Tag: Fed Ex Cup finals

Jim Furyk joins a very exclusive club

This past Friday we saw PGATour great Jim Furyk fire a magnificent 59 in the second round of the BMW Championship at Conway Farms outside of Chicago.  That is a fact.  What is also a fact is that this was only the 6th such 59 ever inPGA Tour history.

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ThePGATour estimates that there have been somewhere just north of 1 million total rounds in its history.  That makes this round about a 175,000 to 1 happening.  Remarkable and further in all 6 of them the final hole has either been a birdie or an eagle to complete the mighty task.

The 6 are Al Geiberger, Chip Beck, David Duval, Paul Goydos, Stuart Appleby, and now, Jim Furyk.  Not too much of a common thread.  Geiberger, Duval and Furyk all have won majors, Goydos, Beck and Duval have gone from top level golfers to the bottom of the barrel, with Appleby not too far behind in that category.  But, they do have one thread they all on at least one day outperformed what even they might have thought was possible.

The list is missing Tiger, Jack, Arnie, Hogan, Snead, Sarazen, Player, etc. You get the point.  This accomplishment is fantastic no question about it.  It is also a snap shot, not a full-length movie.

The other point I want to make here is Jim Furyk is one of the true gentlemen on the Tour.  It could not have happened to a nicer man.

Vijay decides to play with the old guys — at least for one week.

Simply put, I think Vijay Singh is tired of not playing competitive golf, so he is making his Champions Tour Debut next week in Hawaii. He failed to make the Fed Ex Cup Finals and has had to stew in his own juice for the last few weeks. I think he’s antsy. Vijay announced yesterday that he will play this event in our 50th state.

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I have always admired Vijay for his amazing accomplishments on the PGA Tour. To me, he is the singularly most “this can not happen story” of all-time even more than Lee Trevino because at least Trevino lived in the Land of Milk and Honey.

Vijay, growing up, of course, in Figi, had to fly somewhere to play in any tournament since there virtually is nothing competitive on the Figi Islands as far as golf is concerned.

Not only did he make it to the PGA Tour, but he won 3 majors, 34 tournaments in all and still counting but he actually rose to become the world’s number one player. Think of this for a moment, there has never been anyone from Figi on any tour anywhere in the world, and yet Vijay Singh became number 1 on the planet. The odds of that happening are so astronomical that it would take a team of MIT brains to figure it out. I’d say it is probably a zero chance, but it happened; he is an inspiration. He is also a complicated person and hard to get to know, but one thing we can never, ever forget he came from nothing to become number 1 and they can never take that away from The Big Figian.

What do you think?