Jim Furyk talks Presidents Cup victory, strategy

JF: Well, I’m smart enough to know that you never have anything figured out. Soon as you say that, like, you know how golf is, when you’re playing badly, you feel like you’re never gonna get it back and then when you get rolling, you feel like you’re never gonna lose it. And the second you think that, it just bites you in the ass. So I’m smarter than that.

I think I was a lot more prepared this year than I was in ’18 (as U.S. Ryder Cup Captain in Paris). I think the experience in ’18 and knowing that I could have done a few things better, I think, really helped. Also, this group I had — I mean, I love my group from ’18, don’t get me wrong, I’ve always said I’d go to battle with those 12 any day — but I just had a great group this time, and the leaders really stepped up, made my job easy. They all bought into the messaging and kind of, you know, my whole goal was to get the group moving forward together and that’s not just 12 players. That’s the caddies, that’s the wives, that’s the whole U.S. team, whatever contingency was wearing red, white and blue over there, kind of needs to be moving forward all together, and just a good bunch.

It’s hard because they give us three weeks by the time the team is determined and it’s a lot of the same guys, but by the time the team’s picked, you really have three weeks to kind of move forward before you get to Montreal, and there’s a lot that needs to be done, even though you’re not seeing those guys a lot, and they’re battling through the playoffs and trying to win a FedEx all the while, you’re trying to get some messaging across. I’m trying to get golf balls in their hands so that they’re prepared for alternate shot. I’m trying to get a lot of stuff done, but treading lines, if that makes sense. And these guys just did a good job.

When their season was over, they flipped the switch and everything was focused on the Presidents Cup. Xander and Scotty and Pat and Colin, I relied a lot on those guys and they came through.