When Wyndham Clark mentioned that the U.S. players and assistant captains were gathering for a barbecue hosted by Captain Jim Furyk on the eve of the Procore Championship in Napa, California, I texted Furyk to find out what he was making.
“Chicken and steaks,” he replied. “News travels. You are the second media person to ask.”
Twenty minutes later, we were chatting on a bench at the putting green at Silverado Resort on a beautiful, warm sunny day, talking about final preparations for the Presidents Cup in Montreal, his captain’s picks and a bit of a walk down memory lane. Much of the transcript of that conversation is covered below but we’re going to skip ahead in the action to the most riveting part, where I mentioned to Furyk that for the sake of the future of the biennial competition, which the U.S. has dominated at a clip of 14-1-1 or admittedly as close as Alabama warming up for its SEC slate of games in September, we needed the equivalent of Eastern Michigan to take down mighty Notre Dame.
To no surprise, Furyk, a past U.S. Open champ who should be enshrined in the next class of the World Golf Hall of Fame, is a fierce competitor and he didn’t like might take one bit.
“Really? You’re American,” Furyk said. “I do actually take offense at that. I don’t hate you but it’s a pretty shi–y thing to say.”
I realized I had stepped out of line so I started backtracking and explaining that as a journalist, I don’t root for either team but the saying is we root for the story. I’ve covered every Presidents Cup since 2011 and I’m still waiting to see the International Team win. I’ve seen a couple close calls in Korea in 2015 and Australia in 2019 but also a shellacking at Liberty National, where the U.S. nearly clinched on Saturday and made the singles a moot point. “Nothing personal,” I said, “but the competition really needs an International Team victory to energize the matches.”
Furyk shared a story from the 2017 Presidents Cup when a high-ranking official at the PGA Tour (he didn’t disclose the individual) said, “Good luck, this week.”
But to Furyk it seemed disingenuous. “Just the way he said it, it was so back-handed. I said, ‘You know, I’m not exactly sure I know what that’s suppose to mean,’ ” Furyk recounted.
The suit from the Tour gave a similar reasoning that an International Team victory that week “would really help the event.”
It ticked off Furyk now and it ticked him off then.
“Did you ever play anything in your entire life as a competitor? Because I’d rather you not even say good luck than say it and not even mean it. Do you know how hard, how many hours, the captains work to try to win these matches? Do you know how hard and how much effort the players, how hard they take it when they don’t play well? I’ve seen grown men cry in the locker room because they’re upset and I’ve seen how much it means to them when they do play well. I know what you’re saying, but do you know how offended I am? He said, ‘Well, I’m sorry.’ I said, ‘No, you should know better.’ “
Furyk’s point of that story was that so should I. And then he dropped the hammer on me, probably the most-un-Jim-Furyk-like thing he’s ever uttered to the press. “So it’s not like I’m killing you right now, but F–k you. Go f–k yourself. You can quote me on that one,” he said.
That’s also the most fiery I’ve seen Furyk and that could be the passion the American squad needs from its captain North of the Border. I share this story to let you know that Captain Furyk is fired up and he’s not taking anything for granted. He’s not leading some goodwill tour to grow the game; he’s all business and he’s ready to lead the U.S. team to victory in Montreal.