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SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – During another injury-riddled year that kept him sidelined from playing PGA Tour Champions last season, Jim Furyk was asked by the PGA Tour if he’d be willing to do TV.
“They knew I wasn’t playing the Ally Championship, but I’m an Ally brand manager. They asked would I be willing to do TV for a day with Azinger? I said, ‘Yeah, I'd love to do that,’ ” he recalled.
Furyk won both a PGA Tour and Champions Tour event at Warwick Hills in Michigan, played the course a hundred times and knew it like the back of his hand. “That was fun,” Furyk said.
Last fall, it got him thinking he might enjoy a regular role doing TV. The Golf Channel offered him a tryout at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship serving as lead analyst of the early rounds. He liked it. That led to a studio role at the Masters. Brad Faxon, a veteran pro turned TV announcer, told him he’d love the live studio work. Furyk wondered why. Faxon said that a lead analyst has to get in and get out, sometimes in just 5 seconds. On Live From, Faxon said, you can talk for as long as you want and they love it. They’ll tell you to keep going and fill some more time.
“I told him, that’s the part that scares me. And Fax asked, why?” Furyk recounted to Golfweek recently. “I told him, ‘You can’t say something too stupid in 5 to 6 seconds, but if you give me a minute and a half and who knows what can happen!’”
Golf Channel signed Furyk to do this week’s U.S. Open, the Travelers Championship, where he once shot 58, the British Open next month at Royal Birkdale and the Tour Championship, which he won en route to claiming the FedEx Cup. Furyk sees upside in staying involved and remaining tied back to the players of today on Tour. "I think it will really help for the Ryder Cup duties,” said Furyk, the 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup captain. “I don’t want to travel 30 weeks a year but having a number of events where the best players are going to be is very interesting to me.”
There was no dress rehearsal or training session. Furyk has been thrown straight into the deep end and he’s more than just staying afloat. Asked how he prepared for his TV debut, he said, “I’m preparing the only way I know how – I’m preparing for the golf course like I would as a player.”
Furyk’s exposure to how the sausage is made in the TV space has made him more appreciative of the time, effort and manpower involved in bringing the Open to TV. And it didn't take long to realize that making TV is hard work.
“It hit me in the first five minutes,” Furyk said. “I had my yardage book with me and I threw it in my backpack behind me.”
Furyk is proving to be a quick learner. The hardest part? The first 10 minutes at Bay Hill for the API, Furyk realized things were moving fast.
“I had to speed up my internal motor to keep up with everything. Once I got the flow and the rhythm, I was fine,” he said.
One question remains: Will he be able to criticize members of his Ryder Cup team – both those players on past teams or that could make the team next year?
“If the guy hits a bad shot, he hits a bad shot. But when you say criticize, I got upset or my peers would get upset is when the analyst questioned your motivation or work ethic or something like if they’re tough down the stretch. Those are the things that rub players wrong.”
He continued with a story about some advice that NBC executive producer Tommy Roy offered to him.
“He said something interesting that I never had heard someone say before,” Furyk recalled. “He goes, I don’t particularly want you to second-guess; I want you to first guess.”
Furyk asked him for further explanation of what he meant. In short, Roy said that after a shot he can go back and say that he didn’t like the strategy there because of XYZ, but hindsight is 20/20.
"Tell me on the front end. That was Tommy’s point," Furyk said. "Tell me, you know what? I don’t really like driver off this hole before he hits it. Now, if he stripes it down the middle 340 and hits a flip wedge in and makes birdie, well, you can say, I guess that’s why he’s Scottie Scheffler, and he’s winning the tournament and I’m sitting here in the booth, but he goes that I don’t mind. I don’t mind when you’re wrong, but do it on the front end, not the back end.”
With each rep, Furyk is learning, adjusting the way he preps and getting more comfortable. He's been a fast learner and don't be surprised if his role keeps expanding.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Jim Furyk finds new rhythm in the TV booth
Continue reading...
“They knew I wasn’t playing the Ally Championship, but I’m an Ally brand manager. They asked would I be willing to do TV for a day with Azinger? I said, ‘Yeah, I'd love to do that,’ ” he recalled.
Furyk won both a PGA Tour and Champions Tour event at Warwick Hills in Michigan, played the course a hundred times and knew it like the back of his hand. “That was fun,” Furyk said.
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Last fall, it got him thinking he might enjoy a regular role doing TV. The Golf Channel offered him a tryout at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship serving as lead analyst of the early rounds. He liked it. That led to a studio role at the Masters. Brad Faxon, a veteran pro turned TV announcer, told him he’d love the live studio work. Furyk wondered why. Faxon said that a lead analyst has to get in and get out, sometimes in just 5 seconds. On Live From, Faxon said, you can talk for as long as you want and they love it. They’ll tell you to keep going and fill some more time.
“I told him, that’s the part that scares me. And Fax asked, why?” Furyk recounted to Golfweek recently. “I told him, ‘You can’t say something too stupid in 5 to 6 seconds, but if you give me a minute and a half and who knows what can happen!’”
Golf Channel signed Furyk to do this week’s U.S. Open, the Travelers Championship, where he once shot 58, the British Open next month at Royal Birkdale and the Tour Championship, which he won en route to claiming the FedEx Cup. Furyk sees upside in staying involved and remaining tied back to the players of today on Tour. "I think it will really help for the Ryder Cup duties,” said Furyk, the 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup captain. “I don’t want to travel 30 weeks a year but having a number of events where the best players are going to be is very interesting to me.”
There was no dress rehearsal or training session. Furyk has been thrown straight into the deep end and he’s more than just staying afloat. Asked how he prepared for his TV debut, he said, “I’m preparing the only way I know how – I’m preparing for the golf course like I would as a player.”
Furyk’s exposure to how the sausage is made in the TV space has made him more appreciative of the time, effort and manpower involved in bringing the Open to TV. And it didn't take long to realize that making TV is hard work.
“It hit me in the first five minutes,” Furyk said. “I had my yardage book with me and I threw it in my backpack behind me.”
Furyk is proving to be a quick learner. The hardest part? The first 10 minutes at Bay Hill for the API, Furyk realized things were moving fast.
“I had to speed up my internal motor to keep up with everything. Once I got the flow and the rhythm, I was fine,” he said.
One question remains: Will he be able to criticize members of his Ryder Cup team – both those players on past teams or that could make the team next year?
“If the guy hits a bad shot, he hits a bad shot. But when you say criticize, I got upset or my peers would get upset is when the analyst questioned your motivation or work ethic or something like if they’re tough down the stretch. Those are the things that rub players wrong.”
He continued with a story about some advice that NBC executive producer Tommy Roy offered to him.
“He said something interesting that I never had heard someone say before,” Furyk recalled. “He goes, I don’t particularly want you to second-guess; I want you to first guess.”
Furyk asked him for further explanation of what he meant. In short, Roy said that after a shot he can go back and say that he didn’t like the strategy there because of XYZ, but hindsight is 20/20.
"Tell me on the front end. That was Tommy’s point," Furyk said. "Tell me, you know what? I don’t really like driver off this hole before he hits it. Now, if he stripes it down the middle 340 and hits a flip wedge in and makes birdie, well, you can say, I guess that’s why he’s Scottie Scheffler, and he’s winning the tournament and I’m sitting here in the booth, but he goes that I don’t mind. I don’t mind when you’re wrong, but do it on the front end, not the back end.”
With each rep, Furyk is learning, adjusting the way he preps and getting more comfortable. He's been a fast learner and don't be surprised if his role keeps expanding.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Jim Furyk finds new rhythm in the TV booth
Continue reading...
