SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 13, 2022

Jim Furyk

Waialae Country Club

Press Conference

Q. Obviously got to take us through the ace. You had still had 150 feet of putts without needing to putt that green.

JIM FURYK: That's funny when you put it that way, I only got 17 chances. It's funny it all started off, I hit a pretty good drive on 1 and knocked a 5-wood kind of on the front center of the green and had probably 60, 70, 80 to the hole and rolled it about six feet by coming back.

So I kind of led the day off with a three-putt and from there just putted beautifully. I hit it a foot at 2, got back to even par and settled, and then made a 30-footer at 3. I had to make -- struggled with my speed honestly early. At 4 I hit a bad shot front of the green and I hit the first putt eight, ten feet by and made it on the way back.

25-footer for birdie at 5.

10-footer for par at 6.

6-footer for par at 7. Just kind of got on a roll. Left a couple of them short, actually, on the second side. But everything was kind of at the hole and on target, and giving some putts a chance to go in.

So the long ones I made were really almost back-to-back at 3 and 5. I could be close to two 30-footers there.

Q. The details on the ace, were you calling it to get up?

JIM FURYK: Yes. I thought I was in-between clubs but fluff assured me it was a 6-iron for me, it was the right club and I had it teed up a little bit trying to get the ball in the air and hit down on it. Caught it just a smidge high in the face.

And so I loved the line it was on but I wasn't quite sure I caught enough of it to cover it. And carried on the green probably two or three yards and landed in a perfect spot and then released towards the pin. I guess that's kind of the line I was looking. You never want to miss that green right. Want to make sure I hit it solid to cover.

Q. When was your last hole-in-one competition?

JIM FURYK: You know, one of guys in my group asked me. I've paid 11 of them and most of them have been tournament. I have to think about it. I don't know when the last one in competition was but I made some at Colonial, Memorial, Pebble Beach, AT&T, I made one at Monterey Peninsula, U.S. Open at Winged Foot. That was a practice round. Made a bunch in tournaments, but the last one, I'm not sure.

Q. Do you remember what year you won this tournament?

JIM FURYK: They just told me, it was '96. It was my second year and I won at the end of the year in '95 and came out early in the year. This wasn't the leadoff event back then. I think it was in February in '96.

Q. Do you realize Morikawa wasn't been when you won here? Do you feel good about that?

JIM FURYK: Well, it's not, doesn't thrill me. Played a practice round with a guy that called me "sir" and later on he asked me what I liked most about the Champions Tour, and I said,.

"No one calls me 'sir.'" He said his dad would be angry with him if he didn't.

Q. Who was it?

JIM FURYK: Brett, young guy from Hawai'i, Brett Grant. Nice guy.

Q. Obviously pleased with the score but are you here for the two-week swing? You wouldn't be here without Hualalai, I don't think.

JIM FURYK: I've always loved being here, it helps. I love Sony. It's a place I had a lot of success. I think I lost in a playoff in '97. Had a lot of Top 10s here. Love the course. It's a place that I feel like I'm not hitting the ball far enough to compete out here in a regular basis on a lot of the golf course.

But Waialae is a place I still feel I can get around and shoot under par pretty well and so it's fun. Places I've won, Valspar, Heritage, those are courses I can still compete on. Once in a while I'll dip out here but I'll predominately play on the Champions Tour and having Hualalai next week, I'm grateful Sony gave me an exemption and a chance to come over here for two weeks in Hawai'i.

Q. One more age question from me, which I know you love.

JIM FURYK: I'm younger than you; I know that.

Q. Do you take more inspiration from Phil winning the PGA at 50 or Bernhard at 64?

JIM FURYK: They are both pretty darned incredible. I'm not going to weigh which one's better. I think what was incredible about Phil winning the PGA was that it was on that golf course. That is not a dinker's golf course. That is a kind of bomb-it type golf course.

Last time we played that, Rory dominated because he drove the ball so were and so well off the tee and he just blitzed the field with bombing it, basically, and hitting the driver so well.

So for Phil to do that at that age on a golf course like that is amazing. I'll joke; I'm tired of gushing about Bernhard. It's amazing what he's done at 64, to stay that competitive, that fit and to actually have the want and the will and the grind to be that competitive is absolutely amazing.

What he and Hale did on the Champions Tour, I'm going to say now, is not going to be repeated. There's no way folks are going to win that many tournaments on that tour.

Q. 62 aside, what your attitude coming into a tournament like this on this golf course, no less, but obviously you're not as competitive as you were when you were 35, but do you still feel similar expectations?

JIM FURYK: You put Bernhard in the Masters and it's a golf course he should compete well on, and he went out and finished in the top 10 the last three or four years. We're and I will competitive. Just because I'm getting close to 52, I didn't come it over here to pack it in and have a vacation. I want to play well.

Also, it's the first event of the year. We've all had a bit of time off. We're all a bit rusty. You're a little nervous about your game, decision-making process, your short game. The things that usually early in the year that I wouldn't expect to be that sharp were actually really good today. There were a few things I didn't do. I made some loose swings.

I've been practicing at home and hitting balls and working on my game and so some of the things I expected to be a little better maybe could have been better today, and then things, the decision-making, the scoring, the short game, all that was super today and the putting was amazing.

So you know, really, trying to get ready for this year and what do I look at this week? I want to be competitive. I want to compete and put myself in position in the hunt and also want to get a feel for where my game is and setup what I want to work on for the year.

Q. How has this event evolved from the '90s?

JIM FURYK: There's been a little bit of redo to the greens. There's a handful of green complexes that are totally different. No. 6 comes to mind. No. 10. No. 17, No. 18. I mean, just totally different green complexes, a lot of them are very similar and with all the rain that we've had, my memory here is I think of wind, I think of both the Trades and the Konas, but I really remember the golf course and the tradewind.

I remember this golf course being a lot more brown, a lot more bounce, a lot more roll. Really difficult to get the ball in the fairway and with all the rain that they have had here in the islands in the last couple of weeks from what I understand, I was told that the 10th fairway was underwater last week.

So the golf course is a lot greener. I remember heavy rough and we got some heavy rough this year but with the greener -- guys can be more aggressive with the iron shots. It's going to play longer. I think I'm getting shorter and the golf course is playing longer but I'm hitting more club into greens than I usually would have in the past and even last year I hit a lot more club into these greens.

Q. When you were winning, what do you feel about your game fit this course well at that time?

JIM FURYK: Especially early in my career I had a lot of success in the wind. I won a lot of my tournaments with the wind, I won the Lincoln Mercury, the beginning event, it's now the Sentry, I believe. I had a lot of success in the wind early in my career and my forte was getting the ball in play, getting it in the fairway; and crosswinds on a windy golf course that was really try and firm and tough to get the ball in play and you needed to because of the bermudarough. I was able to, and flight the ball and control it, and gave me some chances to win it here at this course.

Q. Your thoughts on Big Ben getting your team to another Playoffs?

JIM FURYK: We'll see. It's a big task, beating Cleveland and then beating Baltimore was tough enough. But KC is a different animal and then having to go on the road to do it. Kind of happy that he was able to end his career the way he did.

Big win at home and get the out pouring from fans and to go to a division rival in Baltimore, there's probably no -- say win or lose, it's probably, I can't tell you how many Baltimore Ravens / Pittsburgh Steelers games ended up difference of a field goal, three points; that last one, same thing, came down to the wire. Pretty cool way to end a career and we'll see how KC goes.