White Sulphur Springs, WV, United States (AHN) – The PGA Tour goes old school this week at the famous Greenbrier Resort.
It was the long-time home of Sam Snead, and now Tom Watson is their golf professional “emeritus.”
Jim Furyk, an old school, throwback-type player, is the top-ranked performer in the field that begins play Thursday.
Furyk’s 2010 season got off to a blazing start when he won at the Transitions Championship in March and the Verizon Heritage in April.
Since then, he’s been less than spectacular. Furyk tied for seventh at Quail Hollow and tied for 10th at the Memorial.
In majors, its been a ho-hum year.
He missed the cut in the Masters, tied for 16th at the U.S. Open and surprisingly missed the cut at the British Open.
Still, he’s won nearly $3 million and could actually take over the lead in the FedEx Cup race this week.
What Furyk and the rest of the field will see this week is a classic course with elevations and undulating greens. The length will not overwhelm any of these players, but the undulating greens will put an emphasis on putting.
Conditions could be soft when play starts Thursday and that means low scores.
That’s the way it played out last week at the Canadian Open where it was a virtual birdie-fest for three days before the course dried out and the wind blew on Sunday. Suddenly par was a better score and 64s and 65s turned into 70s and 71s.
Although Furyk is the highest-ranked player, perhaps the hottest player coming in is Matt Kuchar.
Kuchar had a top-10 finish at the Memorial, finished sixth at the U.S. Open and was 27th at the British.
Carl Pettersson proved last week that his game has returned when he won the Canadian Open. He loves old-style golf courses like the Greenbrier and is feeling confident about his game coming into this week.
Most of the big name players like Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are skipping this event. Next week is a WGC event at Firestone and the PGA Championship is in two weeks at Whistling Straits.
Greenbrier gives players a chance to reconnect with history.
The course was the long-time home of Snead and often served as a respite for members of Congress when they wanted to get away from the hassles of Washington D.C.
A special bunker was created during the Eisenhower days to house members of Congress and their staffs in event of a nuclear war. The bunker now serves as a tourist attraction at the resort.
This week, the only battle will be for FedEx Cup points and the attraction for the tour players is the first-place money.
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