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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPFebruary 17, 2014Jim FurykMARANA, ARIZONA LAURA NEAL: We'd like to welcome Jim Furyk to the interview room. I know this is a special place for you to come back to each year. Talk to us about your expectations heading into the first round. JIM FURYK: I don't know if I have expectations. Obviously I'd like to play well. I went to school here. I have a lot of support here. Match play is just a strange ‑‑ it's just strange for us to play. You can play pretty well and end up losing a match. You can play poorly and end up winning a match. You don't know really what's going to happen. So expectation‑wise, I guess the only thing I could say is I feel like I've played pretty well for my first two weeks back, after a long break. I feel like there's a few things I wanted to improve on. I was in good shape after two rounds last week. I shot 71, 72 on the weekend, so obviously not what I was looking for. I've had a couple of days here to work and improve. I felt like I had a good session with my dad today for about three hours. Mostly on the golf course working on some things. I guess I expect to go out and play pretty well this week. But how far that gets is depending on who I'm playing. Q. Did you see this at all as a home event for you? And do you notice the U of A chants from the people cheering for you and do you feed off that at all? JIM FURYK: Well, I do have a home event at The PLAYERS, I live in Ponte Vedra full‑time. But this definitely feels like a second home event. I do get a lot of support here when I've made some putts. I know of kind of on the back nine like on 13 green there's always a bunch of people chanting U of A, and it's fun to hit some good shots and win a hole there, maybe get some momentum back or get some momentum going, depending on the matches. Yeah, I enjoy it. It's fun. I get to visit with my folks. They have a house not too far from here they spend some time at. I've got some good friends here in Tucson that I enjoy seeing, being around. And I have family here. So it's a fun week. I think there's some getting used to as far as the desert‑style course, but also the elevation, how far the ball is going. Today it was dramatically affected by the hot weather. So I was even playing‑‑ I wasn't playing for the ball to go too far enough. I need to adjust a little bit tomorrow, to get it kind of dialed in. We haven't seen warm weather here, warm weather, for a number of years. So it really affects the flight, the distance of the ball pretty dramatically. So I think maybe having a little bit of experience with that is nice. I didn't adjust too well today, so I need to do a little fine tuning tomorrow. Q. Twelve months later, how would you go about describing how your match with Bubba ended last year? JIM FURYK: Well, I got down pretty good in the match, if I remember. I was about maybe 3‑down. I grabbed some momentum off of those holes at 14 through 18. I was 1‑down going to 18. I think Bubba hit it about, I don't know, four feet. I hit it about four and a half and was able to knock my putt in and was pretty much thinking the match was going to end. He missed the putt. I think he hit it stiff at 1. Had about another four footer for birdie, was thinking the match was going to end again, and he missed it. And I got some more life. I think we both birdied 2. We made a pretty good putt, if I remember. I thought I had him on 3. And he made about an 8‑footer for par. And I was in for a tap‑in and I think I had about a 15‑footer for birdie that I missed. And then I hit it right of the green on 4 and he was able to get the ball up and down and save the match on 3. I wasn't able to get that ball up and down and I hit a poor chip about 25 feet past the pin and missed the putt. It was disappointing. When I think back, he had me really on 18 and 1 pretty good. And wasn't able to convert. I had him and he was able to knock in some key putts when he had to to save the match. And I just wasn't able to extend it on 4. Q. Can you give some examples on how much farther the ball is flying? How much farther the ball is flying today? JIM FURYK: It's going to depend on each individual player. It's going to depend on the weather. If the weather is cool in the mornings it might be five percent or less. If it's really hot, some guys are going to see 10 percent. It's going to depend on how high you hit it, and everyone individually is going to have an opinion there. If you're really a high, long hitter, you're going to get more out of it than a guy that hits it flatter and lower. But also the temperatures really, I think in elevation, the temperatures make even more of a drastic difference between your short and your long, if that makes sense. I haven't really checked the extended forecast. I know it's supposed to be nice, but I'm thinking 70s, if I remember. Today it was pretty hot and the ball was jetting pretty good. Q. Has the weather here at Dove Mountain become something of a running joke with the guys on Tour at all? JIM FURYK: I don't think so. Last year was obviously a joke. I don't think‑‑ I think everyone understands‑‑ has been snake bitten a little bit by the weather. But we've had a lot of very cool and unusually cool weather for this event. And we tend to play this West Coast‑‑ you know, San Diego is supposed to have the best weather in the country, and I swear every time I play in San Diego it's awful. And everyone says how nice it is there and how beautiful the weather is and it's always cold, it's always wet, and it's always raining sideways. I spent a lot of days at LaCosta watching it rain and looking at a lake out there in the middle of the golf course. We play here on the West Coast because this is the best weather in the country, but we also are here in parts of the worst time of the year for these events. We get a little mix of both, and I think the guys understand it. I feel bad that it's usually in the 70s and not a lot of breeze. And this golf course kind of lends itself to those conditions, not cold and windy. It's a very hit or miss golf course. Q. If this is to be the last year that this tournament is played here in southern Arizona what will you remember most about it? JIM FURYK: Well, I guess unfortunately everyone is going to remember the bad weather and the snow, that's the first picture‑‑ I'm not a picture taker, I went outside and started snapping pictures last year because I've been in Tucson a lot in my life. I've talked to folks that have lived here for 40, 50 years in their life and they haven't seen anything like they saw last year. I snapped some pictures of it. That's the one memory. For me I think the support for the fans and we're here close to U of A, it's fun for me to get back. And then I think so far probably a little disappointment in that I haven't played better and that I don't think I've ever played past Friday here. I guess disappointed that I was never able to win three matches and get to the weekend. LAURA NEAL: Yet. JIM FURYK: Yet. Well, right now you said what's my memory. But hopefully, hopefully, four or five days from now it changes. But that's my memory right now, I'm a little bit disappointed with the way I played. Q. Best golfers in the world using the best equipment, do you have anything new in your bag this week? JIM FURYK: Nothing new from last week. This year I have a new driver, new hybrid, new golf ball from last year. But nothing different from what I've played this year so far. I rarely change my equipment. I gear my equipment to hit the ball up in the air, because that's what most of the courses we play here in the States require. This course is definitely the higher the better. So the only time I really change is maybe going to Fort Worth when it's windy, might hit 2‑iron to keep it down, British Open, something to flatten the ball out and hit it lower off the tee. Most of the time I'll stay with the same equipment. New Callaway products this year that are really good. New Bertha driver, new hybrid that's really good and the new SR balls are nice. So I switched to new products that way. LAURA NEAL: Jim, thanks for your time. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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