Furyk's long-awaited win mirrors his personality
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
INNISBROOK, Fla. -- As winning putts go Sunday's tap-in from 2 inches was a tad anticlimactic. At the same time, though, the rather low-key ending fit Jim Furyk's personality perfectly.
He's the ultimate in grinders -- a man who seems more comfortable hitting balls in relative anonymity on the range than punctuating his victory at the Transitions Championship Sunday with a raucous, fist-pumping celebration on the 72nd hole.
Even if that long-awaited 14th win did come a distant 2 years, 7 months and 21 days after his last.
Furyk, who ended up beating K.J. Choi by one shot, had said all week that he understood the questions. The 2003 U.S. Open champion is just glad he finally has a different answer when asked about his victory drought.
"(It's been) about 33 minutes, now," Furyk said, smiling and glancing at his watch as he met with the media after the trophy presentation.
Before Sunday's hard-fought victory, though, Furyk had played in 58 tournaments since he won the Canadian Open in 2007. He had finished in the top 10 in 20 of those -- three of which were second places and another three that were thirds.
So it wasn't that the 39-year-old doubted whether he would win again. In fact, he had even said earlier in the week that he felt he was "climbing back up the mountain" in terms of his confidence level.
But Furyk said he was just "really disappointed in myself" that he hadn't been able to get the job done any sooner than Sunday evening as shadows shrouded the Copperhead Course.
"Right now what's really important to me is trying to win golf tournaments, and not being able to do that for 2 1/2 years weighed on me," he acknowledged. "It bothered me. ... It didn't bother me that y'all reminded me about it because I realize that's part of it, you've got to sit there and answer the question.
"But it bothered me that I had not won, and I knew that the only one that can fix that is me."
So that's exactly what Furyk did on Sunday. He played 14 nearly flawless holes on the Copperhead Course and scrambled successfully when the nerves -- and what he called the "ghosts" -- threatened to get the best of him.
While trying to coax a two-shot lead home, Furyk needed a brilliant bunker shot and clutch putt at the 17th hole just to save par. Then he survived a half-shank from the trees on No. 18 that whizzed by K.J. Choi's head and scattered NBC announcer Roger Maltbie as the ball settled in the rough.
So what if that 2-inch putt at the 18th hole was for bogey? The deed was finally done and Furyk, who improved from ninth to seventh in the world, could afford to relax.
"I can't tell you how happy I am," Furyk said. "Hindsight, I wish I would have stamped it out and knocked it right in the center of the 17th green, right in the center of the 18th green and got it out there in style.
"But my family likes to tell me I never do that, I make it interesting, and once again I did."
True to his personality, Furyk wasn't even perturbed to learn Sunday that two interviews given by the Tiger Woods began on rival TV networks just as he was playing the 72nd hole. "Shoot, no one was watching me then," he said playfully.
Furyk is secure in what he accomplished Sunday at the Transitions Championship. But at the same time, he accepts the questions posed to the beleaguered world No. 1 earlier that day were part of a process in order for Woods -- and the game -- to move on.
According to news reports, Woods had asked that the interviews not air until after the tournament was over but Sunday's weather issues delayed the finish. Even though that didn't happen, Furyk wasn't worried.
"You know what, tomorrow the paper is going to read that I won the golf tournament, and I don't really care if it's a three-page spread or a little blurb in the corner of the paper because the article is about him," Furyk said.
"I won the damn thing and it really doesn't matter to me. I've never been someone that's craved the notoriety or the limelight. I can live with it and I'm fine with it."
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