Furyk Ends Drought at Transitions

PALM HARBOR, Fla. -- As a wet, chilled and dreary day moved hastily toward darkness, Jim Furyk stood on the 18th tee Sunday in the Transitions Championship at Innisbrook Resort knowing it was perfectly natural to be in a hurry.

Maybe that was the problem.

Rain and lightning earlier in the day had delayed Furyk's final-group tee time almost five hours and now, holding a two-shot lead with the finish line in sight, he was more than eager to bring the day to an official close.

The par-4 finish line was 454 yards away -- albeit uphill -- and so inviting Furyk could have been excused for breaking into a run.

In addition to a close to a lengthy day, an end to Furyk's second longest winless drought of a productive career -- 32 months and 58 tournament appearances -- was that close.

And what happened? He took the scenic route.

First Furyk pushed his tee shot to the right into pine trees that line the finishing hole. His second shot was a semi-shank that stopped some 100 yards short of the green in rough.

"Yeah, just went right in front of me," playing partner K.J. Choi said. "I thought it was a moon passing by."

But Furyk recovered with a wedge to 25 feet, followed by a solid lag putt for a tap-in bogey to produce a one-shot win over Choi, a two-time past winner of the tournament.

"I made it difficult, there's no doubt," Furyk said. "Eighteen was rough to say the least. Bad swings, bad decisions. It worked out in the end, though."

With a final-round 69 Furyk finished 13 under, holding off Choi's closing 67. Bubba Watson finished two strokes back after a 68.

As part of the tournament week, title-sponsor Transitions Optical had actor Erik Estrada on the grounds to revive the character of Frank "Ponch" Poncherello, the California Highway Patrol officer he played in the 1977-1983 television series "CHiPs."

In full uniform, complete with motorcycle boots and belt, Estrada spent time clowning with fans and writing "sight-tations," for violations such as "Aggravated Visual Assault: Wearing Really Bad Glasses," or "Grand Theft Visual: Robbing Eyes of Healthy Sight," possibly even "Indecent Exposure ... Of Eyes to Harmful UV Rays."

No one, however, needed prescription lenses to recognize how weird the final day turned.

At the exact time Furyk was putting on the 18th green trying to win the tournament, Tiger Woods was being broadcast on ESPN and The Golf Channel, having granted each network a five-minute interview earlier in the afternoon with the stipulation of a 7:30 p.m. airing.

There was no way of knowing at the time that the weather-delayed Transitions would still be in play, but, all the same, Woods again took attention away from a tournament.

His appearance in February to make a statement at tour headquarters similarly affected the Accenture World Match Play.

"Shoot, no one was watching me," Furyk said, following with a laugh. "You know what, it's probably a natural progression. Tomorrow the paper is going to read that I won the golf tournament and I don't really care if it's a three-page spread or a little blurb in the corner because the article is about him (Tiger).

"I won the damn thing and it (the attention on Tiger) really doesn't matter to me. I can live with it and I'm fine with it. Some day it's all going to go away and I'll be fine with that as well.

"He's got a natural progression of things he's got to do before he tees it up at Augusta."

Furyk, who turns 40 in May, began the day with a three-shot lead.

Choi applied some early pressure with birdies on four of his opening six holes to tie Furyk for the lead, but could not keep pace.

Furyk rolled in a 23-foot birdie putt on the par-3 eighth hole and at No. 12 added another long-distance bomb from 35 feet to make it look like an enjoyable march home.

A birdie at the par-5 14th gave Furyk a three-shot lead with four to play. But bogey at 15 and the final-hole stumble made it interesting to the end.

"I think my nerves bothered me out there a few times," said the 2003 U.S. Open champ who's last victory on the PGA Tour came at the Canadian Open in 2007.

Now the drought is over. It was never like Furyk seemed to be losing his game. He recorded 20 top-10 finishes during the time he was going winless. Still, you never know.

"I didn't doubt it," Furyk said. "I had too many opportunities and played too well. I never doubted that I would win again. I felt like I had a lot of golf left in me and I feel like I'm still at the top of the peak of my career.

"I was really disappointed in myself the last 2 1/2 years and it bothered me. It bothered me a lot because that's the goal every week."