September 26 — After winning the $10 million FedEx Cup jackpot, Jim Furyk can probably afford a new putter, but he’ll keep the used $39 flat stick in his bag for the upcoming Ryder Cup.
Three strokes up on Luke Donald going to the 17th, Furyk struggled on the final two rain-drenched holes before clinching the Tour Championship victory with a 2.5-foot par putt on the 235-yard, par-3 72nd hole on Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club. The 40-year-old from Pennsylvania lost his tee shot on 18 into the right green-side bunker, surveyed possible landing spots, and then calmly blasted a wedge shot that checked up past the cup and spun backwards a bit.
9 for 9. The dead-on wedge shot was Furyk’s ninth of nine sand saves for the week, and he sealed the win with the the putter, which should suit Furyk well at Celtic Manor in Wales, where the greens are likely to be slow.
For sure, Furyk, who changes putters with regularity, was satisfied with his current cut-rate model.
Heading to Wales. “I putted with it in Chicago [at the BMW Championship] where I was struggling with the greens because they were slow and I liked it there, and these were very quick and I liked it here,” Furyk told reporters after canning a 2.5-foot putt to win the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup. “It will go with me.”
Furyk picked up the heel-shafted Yes! putter from Joe & Leigh’s Discount Golf Pro Shop, a golf store in South Easton, Mass. He visited the market that bills itself as a “toystore” on the grounds of the Pine Oaks Golf Course “amusement park” between rounds of the Deutsche Bank Championship in nearby Norton.
Furyk purchased the stick for less than retail because it was used.
Dinged. “It was like 65 bucks, but they sold it to me for $39, I think,” said Furyk, who noted he did not negotiated the price for the club that had “a nick on the back flange.”
The Yes! 8802 putter was the only one of some 300 in the shop that suited Furyk.
“At the time I didn’t think it was that pretty to be honest with you,” Furyk said, “but it’s getting a lot better looking every day.”
No tweeting. U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin is apparently trying to match the paranoia of his European counterpart by prohibiting Stewart Cink, Bubba Watson, and Rickie Fowler from tweeting while they’re in Wales. Read how Colin Montgomerie soundproofed his team room to discourage American eavesdropping on strategic talks with his players.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out at the Boston Golf Examiner and National Golf Examiner websites.)
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