Swing Sequence: Jim Furyk

Analysis By Mike Furyk with Ron Kaspriske

Photos By Stephen Szurlej

August 2001

View his swing in motion: Target-line | Face-on

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Hitting fairways is the key to Jim Furyk's game. He hits 75 percent overall, making him one of the tour's most accurate drivers.

Golf Instruction / Swing Sequence

Full name: James Michael Furyk
Birthdate: May 12, 1970
Birthplace: West Chester, PA
Height, weight: 6-foot-2, 185
Turned professional: 1992

Jim Furyk could have done almost anything on his 12th birthday, but he had only one thing on his mind.

"When he was 8 or 9, I told him he was too young to play golf," says Jim's father, Mike, a former club pro in Pennsylvania. "I told him he would have to wait until he was 12. Well, he did. He reminded me as soon as he woke up on his 12th birthday. So I let him go play."

It was probably the best birthday present Jim ever got. Despite having one of the most unorthodox swings in professional golf, he has won six tournaments and earned more than $10 million since joining the PGA Tour in 1994. And he has done it by refining the same swing he built years ago.

There have been more than a few occasions when friends, coaches and instructors have tried to remove the out-up-in "loop" from Jim Furyk's swing. But Jim would have nothing to do with it. Neither would his father.

"One college coach was trying to recruit him and took my wife and me out to dinner," Mike recalls. "After a drink or two, the coach says, 'I can't wait to get Jim down to our school to change that swing.' I said, 'Coach, he will never go to your school.' "

Mike Furyk remains the only coach Jim has ever had. In this article, he tells you how his son's swing works and why it works so well.