Hawaii swing provides practically back-to-back home games for Furyk

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HONOLULU -- Jim Furyk has a home at Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course, site of last week's Mercedes-Benz Championship. You might say he feels right at home at Waialae Country Club, site of this week's Sony Open in Hawaii.

Jim Furyk won the Sony Open in Hawaii in 1996. (Ferrey/WireImage)

Jim Furyk

at the Sony Open in Hawaii

Year Finish Score to Par 2007 T-4 -9 2006 T-7 -8 2005 T-33 -1 2004 CUT Even 2003 T-33 -5 2002 T-7 -9 2001 T-14 -7 2000 T-39 +1 1999 T-19 -3 1998 T-21 -15 *1997 T-2 -17 **1996 Win -11 1995 T-18 -8 1994 CUT -1

*Lost in a playoff to Paul Stankowski. **Defeated Brad Faxon in a playoff.

Furyk, 37, won the 1996 edition at Waialae Country Club for his second PGA TOUR title when it was called the United Airlines Hawaiian Open. Add the fact that he has finished in the top 10 on four other occasions, and his perfect attendance since 1994 is understandable and well warranted. It's also understandable why he will be among the favorites when the TOUR's first full-field event gets under way at 7:10 a.m. HST (12:10 p.m. ET).

"I don't think I've missed an event here. I think this is my 15th year on TOUR and 15th Sony Open," Furyk correctly surmised. "It's a golf course that I like playing. When I come back here, I've got good memories, and I think when I'm playing well, it's a course that suits my style of game."

Waialae Country Club, which plays 7,044 yards, par 70, is a genuine old-style shot-maker's course. Designed in 1927 by Seth Raynor, Waialae requires the ability to steer drives into the angular playing areas and around bunkers as well as distance and accuracy to attack flagsticks on the large flat greens.

Furyk and Vijay Singh are the only players in the field this week who have won both Hawaii tournaments since the Mercedes-Benz Championship moved to Maui in 1999. Singh's victories are more recent: he owns the 2005 Sony Open in Hawaii title and defended last week at Kapalua.

Furyk has been a little puzzled by sub-standard play on two of his favorite tracks since he won the 2001 Mercedes-Benz Championship. He can point to one club for most of his troubles -- the putter.

"Last five years I've really struggled at Mercedes and Sony, and whether it's just the first couple of weeks and getting comfortable with the putter, whether it's being in the wind, I'm not exactly sure what it is," Furyk, No. 4 in the world, said.

He was getting more of the same -- and not enjoying it -- for the first two rounds of the Mercedes-Benz Championship, but then he made an adjustment with his grip and he shot 66-68 on the weekend to tie for sixth.

"I was happy to knock some putts in, and feel like I was getting the ball on line, seeing the line real well and being able to hit the ball down the line last week," he said.

"I hit the ball well on Thursday and Friday, those rounds, and really didn't score that well, especially on Thursday. I putted poorly and really putted pretty poorly through about the first two and a half rounds and then kind of ... I won't say I putted great, but I putted very solid for the last 27 holes and was able to make up some ground, shooting 12 under on the weekend. Real happy about the weekend, the way I scored and got the ball in the hole. Hopefully it's something that will carry over to this course."

Asked about the adjustment, Furyk said: "I have a bad habit of getting my right hand kind of caught underneath the grip and on strong. It makes it easy for me to miss putts to the left. Early in my career my bad putts were to the right. Later in my career I think I've overcompensated; now my bad putts go to the left a little bit. Maybe the very twilight or the end of my career I'll get them all straight."

There is also an adjustment to the test of golf, even though the TOUR has stayed in Hawaii. The Plantation Course has wide fairways and requires very few full swings. It's all about knock-down shots, judging wind and slope, adjusting to hilly lies. Waialae Country Club has narrow fairways and little elevation. The wind can still be a factor.

"It's obviously a whole different ballgame, a different style course, very narrow," Furyk said. "It's been raining a lot so it's slowed down. It might be a little less difficult to get the ball in the fairway because the course is playing slower, but that being said, the rough is more penal than I've seen it in a long, long time, maybe ever. I'm hitting the ball in the fairway, hitting it straight, and so far this week we haven't seen hardly a breeze for two days. So if that picks up later in the week it'll be a good test."

Then it might come down to putting -- which, now, is not necessarily a bad thing.

"I'm pretty encouraged," Furyk said. "You know, everything is always a work in progress."