Jim Furyk’s 11 million dollar Sunday
Sunday, as it is known, is a fun day. Usually people get a lot of rest and family time on Sunday. Things were quite different for Jim Furyk who had a very tough, yet lucky Sunday yesterday. The American golfer took an amount of $11.35 million home after
winning the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Course.
The final round of Tour Championship was no less than a riddle, as no one was sure who the millionaire would be. The FedEx Cup, which is now the PGA Tour’s version of the postseason, literally had the audience at the edge of their seats.
Jim Furyk won the game by giving an even-par 70 at the eighteenth hole. Marking it as the 16th win of his career on the PGA Tour, the victory boosted Jim with 2500 points as he finished at 2980 points and thus won the FedEx Cup Series.
Jim started the day tying with Luke Donald and Retief Goosen with a three-putt bogey on the opening hole. Later, Furyk took control of the situation with four consecutive pars and soon was smoothly leading after carding a birdie at the par-3 6th
hole. Due to thunderstorm, the play had to stop for two hours. However, the game resumed even though it was still raining. The weather became yet another obstacle in the players’ way and consequently caused Furyk’s competitors to drop down on the leader board.
Taking advantage of the situation, Jim gave birdies at the 11th and the 15th holes, which stretched his score three strokes more with three holes remaining to play. Two of the remaining holes ended in back-to-back bogeys and before going
for the last hole, Jim still had a one stroke lead. His tee shot at the eighteenth hole landed in the greenside bunker. Clever Jim, however, rebounded with a bunker shot that came to rest two feet from the cup. From there, Jim holed the two-foot par putt,
and thus conquered the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup.
Due to the way he was performing, many people had expected Jim to take the Cup home. However, expectations were quite similar from Matt Kuchar and Paul Casey. Matt Kuchar who entered the Championship leading the standings, finished second with 2728 points.
Casey could have won the season without the tournament win. A lot could have happened, however, only Furyk was the one who struggled his way to reach to the top. This win was career-high third of the season. Furyk had won the Transitions Championship, The
Heritage and now the Tour Championship. Earlier he had achieved two wins during the 2003 and 2006 seasons.
It’s quite ironic that he is now the winner of the FedEx Cup series when he was actually not allowed to play in the first playoff event. Furyk missed the Wednesday pro-am tee time since his alarm didn’t ring and was disqualified from the Barclays. As a result,
he came down to number eight in the rankings. At the second event, The Deutsche Bank Championship he had a T37 finish dropped him to number 11 and then finished at T15 at the BMW Championship, and thus started the Tour as No.11 seed.
The Tour Championship has been played at East Lake for nine years now, and no player has shot over par in the final round and still won. It was this year that Furyk was victorious by giving an even-par 70 and the same was also done by Hal Sutton in 1998.
The Tour Championship was very special to the World Number two Phil Mickelson as well. Not only was it a chance at $10 Million but also the twelfth opportunity to become World Number one. All Mickelson had to do was to have a three-way tie for second or
better in order to replace Tiger Woods, who is still at number one despite not having qualified for the Final of the FedEx Cup. Things didn’t quite work out for lefty, as he finished thirteenth in the FedEx Cup standings and came T 22 in the championship.
The only player whose luck really shined in the final was Jim Furyk. He played well all along the PGA season, and was truly deserving of all the praise and awards.
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