OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – While heading toward the second hole at Olympia Fields, Mike Furyk spotted a concession stand and began taking orders.
“How many we need?” he said, surveying the entourage following his son, Jim, in yesterday’s final round of the U.S. Open.
It was mandatory the half-dozen people in the group have a beer in hand, not so much for refreshment as for superstition.
“These are birdie beers,” Mike Furyk said. “If you want birdies, you’ve got to drink them.”
This practice started at Las Vegas Invitational in 1995 when Furyk won his first PGA Tour event and has continued since. Yesterday, it worked to produce much-needed pars as well, like the 18-foot save on the second hole and the curling 10-footer for par after a tree-impeded drive on the par-4 fifth.
By then, Mike Furyk, 56, was finishing his second birdie beer and was handed a third on the par-5 sixth hole where steely-eyed Jim Furyk soon drained a three-footer for birdie to go 11-under. When Jim Furyk finished the back nine, he had a five-stroke lead and the birdie beers became more celebration than ritual.
Except for Rick LaRose, who heads the heralded Arizona golf program, Mike Furyk is the only coach Jim Furyk has ever known. But he was all father on a this sun-splashed day at Olympia Fields.
With a cigar in his right hand and a beer in his left, the elder Furyk savored a memorable Father’s Day by watching his son, a new father himself, win his first major championship by three strokes over Australian Stephen Leaney.
You had to wonder what tasted sweeter, the beer or the vindication from all the so-called experts who said his son’s unorthodox swing never would be competitive. The hands low and tight at address, the high backswing, the loop-and-lean follow through, it’s a swing only a dad can love.
A one-time club pro in Uniontown, Pa., Mike Furyk didn’t let his son play golf until he was 12. On advice from Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, he taught young Jim to putt crosshanded for more consistency, but never changed the swing.
“It’s just the way he swings,” the elder Furyk said. “His swing is like an old friend.”
Dad would dismiss the college recruits eager to teach his son the “proper” techniques.
“That swing can’t even play amateur golf let alone college golf,” one college coach advised.
“If a guy shoots 90 what does he know about a golf swing,” Mike Furyk said.
Jim Furyk went to Arizona because LaRose, who has coached Ricky Barnes and Annika Sorenstam, saw something special in Furyk.
“The guys who wanted to change his swing were the guys he was beating,” said LaRose, who was part of the birdie beer brigade yesterday. “All they look on the scorecard is what number you write down. Jim has something inside that made him great. He has heart. You couldn’t ask for a better guy under pressure than Jim Furyk.”
Mike Furyk isn’t one of these fathers who pushed his son into his sport. It was Jim, who ultimately chose golf over team sports like basketball and baseball, telling his father, “You’re either a hero or a goat and I can handle both.” He started with junior tournaments and hasn’t stopped since.
“We just did one step at a time and he ended up on the PGA Tour,” Mike Furyk said. Yesterday, Jim Furyk ended up the U.S. Open champion. Beers all around.
