Wilson Furr felt the emotion hit him as soon as he stepped on the course at The Country Club of Jackson.
It’s easy for him to remember standing on the paved path that lines the course and under the sporadic trees littered around the fairways, watching the golfers at the Sanderson Farms Championship, hoping he would one day get his chance.
“I learned how to play the game of golf out here,” Furr said on Wednesday. “I remember coming out to Sanderson all the time and watching these guys and like, how am I gonna play like these guys? And that was always what I wanted to do. And it’s just really cool to do it.”
Furr, a Jackson native and Jackson Academy graduate, is playing in his third Sanderson Farms Championship and first as a PGA Tour member. He made his debut here after winning the Mississippi State Amateur in 2018. In 2022, Furr played as a professional but without a PGA Tour card.
“It’s a bit surreal,” said Furr, who played golf at Alabama. “I spent way too much time out here as a kid. And I mean, bringing back a lot of good memories, it’s just a dang blast. You don’t get this opportunity much in golf to play on your home course that you grew up on. So I’m just trying to really take it all in and get prepared to play great golf.”
The 26-year-old turned pro in 2021 and earned his PGA Tour card in October 2023. His first event was the Sony Open in January. Furr has made five cuts in the 19 tournaments in 2024 and is coming off his best finish of the season, tying for 13th at 9-under-par 279 at the Procore Championship in Napa, California.
Furr said it would be special for him to win his first PGA Tour event at his home course and in front of numerous family and friends.
“I’ll tell you this. It would be amazing, but there’s a long way between here and there,” he said. “But that’s everybody’s goal out here. … I’ve gotten kicked in the face a good bit this year, and I’ve just kept learning and learning and had a great finish last week in Napa. So, I feel like a lot of things are trending up to this point. I just gotta stick to the basics — gotta hit the fairway, you gotta hit the green and you gotta make putts.”
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Furr may not have been joking when he said he has played the course over 1,000 times since he was 11 and knows the Country Club of Jackson like the back of his hand. The competition won’t make it easy, but the course knowledge will be beneficial.
“It won’t hurt me, I’ll tell you that,” Furr said. “We got a couple of tricks up our sleeve out here.”
Michael Chavez covers high school sports, among others, for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at mchavez@gannett.com or reach out to him on X, formerly Twitter @MikeSChavez.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson’s Wilson Furr at Sanderson Farms for first time as PGA member
