Tabitha Furyk: The Start and Running of Their PGA Tour Champions Event

Tabitha Furyk has been on the ground floor of the Constellation Furyk & Friends tournament since its inception, nearly 15 years ago, when it was a much smaller event created to help some charities that she and her husband, PGA Tour Champions player Jim Furyk, felt were important to the community and needed financial support.

When they first started planning, word got out about what they wanted to do, and one of the owners of Marsh Landing Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, offered the use of their club.

“He actually gave us his golf course and said, ‘Here put on a golf tournament,’" she recalled.

Tabitha Furyk had never done anything quite like that.

“Then Darius Rucker, being a friend said, ‘Well, if he's going to do that, I'll give you a concert,’” she continued.

At that point, anybody would feel obligated to see what they could do. And that, she explained in an interview for The Golf Show 2.0, was how Furyk & Friends, a concert and golf tournament happening, originally came together. For the first 10 years, the event was played over two days in the spring, shortly after the Masters.

“We haven't looked back ever since,” she continued. “We've just been forward motion, and thank goodness we have great folks like Adam (Adam Renfroe, who is Tournament Director) and the rest of our team to help us put it all together, because we certainly can't do it alone!"

Then they decided they’d like to figure out a way to do more for the community.

“We had our event that we called Furyk & Friends for 10 years, and we had a nice little niche and we were raising about half a million dollars each year for charity,” Jim Furyk explained prior to their first PGA Tour Champions event.

He was getting close to 50, and watching friends, Steve Stricker with his tournament in Wisconsin and Davis Love III with an event in Sea Island, the RSM.

“Champions Tour is very supportive of that, to have a player involved as a host is a good thing,” Furyk explained. “I think it's a huge positive for the Champions Tour in my opinion. I think they felt the same way.”

They wanted to become a bigger tournament if they could figure out a way.

“Tabitha and I went to Constellation, long-time partner with me,” Jim continued. “They wanted to build the event with us and help us here in Florida and then find a great golf course and kind of came to Timuquana.”

Since Jim was aging up to the PGA Champions Tour, it was going to be an event for the over 50-set. Then, because it’s in the same geography as The Players, they needed to give it some space away from that event so as not to conflict. As it turned out, fall is a great time to attract PGA Tour Champions players.

According to Renfroe, because the Furyks have so many friends from the time spent on the PGA Tour, they have a leg up when it comes to attracting a strong field.

“They come and support what Jim and Tabitha are doing here in Jacksonville by playing in the tournament, so that certainly puts us at an advantage that other events don't have,” Renfroe explained. “But I think also where we're positioned in the schedule, so after our event, which is in early October, there's only one more event before the playoffs. Guys are trying to earn as many Schwab points as they possibly can (so they can enter the playoffs).”

To show what he means, player commitments include Ernie Els, Steve Stricker, Davis Love III, David Duval, John Daly, Retief Goosen, Jeff Sluman, Y.E. Yang (forever known as the guy who beat Tiger Woods at the PGA), Mark Calcavecchia, Len Mattiace (who once was leading The Players until the 17th!) and many others people know.

The tournament has plenty of fun things to do, starting with the Circle K Water Taxi (another important sponsor) that delivers fans from parking places downtown directly to the dock of Timuquana Country Club right on the river. It’s about a 20-minute ride, and those who are lucky may be on the same trip as Tabitha Furyk because she takes it frequently.

The Water Taxi, sponsored by Circle K, was the answer to two different questions.

“We we're trying to figure out some things that bring in a younger demographic, Renfroe explained. “The water taxi has been incredibly successful. Circle K has been a big supporter of that ever since it started and allows us to have a unique arrival experience.”

The St. Johns River is a beautiful recreational aspect of Jacksonville which usually takes second place in most minds to the beaches, but it needs the support of the community to keep it healthy. It is just one of more than 40 charities that receive funding from Constellation Furyk & Friends.

Tabitha is also enthusiastic about the Kids Zone at the tournament which includes some animals from the Jacksonville Zoo. They never know what kind of animals the Zoo will bring them, but typically, they are on the friendly and fluffy side.

There's the military outpost on site, and the tournament, like most PGA Tour and Champions Tour events, offers free admission for military members and those who have served.

They have all kinds of food and beverage areas and, of course, concerts. This year it's Brothers Osborne and Phillip Phillips. (Tickets are available.)

And after the tournament is over, after the champion is crowned, after the zoo animals are back home, that's when the funding gets distributed to charities, and, according to Tabitha, that's the event she looks forward to.

“Knowing that each step and each day that we work year-round to get to this point and get to this tournament, knowing that we have these players and staff and this entire community that is helping us to pour our hearts into what we're what we love to do and to support these charities, and then to watch the way that we're able to do that, to see the smile on these families faces as we're able to support them is, that is my, that is the best of the best for me,” Tabitha explained. “It makes all the hard work worthwhile.”