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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 6, 2008

Jim Furyk

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: We'd like to thank Jim Furyk for joining us here in the media center for a few minutes at the BMW Championship. It's been a long day of 36 holes, but a pretty good 36 holes. Just talk about your day. You were just telling me that you played the first hole and then they called play for an hour and a half and then you went back out. Just talk about the day and some things you did well.
JIM FURYK: Sure. I liked that hour and a half of sleep, I promise you that. But it's part of the -- it's part of the routine, kind of trying to get yourself in a mental frame of going out there for 36, play one hole and have to walk back in and sit on it for a while. I just tried to pace myself really all day, knowing that we were going to be out there for 36 holes, not get overly excited or upset, try not to waste too many steps and didn't actually warm up, over-warm up or hit a ton of balls or anything like that before my round. So just tried to basically conserve some energy and realize that we're going to be here all day.

Q. 128 for the day. Did you see that coming at all? Did you think that it was out there?
JIM FURYK: Not really. I didn't see it coming. My goal was to go out there and play two solid rounds. I was thinking maybe 4-under, 4-under maybe. I'm looking at the lead at 5 and trying to imagine what it's going to be again today after 36 holes and trying to put myself in a position where I've got maybe a fighting chance on Sunday. If I go shoot a low number -- I think that the big key for the day is I shot 7-under on my second side this morning on the front. So I guess I go back, I shoot 1-under, 7-under, 3-under, 1-under, so it was solid all day, but that one nine holes of golf really kind of leap-frogged me from at the time really nowhere to right up there close to the lead.

Q. Yesterday you talked about worrying about the final nine. How did you feel like you survived the day?
JIM FURYK: Pretty well, pretty well. I bogeyed the last, but I played aggressive and kind of went at the pin with a wedge and it came up a little short. I'm still a little baffled by that, made a pretty good pitch and knocked in a solid five-footer. I didn't want to play my heart out all day and then walk away with double bogey. That five-footer probably had a cup of break on it and that pin was in a very difficult position.
You know, I do that I kind of still walk away in a positive frame of mind. I went at the pin with a wedge; it didn't work out. I was able to still get the ball up-and-down and kind of walk away with a smile knowing I played well.
Other than that, I really kind of ground it out the last nine. That's when it's easy to make those mental mistakes, when you're tired, when your mind wanders for a little bit, all of a sudden you hit a shot, you think what was I doing there, what was I thinking at that moment, and I really just tried to stay focused. It's a lot easier when you're playing well to be honest with you. Your adrenaline is flowing. I think you have more energy, and I'll definitely be tired later on, though. It'll leave the body here pretty soon.

Q. 36 is obviously never an easy walk, but this is not a hilly golf course. In terms of how this golf course attacks you in the legs, how much different would it be walking 36 here than say Oakland Hills, and tomorrow, where is this going to show up in your game? Where is the greatest likelihood that there will be an aftereffect of that?
JIM FURYK: There's no excuses. We all play 36 a lot. We're definitely making too much out of walking around the golf course.
This is no easy walk, I'll say that, just because the zoysia grass is -- it's like walking on sand basically. It's very cushiony and soft, thatchy. You never have that strong footing like you're walking on pavement or firm ground. So I think the walk is a little tougher. I mean, we're supposed to be athletes, so walking 36 holes shouldn't be that big of a deal.
No matter what happens tomorrow, no matter how I play, it's definitely not going to be because I'm tired or because of an aftereffect. You play in the Ryder Cup you've got to go 36, 36 and 18 on Sunday at times and under extreme pressure. If I can make it around that and play pretty well, I'll be fine for one day 36.

Q. Are you surprised you haven't won this year, and is there anything you point to for maybe why you haven't? Just bad luck or just bad timing, anything like that?
JIM FURYK: I haven't played poorly this year, but I also haven't put myself in position to win as often as I would have liked as I have in the past. I had a good opportunity at Doral, and to be quite honest with you, I didn't putt well enough to win. I lost by one there.
I think my putting has been a little inconsistent on the year. Earlier in the year my driver was a little inconsistent, too, and those are two important clubs. I played pretty well this year, but if I had to look back and pinpoint some things, I would say I'm more focused; I've switched drivers, I'm more comfortable; I've worked on that aspect, that's usually a strength of my game; and obviously we're all always working on putting. When you talk to someone, no one is ever putting well. We're always working on that, grinding away.
I was real happy with the way I finished up, making a good clutch putt on 16 for par and then knocking in that five-footer on 18 for bogey. So it left me with a good frame of mind for tomorrow with the putter.

Q. What's your mindset after shooting 62, and is it different now that you're not playing the next round 24 hours later but playing it about 24 minutes later?
JIM FURYK: Yeah, it's difficult at times if you look at guys that go out and play, shoot a really low number, shoot in the low 6O's, a lot of times their next round isn't mid-60s. In order for that to happen you have to have a lot go right. Not only are you hitting the ball well and putting well but you have to get some good breaks. You just have one of those days where a lot of the putts go in and vice versa.
I liked the idea of turning around and going right back out after it. Basically all I did for that hour was a couple interviews and I watched college football. I hit balls for about ten minutes and went to the tee.
The idea, though, is hey, you're playing well. I just hit it at every flag and shot 7-under on a side, now I get to go do it again. So you're playing well, you try to keep that momentum going. Also you can get impatient out there and try to force the ball, and I just wanted to go out there and play solid and try to keep up front and make the rest of the field chase me.

Q. Obviously the course is playing different than it might play with all the rain. Do you have a thought about how this course might play if not for all the rain, and do you think that you'll ever see -- will it dry out enough that you'll ever really see maybe how difficult it would play otherwise?
JIM FURYK: No, it won't dry out. When we got here, to be honest with you, it wasn't firm. It was quite soft when we arrived, and then with all that rain, it's got no chance of drying up I don't think for tomorrow.
The greens were definitely a little quicker today than they were yesterday. They were a little sticky yesterday. I thought they had a little bit more speed to them today. I could see them getting a little firmer, a little faster, but I think with all that rain, we're going to be dealing with soft conditions.
You know, the penalty here on this golf course is the greens are severe. There's a lot of slope, there's a lot going on, a lot of ridges, a lot of swales, huge humps and bumps. The greens are sectioned off into little areas, and being this soft, we can fire at the flags and stop the ball. If the conditions were -- to be quite honest with you, you can't get the conditions very firm and fast or the greens wouldn't be playable in spots to be honest with you. This isn't a place where you're ever going to have the greens rolling 13 and firm because you honestly wouldn't be able to play them. So they're very, very severe to be honest with you.

Q. Can you run us through the driver change, when you changed, why you changed, what you went from and to and what you're getting that you didn't get before besides comfort?
JIM FURYK: I switched -- well, I've been trying drivers all year. I think that's part of the problem, to be honest with you, that I've had a lot of different drivers in the bag. Funny story, I finished third at the AT&T with four different drivers in four days (laughter). I hit them all actually pretty darned good, to be honest with you. I hit a lot of fairways there.
I think a lot of it is settling on one, finding something I was very comfortable with and settling on that one driver and feeling comfortable with it.
The one I'm playing right now was made at the British Open, but I played a similar model at the AT&T. That's the best I can say is probably -- I probably went for -- I had a driver break on me at the end of '06. It was a Srixon driver. I struggled to replace it, struggled to get something just like it, went hunting, started searching for drivers, and to be honest with you I haven't been that comfortable hitting my driver until now really, since the end of '06, so it's been about a year and a half.
Saying that, not that it was awful, that I was driving it bad. But that Srixon I loved, and I had one that I played from about '03 to '05 that was one of my favorites, and that Srixon was one of my favorites. Until now I really haven't had one that I look back and say, you know, that was one of my favorite drivers I've ever had, so I've been rifling a few in and out.

Q. I think you hit 23 straight fairways. How important was it to stay out of the rough and stay in the fairway today?
JIM FURYK: Well, the rain definitely let the rough grow, there's no doubt about that. It's spotty, the ball can sit up or sit down. You can get a relatively playable lie or one where you're just hacking it out with a sand wedge. You know, it definitely -- that one side that I played where I shot 7-under, I think I split the fairway for basically seven fairways, and it definitely makes it a lot easier to play it. The greens are soft, you've got the ball sitting up on that zoysia fairway. Basically you've got a free go at a lot of pins out here. So it definitely helped.
You're definitely not going to score from the rough out here if you miss too many fairways. The fact that the fairways are wet and damp and the ball is not rolling, it does make it quite a bit easier to get the ball in the fairway.

Q. You have had a lot of high finishes this year, way up there in the money and the points and easily made the Ryder Cup team. Are those consolations to you for not having won to this point, or do you look more at the positives of that, or do you look at maybe being disappointed that you haven't won yet?
JIM FURYK: Well, I think ultimately you're going to judge your year on tournaments won and how you've played and competed and how many times you put yourself in position, how you played the major championships. Of course I'm disappointed I haven't won a tournament to this point, but I really -- I haven't put any pressure on myself here at the end of the year, like I have to win, I've only got a couple more events left; it is what it is. I'm going to have 25 again next year, and I'm going to try to win five if that makes sense. I'm going to go out and try to win a whole bunch of tournaments.
If I can pull it off tomorrow or at the TOUR Championship and win an event, great. If I don't, I don't. Like I said, as of now I wouldn't put it in one of my top five years of my career, but it's been a solid year. The only consolation, points, Money List, none of that is really a consolation. I do take a lot of pride in making the Ryder Cup team.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thanks, Jim.

End of FastScripts

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