Jim Furyk attributed a remarkable, late victory surge in the Doral Ryder Open last Sunday, to a recent chat he had with Tiger Woods. It spurred him to a closing nine holes of 30 strokes which led to a two-stroke win and a tournament record-tying aggregate of 265 - 23 under par.
The 29-year-old, whose most recent, previous victory was in the Las Vegas Invitational last October, played with Woods in the rain-delayed final round of the Pebble Beach National ProAm on February 7th. That was when Woods astonished the galleries by making up seven strokes over the final seven holes to beat rookie Matt Gogel.
"What impressed me most was that, in his mind, Tiger still thought he could win the tournament," said Furyk. "He couldn't have won it if he hadn't believed he still had a chance. I learned a lesson that day."
But Furyk admitted: "When I stood on the 12th tee six strokes down, it was still hard to imagine I could win. Franklin (leader Franklin Langham) was playing very well and I had put myself in a hole. But I remembered what Tiger did; how he never stopped acting like he could win. And he did."
It was Furyk's fifth US Tour win and his seventh internationally. He won the Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic in 1993, the Las Vegas Invitational in 1995, 1998 and 1999, the Hawaiian Open in 1996, the Argentine Open in 1997 and now the Doral Ryder Open. Among other things, it has lifted him to sixth place in the current, US money list.
On the US Seniors' Tour, Christy O'Connor Jnr is 45th in the money list with $63,154 from five tournaments. The final round of the Toshiba Senior Classic was washed out on Sunday which meant that victory went to second round-leader Allen Doyle, who recorded his fifth win on tour.
The top-10 in the US money list are (US unless stated): 1 Tiger Woods $2,043,731; 2 Jesper Parnevik (Sweden) $1,233,220; 3 Kirk Triplett $968,142; 4 David Duval $888,357; 5 Tom Lehman $843,650; 6 Jim Furyk $839,590; 7 Phil Mickelson $709,246; 8 Jim Carter $627,263; 9 Pau Azinger $555,360; 10 Vijay Singh (Fiji) 554,958. Other placing - 190 Keith Nolan (Ireland) $6,000.
The top-10 in the Senior money list are (US unless stated): 1 Bruce Fleisher $440,939; 2 Allen Doyle $356,888; 3 Dana Quigley $301,761; 4 George Archer $282,026; 5 Tom Wargo $221,793; 6 Jim Dent $200,357; 7 Hale Irwin $192,453; 8 Lanny Wadkins $192,345; 9 John Mahaffey $187,771; 10 Graham Marsh (Australia) $183,507.
