Jim Furyk Follows Up Record-Breaking 58 By Receiving Payne Stewart Award
Jim Furyk capped off a historic week that saw him shoot a PGA Tour record round of 58, as the recipient of the Payne Stewart Award.
It must be Jim Furyk’s week. Hopefully, he’ll go out and buy a Powerball ticket. If he wins maybe he’ll share a little with his friends in the media, including yours truly, who came to listen to what he had to say about winning the Payne Stewart Award and shooting 58, the lowest round ever shot on the PGA Tour.
Typically the award is made at the Tour Championship. However, they decided to do it earlier this year and do a presentation at the last event of the season. The award recognizes players who have made significant contributions to the PGA Tour, the sport of golf and who have championed charitable causes.
“I want to point out that this decision on his recognition of the Payne Stewart Award was made prior to him shooting 58,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, who was somewhere between the U.S. and Rio de Janeiro.
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“I also want to recognize what he has meant to the PGA Tour, its image, what people think about the sport, in our home area of Ponte Vedra,” Finchem continued. “Jim and his wife Tabitha have been absolute leaders and have had stunning success in giving back to the people and communities around the Ponte Vedra and Jacksonville area. And he continues that work constantly. He is a great contributor to what the PGA Tour is all about, in addition to being a very, very great player.”
“At Southern Company we talk about a lot about not just what we do, but how we do it,” said Chris Womack, Vice President of External Affairs for Southern Company. “Having Jim Furyk be the winner this year is incredible, and 58 is the icing on the cake.”
Furyk, who can now go out and print business cards that say “Mr. 58” just as Al Geiberger did with his “Mr. 59”, said he was humbled by the award and had many memories of Payne Stewart, particularly at the 1999 Ryder Cup.
“One thing that sticks out about Payne was his love of playing for his country for the Ryder Cup and for the Presidents Cup and good leadership on those teams and especially in ‘99,” Furyk said. “That was something I’ll never forget. Payne kind of was a little bit of an inspirational leader.”
Stewart also was a welcoming and friendly face to new golfers.
“When I was early on TOUR we (Furyk and his wife Tabitha) met them really in Bermuda for a shoot-out for a challenge and his spirit, his character, he was so much fun,” Furyk said. “I look back to our careers and I see a lot of similarities, a father that guided us through the start of our career, meeting a woman early in our careers that had a strong character, and I think helped guide both of us to success.”
With Ryder Cups, Presidents Cups, FedEx Cups, a U.S. Open, 17 PGA Tour victories a 59 and now a 58, where does the 58 rank?
“It’s so hard to put them in order. I think as a player you get judged, I always said you get judged, by Major championships,” he stated. “But ordering things is so hard. I’m proud of being able to win 17 times and play on Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams and especially those teams that have gone on to success and won.
“The 59 was a great accomplishment. I’m a little flabbergasted that I had the opportunity to break 60 again and was able to do so and to do it with a 58, it’s amazing. I guess I look at it as it’s one day versus a career, but it’s also one day that no one else on the PGA Tour has ever done.”
However unlikely, the idea that another 58 or 59 or even a 57 is out there is what keeps guys like Furyk, who is now 46, coming back week-after-week and year-after-year.
“You never know in this game, really,” Furyk admitted.
For instance, last Sunday was the 31st day in a 31-day trip, and his biggest goal at the beginning of the day was to get back to Ponte Vedra to see his family. But he’d been injured earlier in the year, and he was low on the FedEx points list. He needed to play golf, and he needed so good finishes to get back into the Playoffs.
“I went to the range Saturday night to practice, talked to my dad quite a bit,” he said. “To have a chance to win the U.S. Open this year in my home state on Sunday, to go out there on Sunday and at Hartford and shoot 58 it kind of felt like I was trying to win a Major Championship out there.”
He said during the round, he did not talk a great deal to his playing competitor, Miguel Angel Carballo.
“As the day went on and I started making birdies I kind of got in my own little world and Miguel was going about his business, and he would talk, and it was refreshing for me because he was talking, and I was able to relax a little bit and have other conversation,” Furyk explained. “It’s a little bit like a pitcher throwing a no-no. Everyone in the dugout kind of goes to the other side and no one even looks at him.”
The closer Furyk got to the end of the round, the more of a mental battle it became. He said the situation reminded him of his junior golf days when he was trying to break 100, then trying to break 90.
“I remember my first opportunity to break 80 as a kid, and I double bogeyed the last hole for 80, and I was so mad. It was my last tournament of the summer,” he said. “My very next tournament I went out and shot 79. And then immediately shot 73.
Related Story: PGA Tour: Inside Jim Furyk’s Record-Setting Round of 58
“Those are barriers that, the first time you get a chance to break 70, same thing, just a number, but you start playing different, and my goal on that mental battle is not playing any differently, so realize things are going well and just let it go and let it happen.”
Easy for him to say. He’s Mr. 58.