Dolch: Winless streak only blemish on Furyk's year

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Jim Furyk was 2-1-1 in his sixth Ryder Cup.

Jim Furyk has yet to take home one of those oversized first-place checks this season, and if he doesn't do it at this week's TOUR Championship Presented by Coca-Cola, it will mark just the second time since 1997 he has failed to win on the PGA TOUR.

But Furyk has won something recently -- and it's something that means more to him than earning his 14th career PGA TOUR title. Furyk's 2 & 1 victory over Miguel Angel Jimenez at Valhalla Golf Club on Sunday proved to be the winning point as the Americans claimed the 37th Ryder Cup after three consecutive losses.

Furyk, in other words, will have a big smile on his face, no matter what he does this week at East Lake. He has proven once again to be one of the most clutch golfers on this planet.

"You dream of winning The Ryder Cup, knocking in the 10-footer for your team and having the place go bananas," Furyk said. "Mine was a two-foot, conceded putt, but I'll take it. How's that?"

Such is the give and take of sports.

Furyk, after all, knows what it's like to be on the flip side of a Ryder Cup ending. He was on the 18th green at The Belfry in 2002 when Paul McGinley made a 10-foot putt to halve the match and retain the Cup for Europe.

"To be standing out there by yourself on the green when that happens and hear the cheers, honestly, it's a miserable feeling," Furyk said. "It's never one player's fault, but it's an awful feeling to have."

It's not as if the 38-year-old Furyk needs to apologize for his performance this year. He may not have that win, but nobody -- not even likely FedExCup winner Vijay Singh -- has had more top-10 finishes (eight) than Furyk, including a second, two thirds, two fourths and two fifths.

He ranks fourth in the FedExCup standings, another solid showing for a guy who has claimed a U.S. Open championship and almost $40 million in career earnings. Still, if indeed it's "all about the Ws," as Tiger Woods constantly says, this hasn't been the best of times for Furyk. The gritty Pennsylvanian acknowledges this fact, but insists he still sleeps well every night.

"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," Furyk said. "Of course, I'm disappointed I haven't won a tournament to this point. If I can pull it off at THE TOUR Championship and win an event, great. If I don't, I don't.

"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 lists ... none of that is really a consolation. I do take a lot of pride in making the Ryder Cup team, and even more pride in winning."

Furyk, who plans on taking a break for most of the Fall Series events, had a golden opportunity to end his winless streak two weeks ago when he started the final round of the BMW Championship a shot behind Camilo Villegas. But Furyk could only match par 70 at Bellerive, finishing three shots behind Villegas in a tie for third place.

It has been a strange year for Furyk. After opening with a fifth-place finish at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, he went through a nine-tournament stretch with no top-10s and two missed cuts. His best showing was a second, a shot behind winner Geoff Ogilvy, at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship in Miami.

"I had a good opportunity at Doral, and to be quite honest with you, I didn't putt well enough to win," Furyk said. "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."

Furyk has gone through more drivers this year than the Indianapolis 500. He laughingly recalls the story about how he used a different driver every round at the AT&T National -- and still tied for third.

But it's been his performance at the end of each hole -- not the start -- that has prevented him from winning. Normally one of the world's best putters, he ranks 97th this year on TOUR in putting average (1.791) and 135th in putts per round (29.51). He's 88th in putts inside 5 feet (96.4 percent) and 41st in putts between 5-10 feet (58.9).

This isn't what you'd expect from Furyk. "He's not a guy I'd want to spend my career going against in a putting contest," Davis Love III once of Furyk.

But sometimes those putts don't drop, and sometimes they don't drop at the critical time. Such is golf.

"I haven't put any pressure on myself here at the end of the year to win," Furyk said. "I'm going to have 25 (more chances) 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."

You don't want to bet against him doing just that.