PITTSFORD, N.Y. – For Jim Furyk this was as simple as two clubs – his driver and his putter.
Normally the strongest part of the veteran’s game, he drove the ball poorly and wasn’t much better on the greens earlier this year at Merion. “That’s a bad recipe at the U.S. Open,” he said.
Things weren’t much better last month at Muirfield, where he missed the cut like he did at the U.S. Open. At the Canadian Open and last week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, however, things began to get better.
By Thursday at Oak Hill it was like old times. Furyk hit 8 of 14 fairways on Day 1 at the PGA Championship and needed just 29 putts on his way to an opening 65 and a one-stroke early lead.
“Today was probably one of the best putting rounds, if not the best putting round I’ve had this year,” he said. “I’m not saying I made everything. I’m just saying I really feel like I did a good job getting the ball on a good line where I was looking and I was able to manage where I wanted the ball to go and got it on that line and gave it an opportunity to go in the hole.”
Furyk’s 65, which was one stroke off the Oak Hill course record, was his lowest opening round in a major.