Sport

Furyk in pole position

Jim Furyk followed up his third-place finish in last week’s WGC-CA Championship with an opening six-under-par 65 in the Transitions…

Thu Mar 19 2009 - 00:00

Jim Furyk followed up his third-place finish in last week’s WGC-CA Championship with an opening six-under-par 65 in the Transitions Championship at the Innisbrook Resort in Florida today.

Without a win for over 18 months, Furyk grabbed seven birdies on the demanding Copperhead course before dropping his only stroke two holes from home.

Another bogey was a distinct possibility at the last — actually the 430-yard ninth — when he was bunkered in two and splashed out to 10 feet, but the 38-year-old world number 11 saved his par.

Midway through the day’s play Canadian Stephen Ames was a stroke behind and both Australian Matthew Goggin and American Jonathan Byrd shot 67, while 17-year-old Japanese star Ryo Ishikawa, who missed the cut on his PGA Tour debut in Los Angeles last month, was three-under with two to go, but bogeyed the short 17th and signed for a 68.

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Furyk’s round was his sixth in a row in the 60s and he said: “I’m obviously very happy and I think the key really was I putted very well — I had 25 putts and 11 on the back nine, my first side.

“Obviously you don’t want to go out bogeying the last two. It would have been a disappointing feel after playing so well for the first 16 holes, so I felt good about knocking that putt in.

“I felt like I played a lot last year. I was tired, I needed some time off and I just wanted to have a good holiday with my family and I did.

“I was a little nervous about being rusty, but I seem to get back into it pretty quickly.

“I played too much golf last year and just mentally was not in the right frame of mind of where I wanted to be. I wasn’t excited about coming to the golf course, so it was time to put them away for a while and now I’m back in a much better frame of mind.

“I think the glaring weakness for me is that I’m very average length. I don’t hit the ball that far. Most of the guys I play with hit it past me, so my strengths have to be in other things and I have to beat those guys in other areas.

“I would hope the last 15 years proved that you don’t have to be long to be good. I don’t go to a lot of golf courses where I feel it’s just a bomber’s paradise and I’m at a severe disadvantage.”