TOUR Insider: Avoiding burnout key to Furyk's year
By Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM Managing Editor
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- It was last October ... and Jim Furyk had nothing left. Absolutely nothing. He was spent. Empty. Each morning for the next three months, he would wake up and ask himself if he wanted to play golf that day. More often than not, his answer was no.
Considering he makes his living as one of the world's best golfers, this was cause for concern.
Furyk pulled out of most offseason PGA TOUR events and overseas events that he would normally play late in the year. He hated disappointing those tournament sponsors and officials, and he made sure that they didn't take it the wrong way. It wasn't them, you see. It was him. He was fried -- not physically, just mentally.
"It was no one's fault but my own," Furyk said. "I wasn't planning my schedule well. I plan on doing a better job this year."
Indeed, if anybody should feel fresh this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, it's Furyk, who for the first time in his PGA TOUR career did not play an event in January. When he tees off in Thursday's first round, it will be the latest start of his career.
Part of his Rip Van Winkle approach was due to scheduling. Because Furyk failed to win on TOUR last year, he was not in the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship field. In missing the first event in Hawaii, he opted not to make the long trip from his Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., home just to play the Sony Open the next week in Honolulu. And since he normally doesn't play in Palm Springs, San Diego and Phoenix, that left Pebble Beach as his 2009 debut.
But more to the point, it's just Furyk's intent to manage his schedule better. He has pushed hard late in the season in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, and while he wasn't able to reach the winner's circle in any of the four Playoff events, he did finish a credible fifth in points last year.
He wasn't happy, though. His mental outlook -- his "great focus," as his celebrity playing partner Lynn Swann calls it -- had deteriorated to an alarming low level.
"I've actually struggled in the FedExCup schedule to feel comfy in the last couple of years," Furyk said. "I've been tired. I think I've played too much golf. I'm actually going to cut down on my schedule a little bit and therefore not have to take so much time off at the end of the year."
After playing in 26 events in 2008, Furyk plans to play in 24 this year. At least that's the plan. "We'll see," he said, leaving himself an out.
He needs to stay fresh, and there's no reason why he can't. He turns 39 in May and has a U.S. Open win on his resume; he doesn't need to push himself like a rookie just starting out on TOUR.
Sure, he's motivated to get back in the win column. Last year was the first year since 1997 (if you throw out his injury-shortened 2004 season) that he didn't win at least one event. But being shut out in 2008, while disappointing, wasn't worth brooding over. He didn't lose sleep over it, in other words.
"The goal isn't to make up for last year," Furyk said. "The goal is to go out and play well this year and win a bunch of times and not worry about last year."
And when he thinks about how he felt last October, last November, last December, the goal this season is actually something bigger in scope.
"The goal," Furyk said, "Is to not want to quit playing golf at the end of the year."
FIRST LOOK AT PEBBLE
Until this week, rookie Webb Simpson had never played a round of golf at Pebble Beach. Thus, it's no wonder that he seemed like a kid in a candy store during his first practice round.
When he reached the 18th tee box, for instance, Simpson went over to the edge facing the ocean and just soaked in the view. And then when he hit his tee shot, one of his playing partners, Paul Stankowski, made sure to capture Simpson's post-shot pose on his camera cell phone (Simpson expects to get a copy via e-mail).
"I've never played at a place that's anything like this," said Simpson, who leads all TOUR rookies in FedExCup points. "I was just admiring the beauty."
Simpson, who started his career with two top-10 finishes, knows he'll need to stay focused on the job at hand if he is to contend this week. "You can't get caught up in what's around you," he said.
That won't be easy. His celebrity partner this week is Indianapolis Colts superstar QB Peyton Manning, who will be playing in his first AT&T Pebble Beach event and should certainly draw his share of interest from the gallery.
LOWERY'S KEYS TO WINNING
A year ago, Steve Lowery defeated Vijay Singh in a playoff to win the AT&T, a win he considers the biggest of his three TOUR victories. So he knows how to succeed at the Pebble Beach courses. Here are his three keys:
• MANAGE THE CONDITIONS: "It changes so much," Lowery said. "You can have a beautiful day one day, with the ball going a certain distance. Then you could come out the next day, tee off at 7:30 in the morning and it could be 43 degrees. You've got to be able to adjust on the fly and know that the ball's not going to go as far."
• SCORE ON THE PAR 3s: "I was 8 under on the par 3s last year," Lowery said.
• A HOT FLATSTICK: To win any week, you have to putt well, Lowery concedes, but especially on Pebble Beach's seaside poa annua greens. "These greens change," he said. "They can be really spinny and fast in the morning, then they firm up in the afternoon."
INSIDER NOTES
The guy who was the last one leaving the driving range six days last week at Torrey Pines? And the guy who has been the last one leaving the range this week at Pebble Beach? It's the same person -- Padraig Harrington.
The 2008 Player of the Year has been concentrating on curing a hook. "I'm more hopeful that I've kind of getting to the root cause of it," said Harrington, who tied for 24th at the Buick Invitational. ...
The Steelers win the Super Bowl. A former Steeler, Rod Woodson, is voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. What about a Steelers season-ticket holder (Furyk) and a former Steeler (Swann) winning the team competition to keep the black-and-gold hot streak going this week? "Who knows, maybe this is the time for us to win the AT&T," said Swann, a 15-handicap who has been Furyk's celebrity partner four times at Pebble. The two, incidentally, sat together for the Super Bowl. "Club seats, 30 (yard line)," Furyk said. ...
David Toms is making his first AT&T Pebble Beach appearance since missing the cut in 2002. For the last few years, he has used the week of first week of February -- usually the Pebble Beach week -- to go skiing with his family in Colorado. But with the tournament schedule falling in the second week this year, Toms is in town. But Pebble hasn't been too kind to him -- no top 10s in 10 starts. And in half of those starts, he has failed to cash a check. ...
Pro surfer Kelly Slater, a 2 handicap, will be paired for the third time with Pat Perez, a winner earlier this year at the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer. "Pat usually plays real fast," Slater said. "He doesn't wait around. He hits and walks." ...
Two female amateurs are in this week's Pro-Am field -- United States soccer star Brandi Chastain (who's teamed with Kirk Triplett) and Palm Desert real estate professional Cindi Bone (paired with Dicky Pride). Those two teams play together for the first 54 holes.
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