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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 16, 2019

Jim Furyk

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Q. Give us an assessment of your day.
JIM FURYK: Yeah, I guess kind of ups and downs. I feel like I did a lot of good today. I was very comfortable. I wanted to really kind of settle into that round early and hit some good solid shots, and I feel like the way I hit it the first four or five holes, 1-under par, had some good looks at it. I kind of did what I wanted to, and I got a little loose with some swings on the way out, the drive at 6, lay-up at 9, tee ball at 12, again a couple bad iron shots. But I hung in there and I hit a lot, I did a lot right today. I did hit a lot of good shots, and I wish it would have added up to a little bit better and I would have got a little closer to the lead, but it was a good solid round of golf and it still leaves me in striking distance tomorrow, and looks like we have -- I haven't seen the forecast since this morning, but it looks like we have a tough day ahead of us.

Q. How perilous was your stance on 18?
JIM FURYK: I heard that Azinger said that I stand closer than anyone at address in the world and I was thinking the same thing, but I just couldn't get in there where I felt like I could make -- I mean I only had to fly the ball probably 110 yards and I was going to roll it up there on the green somewhere. But it was because my heels were hanging over, I didn't have real good balance and I felt like I was going to fall forward. It just gave me that feeling like I was going to shank it and I felt like my wedge game's good if I put the ball in play and give myself an opportunity to make four, which I did. I just didn't make the putt.

Q. You thought you would fall forward but not back?
JIM FURYK: I thought I would fall back because my heels were, you know, I was about that much over, I just didn't have the stability. I needed like about three more inches and I would have been fine.

Q. Euros are 1-2-3 on the leaderboard. That's never happened before. Do you have like this was sort of an inevitability that given the strides that that continent has made in the last 20 years?
JIM FURYK: The strides that that continent has made?

Q. Just getting better, bigger world presence?
JIM FURYK: No.

Q. That it was going to happen eventually here.
JIM FURYK: No, I mean, you got Jon Rahm, McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say they're all ranked in the top six or seven in the world.

Q. 13 in the world.
JIM FURYK: Top 13 in the world? Oh, they're terrible then. (Laughter.) So I mean, they're just world-class players. I think that you almost kind of can't have it both ways. Everyone wants the world of golf to be this one big -- everyone wants the best players on the PGA TOUR no matter what your flag is, so we're inviting everyone to come out and come join this TOUR and we have the best TOUR in the world and they are, but then when they come, we want to denote and throw a flag on it and treat them like they're from somewhere else.

So they're all members of the TOUR, they're all here, and whether they're American or European they're world-class players and I honestly don't know how Jon's been playing as of recent, but I know Tommy's been playing great and I know Rory's been playing great and obviously Jon's round of 8-under was something special.

Q. It's just up until about 10 years ago you didn't see groups of Europeans up high on the leaderboard. It's been a trend since about 2007, where you had two or three guys finishing in the top 5.
JIM FURYK: I would say in the '90s we didn't have a lot, a great number of Europeans that were members of our TOUR, so you didn't have the numbers that were playing in the events. But now you have a great number. If you check the top 50 in the world, there's great number of Europeans in the top 50 in the world.

If you look at our membership, there's a great number of Europeans, so just by numbers there's a greater opportunity, and they have -- you know, they have some -- look at our Ryder Cup team last year; the World Rankings were very similar for the American players and the European players. I mean, they have some great players, and you know, Jon, Tommy and Rory are three of the most talented players in the world.

Q. When you look at the actual tee shot on 18, your reaction was one of relief.
JIM FURYK: Yeah, I actually, it appeared to be in the fairway from the tee, so I was thinking I had kind of a short iron in my hand and maybe a green light and an opportunity to get a look at birdie.

I was -- I can't say I'm disappointed where it ended up because it could have been a lot worse. It could have been in the water. But I needed to make a little better swing there. I got the club caught a touch behind me. I hit it a touch in the toe and it looked good coming off the face, but the wind chewed it up a little bit and it just got out there a little too much left.

Q. When you look at the forecast tomorrow, does that make it more of a challenge to come up with a game plan for tomorrow than today?
JIM FURYK: Yeah, honestly I didn't think today -- that forecast today looked a lot more ominous for today's round. The north wind, it was, I think predicting 14 and then right at lunchtime I took a look and all of a sudden it looked more like 10 and 12, and then for a lot of today through the middle of my round, like late front nine, early back nine, there wasn't much breeze out there. I don't think it was more than about five to seven miles an hour.

So it was actually a pretty benign day. Cloud cover kept some moisture on greens. They were getting brown, look-wise, but they still were somewhat receptive. So the golf course was more scorable than I expected it to be.

We'll just see tomorrow. I mean I think tomorrow's one of those you try to make a game plan, but all the while you know that it could be pissing down rain, it could be really windy, you don't know what you're going to get and you just kind of play it by ear and make the best of the conditions.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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