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Furyk Flourishing
2006 Canadian Open September 11, 2006 By SAL JOHNSON
SAL JOHNSON
Contributing Writer, GOLFONLINE Here are the key reasons why Jim Furyk won by one stroke over Bart Bryant at the Canadian Open, contested September 7-10 at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club (6,946 yards, par 70) in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada:
Furyk led both the putting average stat (at 1.604) and putts per round (26.75). He is only the third player on the PGA Tour this year to accomplish that feat. He didn't have any three-putts for the week and was 58 for 59 on putts from 9 feet and under.
He had 19 birdies, 4th best for the week.
Furyk played the par 4s in 7 under par, 2nd best behind Camilo Villegas who was 9 under.
Furyk became the ninth first-round leader or co-leader to go on and win a tournament this year on the PGA Tour. In Furyk's win at the Wachovia, he also was the co-leader after the first round. Furyk's opening-round 63 matched the lowest competitive professional score at Hamilton. He closed with a 65 on Sunday.
Furyk's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 44 of 56 (4th)
Driving average: 282.5 (T47th)
Greens hit: 48 of 72 (T34th)
Putts: 107 (26.75 a rd) (1st)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 2
1-putt greens: 33
2-putt greens: 37
3-putt greens: 0
Eagles: 1
Birdies: 19 (T4th)
Scrambling: 17 of 24 (70.8%) (T16th)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
What This Win Means
Furyk now has 12 PGA Tour wins, but the kind of events and courses he has has won on has changed. His first six wins came in Las Vegas, Hawaii and Florida on resort courses that had Bermuda grass and where accuracy off the tee wasn't always an important consideration. Since then, he has won the 2002 Memorial Tournament and followed that with a U.S. Open win at Olympia Fields in 2003, a Buick Open win at Warwick Hills in 2003, a Western Open win at Cog Hill in 2005, a Wachovia Championship win at Quail Hollow Club earlier this year and now a Canadian Open victory at Hamilton. These last six wins have come on courses that are more demanding and in events that are more prestigious.
Furyk is having a very good year. This tournament marked his ninth straight made cut, the sixth longest streak on the PGA Tour, and he has finished in the top four in six of his last seven PGA Tour starts. This was his second win of the year, making it his second season with at least two wins. The other was his two-win 2003 season.
Of the active players under the age of 40 on the PGA Tour, the 36-year-old Furyk is tied for fifth with David Toms in number of wins with 12. They trail Tiger Woods (53), Phil Mickelson (29), Ernie Els (15) and David Duval (13).
Furyk has surpassed the $30-million mark in career earnings, and now has 105 top-10 finishes in 336 PGA Tour starts. He is No. 2 on the money list behind Tiger Woods, and has moved past Phil Mickelson to No. 2 in the World Ranking, which is also topped by Woods.
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