LAKE FOREST, Ill. – With a shot at golf’s magic number, Jim Furyk had no trouble finishing the job.
Furyk birdied two of his last holes, stuffing a gap wedge into just over 3 feet on his final hole Friday at the BMW Championship, and knocked in the putt to become the sixth player in PGA Tour history to shoot 59.
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Standing in the ninth fairway at Conway Farms, 103 yards from a front pin, Furyk didn’t want to let his chance get away from him.
“I said, ‘How many opportunities are you going to have in life to do this again?’ ” he said. “Got to take advantage of it.”
The gallery lined both sides of the fairway and gave him a huge ovation when he walked onto the green.
One fan screamed out, “Jimmy, I’ll give it you!” Furyk smiled and waved at him.
He made the putt, repeatedly pumped his fist and then hugged caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan.
This at least gave Furyk a share of the lead at the BMW Championship with Brandt Snedeker, who was nine shots clear of Furyk at the start of the day and shot 68.
It was the first 59 on the PGA Tour since Stuart Appleby in the final round of The Greenbrier Classic in 2010.
“There’s not much I could have improved on today,” Furyk said.
For a change, everything went right at the end. Furyk has been haunted in the last two years with disappointing finishes.
He also was left off a U.S. team for the first time in 15 years when Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples did not make him a wild-card selection. On this day, Furyk gave Couples 59 reasons to reconsider.
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