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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM

February 8, 2017

Pebble Beach, California

JULIUS MASON: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, very happy to welcome Jim Furyk to the tournament this week here at Pebble Beach. Jim will also carry another title with him over the course of the next two years, that would be, of course, Ryder Cup captain. And it was actually exactly one month ago today that Jim was named as our Ryder Cup captain. Also joining us at the head table here is PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua, who is also a member of the PGA Ryder Cup Committee.

But first let's go ahead and begin with Jim. Jim, tell us how you're feeling, if you're healthy and how excited you are to start the 2017 season, please.

JIM FURYK: I'm healthy, which is nice. It was nice to get through the injury last year, to play a lot of golf in a very short amount of time. I think I needed the fall to kind of rest, relax. And I don't know if heal is the right word, but I did stress myself out with the number of events I played. I think there was one stretch where I played nine out of 11 weeks. And it was kind of a horse race to the end of the year, see how deep I could go in the playoffs, trying to make the Ryder Cup team. There was just a lot of golf.

So it was good to relax, both physically and mentally, and get ready to come back to the TOUR and start a season where I have for a number of different years here at Pebble Beach. So beautiful venue, looking forward to playing with Pete and always enjoy spending a lot of time here with my wife, in Carmel.

JULIUS MASON: A month ago your first order of business when you were named captain was to name Davis Love as your vice captain. I understand there's some more news that you can share with us today.

JIM FURYK: Yeah. Obviously, Davis was an extremely easy pick. Not only is he a good friend, he was a great captain both in 2012 and 2016, I'm going to rely on him a lot. It was an honor to help him as a vice captain and I learned a lot from him, to be by his side during captain's picks, to media training, to a number of different things. But to watch him in action, how he handled the team room, the players, how he spoke of his team in the media room, it was a great learning experience for me. So I appreciated it, I appreciate him including me in a lot of things that he didn't have to. And also, he may get tired of me in the next two years always calling him and asking for advice. So I look forward to it. I guess, really what we wanted to talk about now is our points structure. The idea and the goal for every Ryder Cup and for every captain is to try to identify the 12 best players from the United States that I can take to Paris with me, with our group, and to compete.

So, I think we had a good system in the past. We're not trying to re-invent the wheel, we're not doing anything crazy, but there are a few minor changes. One being just in our timing. Traveling overseas will make a difference, so I guess shortly, for the points system we'll do -- it will be very similar to what we did for 2016. For this year in 2017, the Major Championships you get one point for every thousand dollars earned in all four Majors, the Masters, U.S. Open, Open and PGA.

And then the World Golf Championships this year and THE PLAYERS Championship, you will get one point per two thousand dollars earned. So that will give guys, I guess, five opportunities, correct? To earn points there and then four more. Nine events this year to earn points. That's exactly identical to what it was in 2015.

In 2018, at all PGA TOUR events you'll earn one point per thousand dollars earned. Again, identical to what we had in 2016. The one minor difference will be for the Major Championships in 2018. The winners of those events will get two points per thousand dollars earned. Again, exactly identical to 2016. All other finishers in the cut will get one and a half points per thousand dollars earned. So the one difference there is what I felt like and what I talked to the Ryder Cup Committee about and asked for their advice, is because the Major Championship purses are so large and we thank them for that very much, but we're looking at 10 and 10 and a half million dollar purses in the Major Championships. When you double the points in those events you in affect make a 20.5, a 21 million dollar purse. In effect, they become weighted triple or a little more than a PGA TOUR event.

So when I looked at the finishes, if you finished third in the Major Championship, you earned more points than a winner in a PGA TOUR event. And I really value winning. I want the guys that hit shots down the stretch, that have the guts, the fortitude, the game to win golf tournaments. And I find winning very, very important. So, winning a PGA TOUR event with a strong field, to me, is more important than finishing third at a Major Championship. So I wanted to kind of change -- it was a suggestion I got from some of our players on the team last year that I talked to as a vice captain. I looked at it, I looked at the numbers, leaned on my committee, as I will for the next two years and got their advice. And the reason we kept the points doubled for the winner is, again, I value winning. I think it's very important. Winning a Major Championship at any time, but especially in the year of the Ryder Cup in 2018 is important to me. So, we kept that the same.

The other thing we would like to talk about is -- correct me, Julius, if I'm getting ahead of myself, but the timing of the captain's picks. For 2018 -- I wasn't prepared for the dates, but the points will conclude August 12th at the PGA Championship. So our final eight, the top eight on August 12th, 2018 will automatically qualify for the event.

I'm going to take three selections after the Deutsche Bank Championship. That will be three weeks later.

And we will save one final pick for after the BMW Championship. And I'm thinking now that the Deutsche Bank Championship will be called Dell more than likely, is that correct?

JULIUS MASON: Correct.

JIM FURYK: The Dell Championship. And then one pick will be held for the BMW. And there's a -- it's similar to what Davis did, we had a little different timing with the Olympics, with where the PGA Championship was, with where the points ended, but very similar and Davis waited a couple weeks, took three picks and then waited for the TOUR Championship and took one pick. It's obvious that we can't wait until after the TOUR Championship to take a pick. We have passports, travel to Europe and I feel like the timing, we probably want to get it done a little earlier and not put those guys through that at the TOUR Championship again. I think it's wise, as well, for the captains to be discussing parings in that the night before we leave, rather than who our next captain's pick is going to be.

But it allows me to, one, I think evaluate. It gives me three weeks and at least two events, the first two playoff events, to identify three players that I would like to add to the team. It gives them three more weeks and two more tournaments, the BMW and TOUR Championship for those folks to bond with the team, to play more being practice rounds, to go to dinner, to basically be together.

And also I think in the past what we wanted to do in case of say like a Billy Horschel instance, where a guy goes and wins in Boston, wins the BMW, and yet the picks have been made where he would have been kind of the obvious pick at the time, a hot player, a guy that provides a lot of emotion to a team. We saved that one pick for after the BMW to identify a hot player, if we have one. I think that still gives them the opportunity two weeks to prepare for the Ryder Cup, but it also gives them one week at the TOUR Championship to be welcomed by their teammates and to be incorporated into the team and all the conversations.

JULIUS MASON: Jim, thanks very much. Pete, quick question for you. If you, Jim mentioned the PGA Ryder Cup Committee, if you could remind everybody, A, who is on the Committee, and B, from a Committee perspective, you've got to be happy with this update. Are we expecting to see changes every two years now moving forward?

PETE BEVACQUA: Well, I would say first off, we're so thrilled that, obviously, Jim is in charge and our captain, we certainly couldn't be in better hands and the entire organization is so delighted about that.

And you referenced the PGA Ryder Cup Committee. It's Davis, the immediate past captain, Tiger and Phil. It's our president, Paul Levy, our vice president, Suzy Whaley and myself. And already, Julius, as we have seen, and I'm sure Jim would agree, there's such a sense of cooperation and working together. And as we said a couple of years ago, it's all about building a system, building a Ryder Cup family, putting together a process, and this is an extension of that process. When Jim came to the group and said, hey, I have these ideas, I think we should make these tweaks, I think the conversations were great and, obviously, everybody's incredibly deferential to Jim, because he's one calling the shots.

But it's a good, healthy process. I think that you'll see changes every two years. I think that's part of the process of just getting better, getting smarter, building off of what's worked, and correcting things that maybe we can do better. I think that's just part of a healthy Ryder Cup system.

JULIUS MASON: Thank you very much, Pete. Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is yours for questions.

Q. Curious if the points system if you could relate personally to it, you talk about your own run for the Ryder Cup, but it was boosted massively probably by Oakmont. Was that --
JIM FURYK: Massively is a good word.

Q. That's why I used it.
JIM FURYK: Yeah. And I felt like, to be honest, I played well in spurts last year, but top to bottom it wasn't a typical year for me. It was -- coming off an injury, I wasn't, I came back a little too early, I wasn't a hundred percent healthy, I didn't particularly play all that well last year, but I had a very realistic opportunity to make that team. I -- a win here or there, a really high finish here or there, I would have boosted myself up close to the top eight and easily into the Top-12. With one more good finish. And really it was all due to that T-2 at the U.S. Open, where I felt maybe that it helped me, but in hindsight it might have been weighted a little heavy. That position was probably worth more than winning a PGA TOUR event last year.

Q. You alluded to the last-minute pick last year with the TOUR Championship and kind of players jockeying for that. At what point in the process as an assistant did you realize that hey, this maybe isn't the best way to decide this?
JIM FURYK: I never really looked at it as this wasn't the best way. I think that everything's new for 2018 and that it's a different schedule, we're traveling overseas. The idea of not being able to pick someone after the TOUR Championship was gone, a moot point once we are traveling to Paris. The captain -- wow, I put my finger up and that was a lot of pictures -- the captain for 2020 will have to revisit that same situation.

For me personally, I felt like Davis and I and Tom were in a room, we were waiting for actually, Strick was there, we were waiting for Tiger to arrive and everyone got there Sunday evening. But we were so worried about who the next guy was, of course, we go to a playoff and we're watching Ryan Moore and in the back of my mind I was thinking, man, we should be, I should be thinking right now more about how I'm going to pair these guys up, how am I going to make them practice, because we still had to add that one guy and that changes the dynamic of how all the pairings are going to be made.

So, I think we had great intentions and I think they worked out very, very well. Because, one, had we not done that, who knows, maybe Ryan Moore wasn't the pick. But he played so good and poured his heart out at the TOUR Championship. And every time he had to make a 10-footer or 6-footer or 15-footer, he just kept pouring them in the jar and that's the kind of guy you want.

So, looking back, I never really thought it was a bad thing, I think we ended up with the right guy. We needed to add a guy that was solid, that hit a lot of fairways, that was very consistent to the team. He's the perfect description of all those things and he's hot right now. I think that it really turned out positive for us.

Looking to the future, that's something that we don't have the opportunity to do in going to Paris. And hopefully we can identify a guy just like Ryan after the BMW. If not, we'll take, if there isn't someone that just sticks out as the best player, we'll take the best player available.

Q. I really thought that you making the decision to say yes being the captain, you're still playing some really good golf. Has the Committee aspect of it and everything the group made it easier for you to decide to say yes to the captaincy? Because I think that you want to play on this team, don't you?
JIM FURYK: Well, first and foremost, I really was hoping to get the opportunity to captain the Ryder Cup team before the age of 50 or around the age of 50. I wanted to be playing full-time on the PGA TOUR, I wanted to know the players, I wanted to be able to go play practice rounds with them, I wanted to have that closeness to be honest with you.

And if I turned 50 and decide to play the Champions Tour and I'm out there for three or four years, it's going to be difficult to have that connection. So I was really hoping for the opportunity early.

As far as playing, everyone wants to play in Ryder Cups, yes. But to me, that conversation's almost -- it's putting the cart ahead of the horse. If I'm playing well next year and I'm playing -- I'm in the form that I was in in 2015 and before, then great, I think we have that conversation. But right now, my duty that I've been given and one that I've looked forward to for the last 15 or 20 years of my career is to be Ryder Cup captain. I want to be prepared, I want to do the best job I possibly can. I've got a lot of resources with the Committee, with past captains, with good friends that I can lean on. And I fully intend to use all those resources and do the best job I possibly can.

As far as the playing aspect is, if we get in that situation, which, again, is down the road, I would be more than happy to talk about it. But I'm being dead honest when I say right now I'm focused on being the captain. I think I can do two things separately. I think I can captain this team to the best of my abilities and I think I can also have a career on the PGA TOUR. Now if those two end up colliding in the future, great, but it's not my focus right now.

Q. Quick follow-up. Then will your schedule change maybe a little bit as we get closer to it?
JIM FURYK: I guess -- well, you mean by adding more?

Q. Not for you so much if you're going to -- say you don't play well enough to be on the team. I'm saying will you play a little more maybe next year to play with some of these guys that are close to maybe making the team to get to know them even more possibly?
JIM FURYK: I don't think I'll change my schedule. I think I play enough events. At 18 to 20 events, I think I'll play enough to touch on, to see these guys. Being on the Presidents Cup teams, the Ryder Cup teams, being a vice captain for the last two years, and I've got a real good relationship, I think, with the guys that were on all those teams. There are some young folks coming up that I'll need to get to know better, that -- I'll get out there with Jordan Spieth or say, a Justin Thomas, who is a young up-and-comer, that I know pretty well, that I'll say, hey, who are some of the guys I need to meet? The Smylie Kaufmans and Daniel Bergers and the guys that maybe made a good run last time. There will be plenty more of young folks coming up. Brooks Koepka was one of those guys this year.

So, yeah, I want to get together and play with them and meet them and get to know them better, because that's really as I spoke, that's one of the reasons I was hoping to get this opportunity at the age I'm at.

Q. When you made these changes in regards to the points, did you ever factor in the idea that there are more American players playing overseas and they receive nothing, if they play well for those events?
JIM FURYK: It was factored in, yes. Ultimately, I think we felt like in 2016 we had a pretty good process. We liked the team we ended up with and it was, it was mentioned to me. I've looked at models, scenarios, styles, what would have happened if we would have done it, I think I looked at about eight different models on the points list and what may have changed. There is a model there that use World Ranking points instead of money earned or money won. I looked at it. I didn't want to re-invent the wheel. I felt like we had a successful campaign in 2016. I think that we identified the 12 best players at the time to play for the United States. And I also, I guess my counter to that situation is, I still get four picks. I get to make up a third of the team as a captain with captains picks. So, I think that there's a built in opportunity there that if someone did happen to fall through the cracks or went to, let's say they went to the Paris, to the French Open, and won at legolfnational it would be duly noted by the captain.

(Laughter.) Does that make sense?

Q. It's early, you have these young guys making a push, you mentioned Justin Thomas. Have you already found it a little different yourself just how you're plugged in and paying attention and watching stuff?
JIM FURYK: Yeah. And I will say this, I do feel bad for Justin. I know that his family and Davis's family were friends, Dru and Justin kind of grew up playing the same time. I think his name gets thrown out. And in one sense I feel bad for him because I don't want to add extra pressure on the guy, I just admire him as a person and I like his game. There's plenty of young guys out there that I didn't mention that have an opportunity to make this team. So, to get back to your question it was --

Q. Do you already sense a difference in how you're plugged in?
JIM FURYK: Well, I watched a little bit more golf when I was at home. I paid attention to scores a little bit more. Again, it's real early in the process and we're not even accumulating points until March. But, yeah, I'll find myself trying to identify players that I don't know, that I need to get to know better. I feel like today was my first day back to school. Because of the weather, I didn't arrive until last night, so I felt like I was running for mayor this morning. I pretty much stopped and chatted and said hello to everyone I saw. So I imagine that I'll have a little more of that to do in the weeks and months to come as captain. And that's part of the process, which I look forward to.

Q. I wanted to ask you about this weekend. We're supposed to get some more weather coming in tomorrow and Friday. How do you adjust your game, knowing that there's going to be some wind and rain and some tough conditions?
JIM FURYK: Pete said that his brother-in-law's carrying for him and he's going to carry all the extra, gear, the rain gear the equipment. Fluff turned 69 yesterday. I'll throw him under the bus right off the bat. So he's getting up there in age, he might not want to carry it all, we're going to put it on the young back and shoulders. It's tough. One of the reasons I stayed home yesterday was at home it was 77 degrees and the wind topped out at about seven miles an hour and I ran around the golf course in about three hours in shorts and hit a bunch of extra shots and got a lot of practice in. What do you do? I think a lot of it is just mentally preparing. It's going to be a tough week. This is, this event is so much fun when the weather is good, it's beautiful, you get to see people once a year that I don't see a lot of the celebrities and the folks here and friendships I made, I get to see them once a year. So I look forward to coming to the event. But it will be a, it's going to be a difficult week on the golf course, I think that you prepare for it mentally, try to get an idea of the night before which way the, which direction's the wind coming from, how hard is it going to blow, and then I'm prepared with rain gloves and rain suit and just try to stay as dry as you can and I guess this week is more of a marathon than a sprint. You need to save some energy for this one.

Q. For either Jim or Pete, I'm not sure how much if any consideration was given to starting the points system with a new PGA TOUR season, meaning the tournaments in the fall. What were your thoughts on that, especially considering I think Europe starts theirs in September, do they not? Europe starts their points system in September. Why wouldn't you do the same?
PETE BEVACQUA: I think when we were talking about it with the Committee and certainly with Jim and Jim's input, it just, I think, as Jim said, it worked so well last time, that component of it, to make sure that you're getting those players and putting together a team that is firing on all cylinders at the right time. So that was one of those components where I think it was really the decision of everybody involved that it didn't make sense at this time to change. Now could that change in the future? I think anything could change in the future. I think that's all part of that, of this hopefully continuing to be very healthy process, just look at every aspect of everything we do after each Ryder Cup and grade ourselves, what really went well, what worked, what didn't work, what could we do better. I think the changes that we ultimately came to, that Jim had recommended, make the most sense leading into 2018.

JIM FURYK: I think that we're always going to be identifying the process and I'll join the Committee after being captain in 2018, I look forward to talking to future captains about what they need to improve on or want to improve on. But there's always going to be room for improvement. Myself and the Committee at this time didn't think that was an area where we needed to improve. I think we're also using -- in the past we identified events, Major Championships, World Golf Championships, THE PLAYERS in 2017 that we thought were very important in the world of golf, and then one of the things we always wanted to do was identify the players that were playing well in the year of. And I think that's why we started January 1. We revisited it, we looked at it, I think we're pretty unanimous in the fact that we like that system and what we did for 2016.

Q. As a TOUR player where you're serving the Ryder Cup as captain, but also the TOUR as a player, of, by doing so, kind of de-elevating those tournaments slightly in status?
JIM FURYK: Well, I think it's unfair to compare us to the European Tour in that right because they're not including any events in 2017 early on like we are. It's just a different process. We start this March. We start next month. So, do I find a conflict of interest? I would say no. I've served on the PGA TOUR board as a player and sat through the meetings and watched how the business was done and why it was done and there was some very difficult decisions to make there sometimes, too. Whether -- I was always coming from a players' perspective, I'm very pro-player -- again, the task I was given here was to be the Ryder Cup captain and to serve, in my mind, to serve the 12 players that end up ultimately qualifying for the team. So, I don't see a conflict there. I see it as I was given a job and going to do it to the best of my ability.

PETE BEVACQUA: And I would add we remind ourselves when we're having these conversations that we have to think about the Ryder Cup first and foremost. And even on the PGA of America side, when we were talking about the points for the Majors, and changing the structure of the points for the Major Championships, with the PGA Championship obviously being a PGA of America event, and realizing Jim made a great point in our meeting with the purses and how the points would be awarded, that the Majors, putting aside the winners of the Major Championships were getting too many points and they were being too heavily weighted. And at that moment we had to think about it, and I speak for Paul Levy, Suzy Whaley and myself, okay not what's best for the PGA Championship at that moment, but what's best for the Ryder Cup. And so I think that Jim goes through the same process of kind of first and foremost, in these discussions, what's best for the Ryder Cup, what's best for Team USA.

Q. So that's why the PGA Championship purse isn't going to be 20 million next year?
JULIUS MASON: Next question is over here.

PETE BEVACQUA: That would be part of the reason.

JIM FURYK: Again it's just, the goal is the process of trying to identify the 12 best players for us and that's what I felt was best, that's what the Committee felt was best.

Q. Of course you've been to Europe many times as a Ryder Cup player, but now that the captaincy starts to sink in, does the task of bringing back the Ryder Cup from Paris, does that sort of seem daunting?
JIM FURYK: Well I've been reminded a number of different times that the last time it happened, that the U.S. won on foreign soil was 1993. So well aware of it. What I really think that Ryder Cup Europe does so well, I like the way they hold the Ryder Cup events on venues where they play championships. Play the Belfry, Valdarama, Celtic Manor, the K Club, and now the legolfnational. So the French Open I think has been there the last 24 or 26 years, if I'm correct. Every one of their players will be familiar with that golf course and I heard it's quite a good golf course. So, that being the case, it is definitely a home field, a home course advantage for the European side. And I think that's very wise. It will be a daunting task. I realize that they aren't going to be happy with the results in 2016, it's been awhile since they lost, so it's going to sting, I think that Thomas is going to be a wonderful captain, very organized. He's got Rory as kind of his player/leader as well. They have kind of tried to change their system a little bit in identifying their best 12 players. So, they're going to come all guns blazing and firing and on a golf course that they know very well. So, it will be a difficult task, but I think that we will, I know I am and the 12 folks I know qualifying on the team will be real anxious to play that event and we look forward to that challenge.

Q. It seems the last five or six Ryder Cups or maybe seven or eight Ryder Cups it's gained more prominence and if you agree with that, why do you think that is, No. 1 and to piggyback on his question, considering this tournament has a great fluctuation in weather, why have you chosen often to start your season here?
JIM FURYK: I'll go to the second one first, because it's really easy. The place is beautiful, I think the golf courses suit my game, my wife and I got engaged in Carmel, it's great to come back and visit and go to all our favorite restaurants. So there's just some good karma.

The first part, and Pete would help me out, but I would say that it was the late '80s that the Ryder Cup I want to say Europe beat U.S. on their home soil for the first time at Jack Nicklaus's spot, that was '87. '87. There's big spikes in the Ryder Cup. Adding --

PETE BEVACQUA: Kiawah in '91.

JIM FURYK: Adding the rest of Europe to the GB&I side that was a big spike in the event. Our first loss on home soil. Kiawah. It just kept escalating. And I think from that time the event has gained more prominence, more viewership, more media exposure, it really has become this guy and the event in golf. And the emotion that the players show, I said it at our press conference when they announced me, this event started out as a small little event between two sides of the pond and it was all about camaraderie and getting together and the vehicle was golf. It has grown in stature, but it embodies everything that's really special about this game. And you see it, in my opinion, in the emotion that's poured out from both sides, from the fans, from the players, and so I think each and every year since those late '80s, this event has gained in stature. It seems like it can't get any bigger, but it always seems to.

Q. I'm curious, your take on kind of the tussle for No. 1 in the rankings right now. Seems like several guys could make that claim. I know Jason Day has been in that spot for awhile, but there's certainly five or six guys that could say that and specifically your thoughts on Jordan Spieth's role in that. As someone who doesn't hit the ball a mile in this era, obviously does a lot of other things great, how feasible and difficult will it be for him to seize that No. 1 spot going forward?
JIM FURYK: I think there's an ebb and flow. I look back at to my history here when I first joined the TOUR, in the early '90s, I think that Greg Norman's dominance probably was just winding down as a dominant player. He was still one of the one or maybe the No. 1 player in the world. And there was an -- I remember reading the articles that golf needs another dominant player. They need a Nicklaus, they need a Watson, they need a Greg Norman. And lo and behold Tiger Woods came on the scene and started dominating for years. And then the same articles were written that this is getting boring, this guy keeps dominating, we need more people to challenge, we need someone to step up. Golf's in a great spot right now. You look at Rory and Dustin and Jason and Jordan and there's plenty more guys that could step up and join that list, but it looks as though we have another big four right now. They're all unbelievable talents. Different styles, different types of games, Jordan is one guy that, he's the shortest of the four and he's not short by any means, but he's not an overpowering bomber of the golf ball. But he does do things, other things have very well. He's very mature for his years, managing his game very well. Length, really, I don't think is going to be an issue as far as him getting back into that seat. I don't think his lack of maybe overpowering distance is anything that will hinder him from becoming or trying to become the No. 1 player again. I think it's the amount of talent out there between Jason, Dustin, Rory and the list goes on and on and on. It's just a highly competitive road right now and golf's in a great spot because of it. They're all good kids as well. I've had the pleasure of being around all four of those folks and enjoy their company.

Q. For both of you, actually I remember, Jim, you standing off to the side of the green at Gleneagles on Sunday and really not being able to pinpoint exactly what it was why the U.S. was coming up short. It certainly wasn't a matter of desire. So you found something last fall. Is the task for Paris to sustain what you guys found last fall or is it to keep building something toward this U.S. program? Is there a lot of room to build there?
JIM FURYK: That's a really good question. I've never finished one of my seasons, even when I won the TOUR Championship and Player of the Year, I never finished a season trying to sustain what I had accomplished, it was always trying to grow, to get better, to find ways. No matter how well you play or how good things seem, there's always ways to improve. So I'm really pleased and really feel like the work of the task force, the work of Davis Love, the work of the Committee, the work of the 12 players and the captains that poured into this last Ryder Cup, we have kind of got things back on the rails and headed the right direction.

So I'm pleased with what we were able to accomplish in 2016, because we hadn't done it very often in the last 20 years. But the idea is to grow, to get better. And I think that Davis will be the first one to say that, and I can't give him enough praise for getting us back. He was just the right guy at the right time to lead us. But we're always trying to get better and grow and tweak and change. And, again, I don't think to go back and re-invent the wheel, to break everything down and start over is not the way to go. But to keep building on the momentum we have right now, I think, is the goal. I was also asked at the opening press conference, what was going to be my mark and I just don't think that that's where this thing is headed. I'm not trying to leave a mark on the Ryder Cup as -- you think about all your local clubs when the head of the greens super or the head of the greens committee comes in, he always wants to leave a mark, right? And nine times out of 10 it usually goes the wrong way. Am I right? I'm not trying to leave my mark on the Ryder Cup, I'm trying to continue the ball rolling in the same direction and gain momentum. And instead I've been put in a situation different from the last couple of captains, where we have had some success and the momentum is going forward and my job is to help move that forward and sustain it and get the 12 guys on the same page.

PETE BEVACQUA: And Jeff, I would say that we certainly with the task force and now the Ryder Cup Committee and the changes that were made, that was applied to a home Ryder Cup. And now, for the first time it will be applied to a way Ryder Cup. I think that's different. Like any sport. Whether you're a football team, baseball team, basketball team, it's one thing to play on your home field, your home court and now, you have to take this model and test it out overseas. And I think we have the perfect person steering the ship in Jim to really kind of hopefully reverse the trend from '93. But to take this Ryder Cup concept, this program, and now say, okay, what changes need to be made now that we're going to Paris? And I think you're seeing some of that already. The timing is different. I think that there will be many things that will need to be tweaked because you are traveling to a foreign country and you're not going to be the hometown favorite, you're going to be the out-of-town team and then there will be differences and we'll have to navigate those.

Q. Curious if you're playing Zurich and if you'll pay attention closer to that event, it being a team event, as to how guys match up?
JIM FURYK: At this time I'm not planning on playing Zurich and I will pay attention. I got two years to pay attention to that event. Absolutely.

Q. Good short answer.
JIM FURYK: You said short. I could elaborate. I can always elaborate if you want.

JULIUS MASON: Pete Bevacqua, Jim Furyk, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.

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