TOUR Insider: Furyk going for record three straight wins

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Jul. 21, 2008
By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.COM Senior Correspondent

For the second consecutive year, Jim Furyk arrives at the RBC Canadian Open hoping not only to defend his title but to get his first victory of the season.

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Defending champion Jim Furyk -- and the other 20 odd players arriving straight from Royal Birkdale -- will need to adjust his game after a harrowing week of links golf if he wants to do well in Canada this weekend.

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"My goals starting the year are to win, and, obviously, I haven't this year, so that's a disappointment," Furyk, 38, said prior to last week's Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, where he tied for fifth place. "Another goal is to play on the Ryder Cup team, and hopefully a winning Ryder Cup team. First and foremost, I want to win some golf tournaments, and if I do that, it takes care of the latter."

Furyk, a former U.S. Open champion and winner of 13 PGA TOUR titles, currently ranks fifth on the U.S. Ryder Cup points list. Among the top nine who earn automatic berths on the team (No. 1 Tiger Woods doesn't count in the standings because of season-ending knee surgery), only Furyk and No. 9 Woody Austin have yet to win a tournament this year.

To change those circumstances, Furyk will have to overcome history and tournament dynamics this week as the RBC Canadian Open returns to Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario, for the 23rd time -- more than any other course in the tournament's 99-year history.

Furyk is one of five men to win the event in consecutive years, joining Jim Ferrier, Sam Snead, Leo Diegel and J. Douglas Edgar. No player has ever won three in a row in the TOUR stop that is the third oldest national open in golf, trailing only the British Open and U.S. Open. What's more, Furyk will have to play appreciably better at Glen Abbey than he has in past years. In four previous starts at the Jack Nicklaus-designed course, Furyk has not finished better than a tie for 22nd, and he has broken par just three times in 14 rounds.

Finally, there's a little matter of the weather. Glen Abbey, a converted par-71 layout of 7,273 yards, was closed on Monday after about 4.5 inches of rain doused it on Sunday. That was on top of rain for most of the month, and the forecast calls for a chance of more precipitation each day. It will play long but relatively easy -- if the four-plus inches of bluegrass rough can be avoided.

Winds are supposed to be negligible, setting the stage for the biggest challenge of all for Furyk and about 20 others who are coming from windswept Royal Birkdale. Can players adjust their games quickly enough from knockdown links golf to an aerial, target-oriented, dart-throwing contest? The transition is never an easy one.

Furyk is one of six former RBC Canadian Open winners in the field. The others: Mark Calcavecchia (2005), Bob Tway (2003), Scott Verplank (2001), Billy Andrade (1998) and Dudley Hart (1996).

FEDEXCUP POINTERS

As the field stands right now, only one player who finished in the top 10 in the 2004 RBC Canadian Open held at Glen Abbey is returning this week: Mike Weir. Perhaps that will help the native Canadian break the home drought that extends back to Pat Fletcher in 1954. Weir, who has made just six of 17 cuts in his national open, lost to Vijay Singh in a playoff in the '04 edition after leading by three strokes through 54 holes.

Weir is one of 11 men in the field at Glen Abbey who made the cut at Royal Birkdale. The others are Furyk, Stephen Ames, Retief Goosen, Scott Verplank, Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, Camilo Villegas, Kevin Stadler, Jay Williamson and Sean O'Hair.

Weir and Ames headline a list of 14 Canadians in the tournament, with more possible depending on the outcome of the Monday qualifier, which was being held at another course. The other Canadians are: Jon Mills, Jim Rutledge, Ian Leggatt, David Morland IV, David Hearn, Bryan DeCorso, Wes Heffernan, Eric Landreville and Brad Fritsch, as well as amateurs Nick Taylor and Michael Knight. Morland tied for fifth in the 2001 event -- the highest finish by a Canadian player since 2000 besides Weir's runner-up in '04.

Fred Couples is set to make his 10th start in the RBC Canadian Open -- but it will be his first appearance since 1995. Couples has never played anywhere in this championship except Glen Abbey, where he has four top-10 finishes, including second in 1993 and a tie for third in 1991.

Another player reappearing at Glen Abbey after his last start in '95 is Goosen. His only start, in fact, was the '95 edition when he shot 15 over par to end up tied for 77th.

Nine players over the age of 40 have won the Canadian Open, and veterans are three times more likely to come out on top than newcomers. Just three times has a first-time winner claimed the RBC Canadian Open title, with John Rollins last to do it in 2002.

Glen Abbey, designed by Nicklaus in 1976, underwent a renovation prior to the 2004 edition, and it was converted from a par 72 to a par 71 with the 16th hole knocked down to a par 4. In 2004, the 16th was the 11th most difficult hole on TOUR. The par-4 14th was the 10th hardest that year, and the two were among the four hardest that year not from major championship venues.

TOUR Insider's power ranking

RBC Canadian Open

No.	Player	Comment
1.	Jim Furyk.	He's coming off another strong British Open performance, just like the last two years. A third victory in a row in Canada seems plausible, though it's a high -- and soggy -- mountain to climb.
2.	Anthony Kim.	He hit more greens in regulation than anyone else at Royal Birkdale. I doubt he'll encounter the same problems on the greens.
3.	Mike Weir.	Can he exorcise the ghosts of 2004? Maybe.
4.	Dean Wilson.	He's been showing nice form since the U.S. Open. He tied for 14th at Glen Abbey in 2004.
5.	Retief Goosen.	A rare appearance for the two-time U.S. Open champion could end up being worthwhile.