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TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP BY COCA-COLA


September 13, 2014


Jim Furyk


ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Q.  Last few holes when you really made your move on the back nine?
JIM FURYK:  Yeah.  I really started at No. 12.  I was a little miffed about 10.  I hit a nice iron shot, I think a 6‑iron, into No. 10, about six or seven feet and missed it.  Good opportunity on a tough hole.
But was able to knock it in there two or three feet on 13, three feet on 13, which is ‑‑ 12 and 13, those two holes back to back were nice birdies.
And didn't birdie 15, but to finish the last three 1‑under is a nice finish as well because 16, 17 and 18 are always difficult holes.
So to knock in that long one at 16 felt good and I finished with some very good shots on the last two holes.

Q.  How much, if at all, do you want to know the different scenarios to win the FedExCup?
JIM FURYK:  Not really.  It's not important.  I think the different scenarios are pretty much I have to win.

Q.  No.
JIM FURYK:  Earlier in the week, I was told that I could not finish second, but I was told that earlier in the week.

Q.  Ferguson was wrong.
JIM FURYK:  Yeah.  Scenario is pretty simple I thought:  I had to win.

Q.  Is it similar to when you won before?
JIM FURYK:  I was coming from 11, so yes.  Yes.  And Luke Donald was in there pretty tight, and you know, we finished one, two in the tournament, so I believe I did have‑‑ there was one year, I think it was 2012, where they said that I didn't have to win and I could have still won the FedExCup.
But yeah, I think most of the time I've been here‑‑ it usually revolves around a guy winning this golf tournament.  I think that's the way we set up the points and mathematically maybe not always, but it seems to always have happened that way except for the one year Phil won the tournament and Tiger won the FedExCup, if I remember that right.  I remember Phil joking about that.

Q.  The added scenario is that when you were twelfth and you won, someone else who was first had to finish X.  Were you aware of those scenarios at all?
JIM FURYK:  No.  I don't really care.  I know I've gotta be at seven this year coming in here.  If five control their own destiny, I've gotta be in pretty good shape at seven where the first couple of guys is dependent.  I guess that would be Chris and Billy.  I'm not really aware.  I'm not really going to ask.  If you'd like to tell me, because it looks like you're dying to, you're more than welcome.  I don't care.  It's not going to affect anything about the golf tournament tomorrow.
I did well in 2010, because I really kind of kept my head down and didn't look at the projections and the leaderboard and I was just trying to win the golf tournament and let everything else fall as it may, and tomorrow just go out there and do the same things.
I'm more interested in trying to win the golf tournament, and you know, I'll be thinking about my mind frame and physically what I need to do tomorrow in order to put myself in that position.

Q.  The fact that you have been through that in 2010, how much will that help tomorrow, just that experience?
JIM FURYK:  I don't know.  I mean, other than the mounted pressure of, you know, the money and the idea that you won the season‑long FedExCup trophy, I mean I think everyone‑‑ the idea they're going to come up here in front of the microphone, they're going to say the same things, they're going to try to focus on winning this golf tournament.  Throwing in an extra ten million dollars behind it definitely adds some pressure, but, you know, I still look at it, it's exciting.
I mean, I've been here when I'm 27th and I'm worried about when I'm going to fly out of here and if I'm going to get home for dinner or not.  So that's no fun.
You know, I think everyone is going to say the same thing, though.  You know, whether you've been through that in the past, the idea is you still have to win a golf tournament and everyone that's in this field has been through that before, of what it takes, and you know, the emotion that goes through that.

Q.  I know that that's what everyone is going to say, but is that really how everyone is going to feel?  One of the players here said that []five feet to win might feel like six (indiscernible)?
JIM FURYK:  You're saying that a five‑footer might feel that way?

Q.  Yeah.
JIM FURYK:  I don't know.  I can't say what the other guys are feeling.

Q.  Did you feel that in 2010?
JIM FURYK:  I wanted to win the golf tournament, I mean more than anything else.  I was 99 percent sure I'd still win the FedExCup, but in the back of my mind I wasn't positive and I didn't look at the board and I was more worried about winning the golf tournament and I had had a dry spell.  I mean every day that I went‑‑ in 2010, there was a lot mounting.
Every day I went to the‑‑ they took me to the media room and every day someone asked me about winning the FedExCup‑‑ winning the tournament, winning the FedExCup, winning player of the year and whether or not I had a Hall of Fame career.
I came up three days in a row, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, in the press room, so it got to the point where it was actually so comical that I could laugh about it.  You know, it probably bothered me a little more Thursday, Friday.  By Saturday, I was laughing about it, thinking, you know, it really just boils down to whether I can go out and win the golf tournament tomorrow.
So maybe it was‑‑ we talked about it so much and we beat it down so much, I think I was able to just kind of put it aside.

Q.  (No microphone)?
JIM FURYK:  Possibly.  Possibly.

Q.  Why do you think you have such a good record on this golf course?  What is it about here you enjoy it so much?
JIM FURYK:  I like the golf course.  I'm comfortable with it.  I've had some good years here.  I've had some rough ones as well.  You have to hit the ball straight, put it in the fairway.  You have to put it in play.  It's really difficult to play from the Bermuda rough here.  It's thick.  Might not be the longest rough we play in, but it's extremely difficult for me as far as I hit it to move the ball anywhere out of it or to control where it's going.  And you really have to kind of‑‑ you know, the greens are severe.  I mean a lot of slope from back to front, so there's a lot of putts where you can be 15 feet for birdie, but really you're not trying to make it all that much at times.  It's a defensive type style, and you're thinking about not knocking that one six feet by, to be honest with you.
Those are the kind of greens I grew up on, greens like that that were pitched real severe from back to front.  The idea that just in front of the green or on the front fringe was never bad because you're always uphill.  You can make par.  If you knocked it on the back of the green, you knew you were going to have some work to do to get the ball down in two.

Q.  Are you relaxed now?
JIM FURYK:  Just tired.  I've been relaxed.  It's been a good year, a good season.  It's been a long season so I really haven't put a lot of pressure on myself.  I really haven't worn myself down.  I really paced myself well, but I'm pretty relaxed.  We'll see, hopefully that carries into tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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