Jim Furyk, golf’s Mr. 58, has company after Bryson DeChambeau shot that magic number on Sunday at LIV Greenbrier in West Virginia on the Old White Course at the Greenbrier Resort.
Interestingly, it was almost seven years to the day that Furyk set the record for low 18-hole score on the PGA Tour during the final round of the Travelers Championship on Aug. 7, 2016. Furyk didn’t see the broadcast of DeChambeau’s dream round but when he heard how he drained a long putt for birdie at the last to shoot 58, Furyk found the video online.
“I will say that Bryson has a much better leaping ability than Phil Mickelson and it is not even close,” Furyk said of DeChambeau’s celebration and a shot at Mickelson’s famous leap when he won the 2004 Masters with a birdie at 18. “He got some actual air under his heels.”
Furyk hasn’t had a reason to jump for joy on the course of late. In fact, he hasn’t played since he withdrew from the American Family Insurance Championship in June after rounds of 80-76. Furyk, 53, has been sidelined with an ailing back and a hip issue to boot. It had been a disappointing year prior to the injury forcing him out — he has gone 10 starts without a top-10 finish and 19 of his last 21 rounds have been in the 70s. He’s hoping to return to action shortly – the third edition of Furyk & Friends as a Champions Tour stop in Jacksonville, Florida, is just around the corner in early October.
“I’m trying to work hard at it. It’s just taken some time and I don’t know. I mean, I’d love to go play Ally (Championship in Michigan). That’s the plan,” he said of the PGA Tour Champions event scheduled to begin in just over two weeks at Warwick Hills, a course where he’s won on both the PGA Tour and in his senior debut among his 17 PGA Tour wins and three on PGA Tour Champions. “I really haven’t had any back issues before. So this one’s a little new for me. I’m kind of learning about it.”
Furyk hasn’t had trouble filling the void of not playing golf. Among the activities keeping him busy is a golf course design project in Port St. Lucie, Florida, which marks his first foray into building a course from scratch as the name designer. Furyk has been involved in some consulting work before on course renovations, and he had a couple of projects back in the 2008-09 timeframe that never got off the ground after the real-estate market crashed in the U.S. Furyk is teaming with veteran architect Mike Beebe, who opened his own shop in 1998 after working for Mark McCumber’s design firm.
“It’s going to be fun to play, that any level of player can get around,” Furyk said. “You have to understand who you’re building the golf course for and, so, I’m hoping that when people see my name, they’re not thinking of a hard golf course or tournament golf course.”
Furyk still plans to focus on competing for the time being, but he’s also heavily invested in the success of the tournament bearing his name as well as his role as a U.S. Ryder Cup vice captain in September and Presidents Cup captain next year in Montreal. He does, however, hope to squeeze in some more golf course design work in the years to come.
“It’d be nice to have one project going at a time,” he said. “One project where I could go spend a lot of time on it will be fun.”
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