It was a Masters third round only Jim Furyk could love.
The proverbial grinder was in his element on Saturday. It was windy. The course was hard and fast. Millionaire golfers were whining all around about their inability to control their golf ball.
And even the meticulous Furyk had a few get away from him here and there. He tugged a 6-iron left of the green on 18 and had his pitch run 10 feet past and missed the putt. But from 2 through 14 he posted three birdies and 10 pars and, at the end of the day, there Furyk sat, three strokes out of the lead with a course forecast of more of the same.
“I like it firm and fast,” Furyk confirmed. “I’m not very long, so when it rains a lot on this golf course, and it gets overly long, I don’t like going into these greens with 4‑irons. I want to get 6‑, 7‑, 8‑iron, 9‑iron in my hand. That’s what the firm and fast conditions will allow me to do.”
The book on Furyk has always been that he can’t win at Augusta National. It’s says course is too long open and brings too many big bombers into play.
But Furyk hasn’t exactly rolled over on the rolling hills. Of his 17 Masters tournaments coming in, he has finished in the Top 25 17 times. He’s finished fourth twice (1998, 2003) and was 11th here two years ago.
“I’ve probably teed off in this event on Sunday five or six times thinking if I shot a good number I would have a chance to win,” Furyk said. “Some of those days went well, some of them didn’t. So you learn from the bad experiences, the bad rounds, a little bit more than you do the good ones. I’m hoping really to just stay patient and not try to get ahead of myself.”
It’s the Furyk way.
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