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THE PRESIDENTS CUPNovember 16, 2011Jim FurykMELBOURNE, VICTORIA Q. Jim, you and Phil are obviously paired up in a pretty strong match with Goosen and Allenby, so you have to look forward to that. JIM FURYK: Yeah, absolutely. There's no weak matches. It's a strong pairing but there's no weak matches when you get to events like this. You have to play well all year to get here. I know Retief and Robert played well this year and I know what they are capable of and I know they have a lot of experience around this course. Q. And how have you found the golf course? JIM FURYK: I think everyone likes the golf course. I wish I had a little bit more probably rounds, a little bit more experience around it, but I've been doing things every day and picking up some different things about the greens. I think off the tee, it's pretty simplistic as far as where you want to putt the ball and where you want to play, but the greens can be very difficult. I've read the conditions are going to be tougher later in the week which will change things dramatically as well. I played here in '95 and I played in '98 for The Presidents Cup, but I haven't been here since '98. So I remember the holes in my head pretty well but the nuances of the greens, I'll still figuring out. But after two, two and a half days, we should be able to pick up a good bit of knowledge. Q. So Robert was saying he's been playing the course since he was 12; do you see that as a serious disadvantage for yourself? JIM FURYK: I see it as an advantage for him, definitely, having a lot of experience around here, and getting to see it in a lot of different conditions, it's definitely an advantage for him. I don't know if there are disadvantages. Q. Do you get a chance to talk to Phil about the match itself? JIM FURYK: Well, we played the last two days, so we found out kind of in the last couple of holes of the practice round today, Jay came out and talked with us. You can't really worry who you're playing -- you can't control that. You go out there and we need a game plan and we need to figure out where we are teeing off, what holes, how we want to attack the golf course, what conditions will be like and figure it out from there. Q. Did you play 18 holes the last two days or did you just break it up a little? JIM FURYK: I did play 18 yesterday, my clubs were lost with the airlines for about 24 hours. I think I played eight holes on Monday night just to kind of get loose and get some jet-lag out, so yesterday could be more productive, and played 18 yesterday. I think we went around 16 holes today, but only played my ball on, I guess eight of the holes, played alternate-shot. Q. Did you find out who the culprit was? Was there an Aussie involved in the baggage handling? JIM FURYK: No. No one ever fesses up to it, so it doesn't matter. Q. You guys were playing when the pairings were made so you didn't get to watch the by-play between Couples and Norman? JIM FURYK: Actually as players, it happens quick, usually we are practicing or off doing something, so I don't know if I've ever witnessed it happen live. Q. What do you make of the 6-slot? JIM FURYK: Well, interesting, interesting. I think it's probably a pairing that y'all have been talking about for two weeks now since we were in China, and it was probably a matter of time before it happened. So just want to get it out of the way right off the first. Q. Do you think that's a good idea and that the other players feel it's a good idea to get it out of the way on day one? JIM FURYK: I didn't hear any of the players talk about it as far as suggestions. We let the captains handle that. I guess Freddie or Jay would be better to answer that. As far as I knew there was nothing premeditated. But you figure the odds are throughout the week, it's going to happen and probably came down I guess -- the way I understood it, it came down to the last couple of matches. Greg threw his pairing out so Freddie had the opportunity to pair or not, and I guess he chose to do it. Q. As such an experienced member of the team, do you feel under a great deal of pressure to get that winning point on the first day? JIM FURYK: You guys have such a negative attitude. Next time let's try a positive question. I think we are all under pressure to try to provide a point, no more as being the first one out or last one out or experience or inexperienced member. I think as one of the veteran guys on the team, I think we need to lead by example. We also need to -- I've had a couple of young guys come up and ask questions about the tournament and I've offered some advice. I think there's a right way to do that and also maybe over-coaching or getting in the way. I'm relatively quiet by nature and I try to lead by example a little bit more and I try to answer questions when I'm asked. Q. What's your favorite memory of playing with Phil down the years? JIM FURYK: I've played one match with Phil throughout all those years, and we played at Brookline together in a fourball match and Phil played very, very well. We played well as a team and ended up losing to a hot Garcia/Parnevik team 1-down and I think we were probably at least 8- or 9-under on our ball on a tough golf course, so we played very, very well. Q. Amazing you've been on so many teams together and never played together. JIM FURYK: It is interesting. I think we have expressed interest in wanting to do it in the past. Obviously our styles are quite a bit different but I think in certain formats and certain golf courses that lends itself to be very well and sometimes it doesn't lend itself to be very well. In the past few years, Phil has been playing with a lot of the younger guys and kind of trying to take some of them under his wing a little bit and lead, and they chose a different route for him this week. Q. Do you know which holes you'll tee off on? JIM FURYK: That's something we should have done by now since we have played all our practice rounds, and I think you can always make some adjustments, but we had a good idea going into today what we wanted to do and tried it out a little bit. Q. Do you think you'll play better as a pairing in foursomes than fourball with Phil? JIM FURYK: Again, I think it would probably -- it depends on probably more factors. Depends on probably the golf course we are playing. Our style -- I think our personalities can be somewhat similar. We have known each other since we were 16. I played junior golf against him, college golf, right down the road from where he did. I've known him for over half of my life. We have been friends for a long time, so I think personalities are good. Obviously he's probably a lot more aggressive on the golf course than I am. He's a lot longer. I probably hit one or two more fairways (chuckling). Our styles are much different, but I think we have played along each other for so long, we'll play well together. Q. You've been around Tiger a long time in both Ryder Cup and Presidents Cups, now that he's a captain's pick, do you sense that -- I don't know if there's a bit more urgency or a bit more motivation to show that he was the right pick? JIM FURYK: I don't really sense any difference as far as he's -- I don't sense any difference would be the easiest way to say it, going into the matches that he's got to go to prove or show something. Once the gun goes off and once the event starts, we all know how highly competitive he is and how bitter he is about losing and how competitive he is. And pre-tournament fashion, Tiger never really shows a lot of stress, whether it be as an individual or whether as a teammate, he never really -- it's not that he looks nonchalant, but he never looks flustered. Even when he's playing poorly, he doesn't look flustered. Q. Doesn't betray his hand. JIM FURYK: Yeah, I guess he's a good poker player. (Laughter). Q. Do you think it's a good idea for Freddie to have thrown him out against Adam on the first day just to get all that stuff out of the way? JIM FURYK: I don't see an issue with it. Do I think it's a good idea? I don't think it's a bad idea. Again, it's part of the competition that I don't really have to worry about. It was never my decision. It doesn't really much matter in the situation, and that's what Freddie does, and we worry about the shots and he worries about who we play with and when we go out and who we play against. I definitely don't think it's a bad idea, and I think you can pretty much put Tiger in just about any situation he wanted to and we all have confidence in his ability. Q. You've played with him. What does he -- a lot of guys have struggled playing with him as teammates but you did quite well with him. What is it about him that is a challenge for a partner? JIM FURYK: The first match we played together ever in a Presidents Cup, I think together we either shot 9- or 10-under in a fourball and he was 8-under, so I went back to the team room and said, I'm not sure why it's so difficult to play with him for rest of you, it was pretty easy for me. They had some choice words for me. (Laughter). I think that you enter his world for a few days when you play with him. There are some people who you know that every shot he hits, it's going to be on TV and it's going to be criticized and it's going to be talked about, viewed, seen everywhere. Walking inside the ropes, you'll hear the comments that are made, positive and negative. But you feel a bigger stage when you're with him, and I think some people have been comfortable with that and others haven't. I think by the time that -- early in my career or for the first few times that we were on teams -- it was a long time we played together, a lot of teams before we were ever paired together and by that time I felt like I was a veteran player and had done this enough times that I was very comfortable with the pairing and he was playing extremely well when we got paired together, too. Q. Why does Strick handle it? He seems such a laid back sort of character? JIM FURYK: I think they get along -- they got along on the golf course towards the end of last year, a couple of years ago I guess when they played in the Playoffs a lot, probably because he's so laid back. I'm sure Strick gets nervous, I'm sure that his heart gets racing and he gets excited like the rest of us but it's just not really in his personality to show it or see it, and that probably helps him. He obviously has to be comfortable and he has felt like he's played well with Tiger in the past, so to could go out there and play with him in a team event is okay. Q. How would you describe Stricker and his putting? JIM FURYK: Obviously he's one of our best putters on our tour. I guess very smooth, silky, hits a lot of good, solid putts. He has good speed on his putts. Get the ball going down the line. But I don't know what else to say about him other than to praise him. Obviously we tease him a lot about being such a good putter and he seems to continue to keep knocking them in and making them. Q. Can you talk about at this stage of your career -- JIM FURYK: I think I view things from a little bit different perspective. Earlier in my career, things went by a lot quicker, it went a lot fast every. I was worried about my game and nervous and trying to get this right and that right. And as I've gotten older and done this quite a few times, it's slowed down a little bit. So I can stop and look around and look at different teammates and how are they handling things and what are they doing, what are they up to. I've learned to pace myself a little bit and I've also tried to take a look at things from the captain's perspective, what they have had to do. But really, not in a -- not giving them my opinion or what I think. I'll speak when spoken to, and if he were to come to some of the veteran guys, back at Harding Park, he had a few of the veteran guys and three or four of us kind of with the assistants kind of went in the room, talked about the pairings a little bit, how things might venture out and Freddie said I've got it from here, we went about our business, got something to eat went back to the hotel and he took care of the pairings. That's the way it should be. That's the captain, what he does, he's the coach and putts it all together and wraps it up. But he also wants to hear some perspective on the golf course, what do you see, what do you feel. I think everyone can help a little bit on their personality, how they feel about their game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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