 events this year. If I could win once, it is a good year. If I could win twice, it is a phenomenal year to be a multiple winner. There is going to be a lot of weeks I am going to go home not accomplishing a goal if that is my primary goal. So sometimes you realize, sometimes you show up at an event, you know you are not playing that well and you know that maybe that is not in the cards. I have shown up to events where I wasn't playing well like that event in 1996 in Hawaii; Greensboro this year on Wednesday. I was just hitting it horrible in the Pro-Am. I found something Wednesday night, started hitting the ball well; went out; shot 21-under for the week and, you know, lost by a couple. So just happens. You just have to be patient and I think let it happen than forcing it to happen. David has been on a run. He has all the confidence in the world right now. Who would blame him? He has won, I think, what, eleven times in two years. That is just amazing. It hasn't been done in a long time.

JIM FURYK: A couple of years ago.

JIM FURYK: As far as on his game -- to remember how I was hitting it in The Masters two years ago is tough; let alone how Joel was playing. Obviously he is a solid player. He had a real good college career. I think he is a pretty big strong guy so I think he is going to have the game for the TOUR. What I think impresses everyone most about him is his -- some of the guys that are managing his career or his agents, I guess, per se, are friends of mine and what they are really impressed with and what I think what I was impressed with is he just seems like a real down to earth real nice kid he seems very grounded and very realistic and his view on life and I think that is important to really to be in a better person is a heck of a lot better than being a better player. But it looks like he has got them both.

JIM FURYK: I did.

JIM FURYK: Yeah. It is a hard golf course, I could say that much. In those conditions. I like the golf course. I think that I don't remember a whole lot about it other than I played poorly, but it was really my first experience with Links golf so I'd like to go back and take a crack at it with a little more experience. I haven't been in that position a few more times but it was a good golf course. I think it had some length to it and it was a real nice layout. We played in the most extreme conditions I could ever imagine, that is the worse conditions I have ever played in.

JIM FURYK: I missed the cut.