Jim Furyk has a place in PGA Tour history all to himself with a new magic number.
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When you tee off at 8:41 on Sunday morning you’re not there because you’re contending in a golf tournament, as Furyk was not at the Travelers Championship. “Yeah, I think it’s big”.
“I had a giant smile on my face (over his last putt)”, Furyk said on CBS. “I guarantee you he would trade places very quickly with me”. “And to do it in one season is pretty wonderful”.
Scotland’s Russell Knox sank a 12-foot putt on his closing hole to shoot a two-under 68 and earn his second tournament victory of the season.
Round of the day: Forget “day”, this was the round of all time on the PGA Tour.
“Everyone dreams of making a putt on the last home to win a tournament”, Knox said. The win at a WGC event in China didn’t count for Ryder Cup points last November so he will likely need a captain’s pick, but Knox will now move into the top 20 in the world, which will be tough to pass up here in about a month when the teams are picked. The way Mr. 59 figured it, someone would be in the middle of the fairway of their final hole knowing they had to hit the approach shot close to have a putt for a 59 to tie the record Geiberger established.
Knox saved par with a 12-foot putt on the final hole to beat hometown favorite Jerry Kelly by a stroke.
After choosing to lay up on the par-5 13th because his tee shot landed in a divot, Furyk took the first of three straight pars, leaving him still 1 shot short of history. “In both rounds, I went off on the first side and shot 8-under-par”.
He almost put his ball in the water and bogeyed No. 16 and then parred No. 17. As often happens when history is made, it appeared unexpectedly, walking along TPC River Highlands quietly at first, the way a cat enters the room. “I made a pathetic swing”. It’s one of those holes if you hit the fairway it’s a very easy par and if you miss the fairway it’s an extremely hard par. I’ve been playing well and putting well for a long time now, just haven’t really gotten anything out of it.
The former US Open champion covered the front nine at the Travelers Championship in just 27 shots before adding four more birdies on the back.
Furyk, the 2003 U.S. Open champion and victor of 17 Tour events, said the 58 had to be put into the context of the ultimate goal on the Tour – winning.
“Plus I nearly holed a 9-iron on 7 and nearly holed a wedge on 9”, Furyk said.
Justin Thomas and Patrick Rodgers (268) tied for third and Jim Furyk (269) headlined a four-way tie for fifth with Robert Garrigus, South Africa’s Tyrone Van Aswegen and 54-hole leader Daniel Berger.
Furyk holed out for an eagle on the 419-yard, par-4 No. 3 hole and rolled in 10 birdies – including seven straight from Nos. You’ve got to have skill.
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Then you birdie No. 2. The 49-year-old waved his cap to the crowd as he walked up to the 18th green to make par. They showed me more love than they ever have throughout my career here. She was trying to become the second player to win the tournament and NCAA individual title in the same year. Baltimore-based Constellation is a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation’s leading competitive energy provider, with 2015 revenues of approximately $34.5 billion, and more than 32,700 megawatts of owned capacity comprising one of the nation’s cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets.
