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CHEVRON WORLD CHALLENGE PRESENTED BY BANK OF AMERICADecember 20, 2008Jim FurykTHOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA DOUG MILNE: Jim, thanks for joining us for a few minutes here after round 3 of the Chevron World Challenge. You just alluded to the 18th hole. Obviously it was a great round, but the 18th hole became a factor. Just a few comments on the round. JIM FURYK: I hit a good drive, blocked it to the right, got a good break actually, but the ball was above my feet pretty severely. The good news was I had a good lie, actually maybe too good of a lie. The ball was sitting up real high in the grass. You know, it's real common when you're on a sidehill lie with the ball above your feet that it's easy to hit down on the ball and catch it high on the face, but with the ball hitting high up in the grass, I needed to be extra careful to go ahead and really sweep that ball off the top of the grass, and I didn't; I got aggressive, hit down through it. I took a divot, which the ball was sitting up so high, I didn't need to. I just needed to brush the grass. And taking that divot I hit the ball real high on the face, which of course you get no power behind the ball. But I caught it extremely, extremely high on the face, and I knew when it had it. I actually had a good break off the drive, should have turned that into a 4, and then actually even after the shot had an opportunity to make 5 and didn't convert, hit a poor putt. I think I was just trying a little too hard. Q. How close did it come to going in? JIM FURYK: It probably had to get within a couple inches of the hole spinning back, but it was about seven feet. Q. (Inaudible.) JIM FURYK: I couldn't tell from my angle. I could hear the crowd, but sometimes it gets within three feet and they "ooh," and I don't know if it was within inches -- I looked at the line where it hit and where it ended up, and it seemed like it had to get pretty close to the hole on the way by. Q. (Inaudible.) JIM FURYK: Yeah, I think I'd much rather be ahead. I'd rather be at 9 or even at 8. Obviously you have to play that much -- the score doesn't have to be as low to win tomorrow, but that's the hand I dealt. If you would have told me three days ago I would have been one back with a chance to win today, I would have been pretty happy about it considering I haven't played. As greedy as we are as people, I'm a little chapped at myself for doubling the last. I really didn't hit too many bad shots. I hit a poor drive, hit a poor second shot, hit a nice wedge but other than that, that's about the only shot I hit on the last hole. I played very well today, kept the ball in play again, hit a bunch of greens. When I hit a poor shot, I put it in a good spot, got the ball up-and-down, made some good putts. The last hole was disappointing, but there's a lot of big numbers on this golf course, and I would be willing to bet that everyone in the field has probably made a double bogey this week. It just happened to be mine was the last damn hole I played. There's a lot of big numbers that can jump out at you on this golf course, and being one ahead, one back, in the scheme of things isn't -- you know, it's a big deal, but like I said, it's where I'm at right now. I'm one back, have a good opportunity to go out there and play a round and have a chance to win the golf tournament. So I need to look at the positives. The walk up the hill and signing autographs and 20 minutes passes by, you're in a lot better mood. If I was in here 20 minutes ago I'd probably have been a little crustier. There was a fan that gave me a hard time outside; he saw the crusty side. Q. Does your mindset change when AK is up there, as aggressive as he can play? Does your mindset change as far as maybe needing to play more aggressive early? JIM FURYK: No, not at all. I learned a long time ago that it doesn't matter if it's Tiger, Phil, Anthony or the most conservative guy in the world. It doesn't matter who you're playing against or what style of game they play because it can't affect mine. The only thing I can do is go play the way I play and pick and choose my spots to be aggressive and figure out a way to shoot the best score I possibly can tomorrow and figure out how it matches up with everyone else. I like Anthony, we'll talk a lot tomorrow, but I really won't pay attention to his style of game or early on really what he's shooting, just try to play my own game and put together a good score. Q. When you're a young golfer do you have to sort of ignore the other guy? JIM FURYK: I don't know if you ignore him, but obviously -- you just play your own style. If I'm playing with John Daly early on in my career I'm not going to sit there and try to hit the ball any farther. If he blows it 40 by me, 30 is going to look just as bad, so just go play the way you play. I think it's a golf course where you really have to pick and choose your spots. Like I said, it can jump up and bite you. I think there's a lot of big numbers to be made out there. There's holes where I think pars are good scores and you play maybe a little bit more conservative. There's times you can get aggressive and you can make a bunch of birdies. I made six birdies today, so I feel like I played pretty well. There's birdies to be made, I just think there's times when you don't have to make one every hole. Q. At Kapalua, I'm curious whether you have historically scored this well after long breaks, or do you find yourself having better scoring opportunities when you've played your way in? JIM FURYK: I haven't taken this long a break, so I don't know. I haven't taken an unforced break other than a couple of injuries -- I took a long time after the TOUR Championship one year through the end of the year, played at Kapalua and won. I had wrist surgery in '04 and had about five months off. That was a little tougher to come back from but also wasn't 100 percent healthy when I came back, so that didn't help the issue, as well. I hurt myself Sunday before the TOUR Championship. Flew down Monday, wasn't feeling well, went to get X-rays and MRIs and all that and withdrew from the event. I never played again until Kapalua. There was a gravel parking lot where I slipped. It can be good or bad. It depends; that year I was kind of practicing at home. That year I was kind of limited how much I could practice. It actually turned into a good learning experience as far as it made me use my time more wisely. I couldn't stand there and beat a lot of balls. I had to get a lot out of say 20, 30 balls a day. It's helped now later in my career because I'm not physically able to stand out there for four hours and pound balls like I used to in my younger years, but I've become a little bit more wise, and it doesn't take as long to get more out of it. DOUG MILNE: Jim, as always, we appreciate your time, and best of luck tomorrow. End of FastScripts |
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