Jim Furyk seems like the guy who always finishes second in the golf odds competition.
You rarely see this guy win an event, aside from the Canadian Open, but somehow at the end of the year he’s always ranked number two in everything. For years he’s been the #2 golfer in the world (although this year he slipped to #5), he seems to always be #2 on the money list and generally always playing a low key second fiddle to Tiger Woods or whoever the winner or #1 ranked player in any particular stat might be.
But, at least for the next week or two, Furyk will take a back seat to none in the golf betting world as he not only won last Sunday’s Tour Championship but that win delivered him the FedEx Cup for the first time as well.
For those golf odds fans not familiar with the FedEx Cup, it’s a very complicated system that gives the PGA Tour the closest thing to a playoff season that it’s ever had. And it gives champions like Furyk a ton of cash.
$10 million to be precise, for winning the event, and for Furyk who somehow had additional FedEx Cup points saved up, his check on Sunday was actually over $11 million. Not a bad day’s work.
By winning the Tour Championship Furyk also took the lead in Tournament wins this year, yet another competition win which he came in first, not second. He also became just the third player to win the FedEx Cup and lead the Tour in wins in the same season. And so now perhaps Furyk will shed his image of the man that is forever second in the golf world.
It’s also very interesting and very emblematic of the changing face of the PGA Tour competition that Furyk led the Tour in victories this season with just 3 wins. In a post Tiger meltdown, the playing field is wide open and every week it seems to be somebody different competing for the trophy.
However, when the 2011 PGA Tour golf odds open up and the competition begins anew in Hawaii you can be sure that Tiger will be back on his game and the rest of the Tour is going to wish that 2010, the year of Tiger’s struggles, never would have ended.