Jim Furyk erased the memories of the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris with a resounding victory last week in the Presidents Cup in Montreal.
And the bonus: he gets to enjoy it even more by bringing the trophy to the Constellation Furyk & Friends, the PGA Tour Champions event he hosts at the Timuquana Country Club.
“I’m still riding high,” Furyk said on the back porch of the Timuquana clubhouse on Thursday, just minutes after a five-year renewal with Constellation was announced. “It feels so great to be part of a team win. It’s a lot harder to do on the road and to go to Canada, on foreign soil and see the guys respond well, I’m so proud of the team.”
Furyk said the credit didn’t stop with the 12 players who produced a 18.5-11.5 victory to win the Presidents Cup over the International team for a 10th year in a row and stretch its lead in the competition to 13-1-1.
“We had great assistants, great leadership on the team, the wives, caddies, our physios [physical therapists], they all came together for a common goal,” Furyk said. They made the captain’s job very easy. To be able to bring the trophy back home is amazing.”
The U.S. started strong, then had a setback
The week wasn’t easy. The Americans began by sweeping five four-ball matches on Thursday. But the International team turned the tables in five foursomes matches on Friday, led by walloping of one of the best doubles partnerships for America as Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im routed Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele 7 and 6.
But Furyk said the message after both sessions was the same: there’s a much more golf to be played.
“The message on Thursday night was, ‘high fives and hugs are great, but this isn’t over and we’ve only played one-sixth of the points — five out of 30,'” Furyk said. “We knew they’d come out the next day scratching and clawing. They had to. Their backs were against the wall and they put it on us. Hats off to them. The message then was, ‘we got thumped today, we got beat but it’s 5-5.’ We went back to zero basically. Let’s talk through it and then forget about it. What do we do tomorrow? Let’s stay in the present. Go out and set the tone early.”
U.S. had early start, then took control
The players had to get on the team bus at 4:15 a.m. to go to the golf course for the double session on Saturday. Furyk said he didn’t see anyone half-asleep because of the early wakeup call.
“The guys looked determined,” he said. “The looks on their faces getting off that bus at the golf course … I really thought we were going to have a good day. They were super-focused.”
Cantlay and Schauffele rallied from getting blasted on Friday to win both of their matches on Saturday as the U.S. went 3-1 in both sessions. Cantlay and Sam Burns beat Matsuyama and Im 2 and 1 in fourball and Schauffele and Tony Finau topped the Canadian duo of Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners 3 and 2, with the entire country of Canada seemingly rooting against them.
Cantlay and Schauffele then were reunited for the afternoon foursomes match and beat the rowdy Korean duo of Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim 1-up.
The U.S. went 6-3-3 in singles, with Schauffele leading it off with the most lopsided victory of the day, topping Jason Day 4 and 3.
“That was the overwhelming message … there’s a lot to play,” said Justin Leonard one of Furyk’s assistant captains. “There’s a lot of points left. After Thursday, there’s still a lot of points left, and after Friday that message became even more important. We’re still in a good place. There’s plenty of points to play for.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jim Furyk said Presidents Cup victory sealed with U.S. blitz on day three
