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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

September 23, 2010

Jim Furyk

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

JOHN BUSH: Jim Furyk joins us in the interview room after a bogey-free 3-under par 67, the only bogey-free round of the day. Nice solid start. If we can get your comments on the round.
JEFF FURYK: I'm still trying to figure out the stat sheet.
Anyway, real happy with the round. No bogeys, played very solid, had some opportunities that slipped by, but in order to get around this golf course without a bogey, I obviously got out of jail a few times, as well, a few up-and-downs. Got the ball in the hole pretty well today, so overall good, solid round, felt like I hit it real well, just comfortable with my putting and really just had a good time out there. It was fun playing with Geoff.

Q. Geoff was just in here and his comment was anything under par was going to be a good score out there today. Can you talk about how difficult the golf course is?
JEFF FURYK: Yeah, it's -- it definitely with the Bermuda greens has changed. When they had bent greens here, they could get them pretty quick but they were a lot more receptive. Right now they're quite firm. They can get firmer, which is a scary thought, and they're extremely quick. You have to really -- you really have to be careful on your downhill putts, and a lot of it is defensive.
I also think, and Geoff and I were talking about that out there, the course has narrowed up over the last couple years. It seems like the rough cuts have been brought in on a number of holes and brought in significantly, so it's difficult to hit some of these fairways. From the rough, from the Bermuda rough, it's that much more difficult with the greens now being Bermuda and being firmer to hit them.
I think the Bermuda greens have changed the look of the golf course and made it a lot more difficult, but I think it's in beautiful shape. They've had a lot of hot weather here. It's going to be 90 all week here, and I can't imagine the golf course being in that good a shape.

Q. You're one of several guys with two wins. If you win this week, would you consider yourself to be a good candidate for Player of the Year?
JEFF FURYK: A good candidate? Yeah, sure. Three wins and possibly winning the FedExCup? Yeah, I'd be a good candidate.
Right now I'm kind of focused on this event and trying to win a golf tournament and possibly get myself into position for the FedExCup.
As soon as Sunday is over, I'll immediately flip the switch and start focusing on the Ryder Cup and trying to help my teammates retain the Cup and go over there and do the best job we possibly can.
When that's all said and done, I'll probably sit down and have a beer and then I'll start thinking about the rest of it. How's that?

Q. Will you vote for yourself?
JEFF FURYK: Would I vote for myself? I don't know, that always gives you -- it's tough to vote for yourself if there's a lot of good candidates.
I guess if you're Tiger and you won $10 million and 12 events of the year, it's pretty easy and you don't feel so guilty. But if you're just a good candidate, probably not.

Q. But if you have the most wins, that's pretty justified.
JEFF FURYK: I thought that was a pretty good answer. I thought I did a good job of that. (Laughter.)

Q. The FedEx thing, it's a painful topic, the FedEx --
JEFF FURYK: The FedEx thing?

Q. Well, you missing that tournament, it seems like there's a lot of points that could have been on the table there for you. It really kind of hurt your chance.
JEFF FURYK: It was like missing a cut. I like that golf course. I feel it suits my game well. Anything I would have done but making the cut would have helped put me in a better position and given me a better seed and a better opportunity. But it happened, it's done with. There was nothing I could do to change it. I've kind of put it to rest.
By the time Boston came, Arnie knew I was going to have to talk about it more, a little bit at BMW, a little bit here, but not much. It's over it's done with, I can't do anything about it. In hindsight, yeah, it would have been nice to play that event and see what would happen, but that's not the position, and there's still opportunities this week.
Right now I'm kind of not trying to think past tomorrow, but I'm going to try to play a good round and put myself in good position for the weekend here.

Q. It's early, but the fact before the top 5 in the standings don't get off to a great start today, that would seem like that would be helpful --
JEFF FURYK: You know, I didn't even -- I haven't really thought about it or looked at the leaderboard or who's on it. But yeah, I guess it doesn't upset me (smiling).
It's a long, long week. We're only -- we're a quarter of the way through the golf tournament. A lot can happen, and I won't be staring at that scoreboard thinking about if I make this putt, I'm going to jump up to what number. Maybe late on Sunday if I've got an opportunity to win the golf tournament, I'll start poking around and see if I see any familiar names up there on the leaderboard. And then by that time they have the projections and all that up there where you kind of can't miss them. But I mean, we've got a long way to go before you ever think about something like that. Right now it's trying to shoot something in the 60s tomorrow and stay in a good spot.

Q. I don't know the last time you played with Ogilvy. As good as he is, is it kind of surprising to see that he hasn't -- I think he was 2nd in his last start, but previous to that he was kind of lost in the forest there since the season opened. Is it strange for a guy that good to be out of the picture for such a long period of time?
JEFF FURYK: Yeah, we've played a lot together this year. We've played -- in the last two years, we seemed to be paired together a lot. Yeah, I really admire his game and the way he plays. I think that he really doesn't have very many weaknesses. He's long, he hits the ball well, and really good short game.
I go back to -- it stunned me a little bit because I lost it, but what a great up-and-down at Winged Foot to win. I think he chipped it in the hole before. There's really not a lot of weaknesses in his game. But yeah, I'm a little surprised. That tends to happen out here. A guy gets motivated and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets motivated next year and goes on a tear.

Q. Do you like Johnny Miller as an announcer?
JEFF FURYK: You know what? Who asked me that yesterday?

Q. Apparently it wasn't me.
JEFF FURYK: No, it was Jamie, I'm sure. Yeah, I do, and I think maybe for different reasons than most. He was the very first one to be controversial, the one that went out there and used the word "choke" and actually criticized players for decisions or said that a shot was off, and the fans really embraced that. He became, and still is, the most popular analyst on TV. Analyst I guess is where you go on television. So for that reason, yes, I do.
I look at it from a different perspective. People tune in to listen to him just to see what he says. If that gets more people drawn to us, if that gets more people watching, if they're interested, for whatever reason that may be, I think it's good. So yes, I think he's good for golf and I think he's good for the TOUR, his style.

Q. Do you recall at The K Club being in the team room when they still had the raw feed from NBC and kind of the off camera stuff was piped into the room?
JEFF FURYK: Yeah.

Q. How was that?
JEFF FURYK: Well, you know, I remember the Justin Leonard comment that he apologized for. I remember, yeah. What happens -- and I said this to Jamie yesterday, what happens a lot of times is he could say five nice things about you at a golf tournament and one bad thing, and your buddies aren't going to tell you the five nice things he said. They're always going to say, you wouldn't believe what Johnny said about it and they're going to tell you the one bad thing he said.
You know, that's kind of the nature of the thing. It is what it is. I'm too old now to really worry about it. It doesn't -- he's trying to do a job. He has his style. It's very popular. You know, I think there's times where he probably forces the issue a touch, like a comedian that goes out there and forces the issue trying to be funny and it's not always so funny. I think he forces the issue because people like to hear that, if that makes sense.
But overall, if you know Johnny, if you've sat down and talked to him -- I've played his golf tournament with my dad, that Father-Son event. If you know him, he says whatever comes to mind, and it's not always politically correct and it's very blunt. That comes naturally for him, and I think it works well for him because it is natural.
There's a couple guys out there that work for other companies that kind of want to be the next Johnny Miller when he steps down, and it doesn't seem as natural to me when I watch golf. But I know Johnny, and he speaks -- if he were sitting here with us right now, he'd be the same way. When he's sitting at home with his family, I'm sure he's the same way. That would be my guess. I think that's why it works so well for him. I like him and I think he's good for us.
JOHN BUSH: Take us through the birdies really quick. No. 2.
JEFF FURYK: Actually hit a 5-iron about 20 feet behind the pin and made probably my toughest putt of the day. Had at least six feet of break and got one to die in the hole from behind it, so it was a great putt.
9 was into the wind today, so definitely had to lay up, hit a driver and a hybrid, hit a gap wedge to about 10 feet left of the hole and made that.
And then 15, the par-5, I hit a driver and a 3-wood in the front bunker and hit a good bunker shot to about two feet.
JOHN BUSH: Jim, thanks for coming by.

End of FastScripts

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