Furyk enjoying Firestone's quick greens
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2012 World Golf Championship -Bridgestone Invitational | Round Two | 04 Aug 2012
Jim Furyk is showing the WGC Bridgestone field a clean pair of heels at present, his opening 36 hole score of 11 under leaving him two shots clear of Rafael Cabrera Bello and three ahead of Louis Oosthuizen.
Furyk has not won this event previously but has regularly produced good finishes in the event. He lost a playoff to Tiger Woods in 2001 and there have been five other top tens at the Firestone Country Club.
“I felt obviously it was nice to get off to a great start yesterday shooting 63, and then maybe even nice to have that happen in the afternoon where I could turn around and get right back out on the golf course this morning again,” said Furyk after his round. "It’s just probably a little easier to keep the momentum going that way than having an early time on Thursday morning, having a good round and having to sit on it until Friday afternoon.
Furyk paid credit to his improved putting and the quicker greens he is playing on this week compared to those he has played in recent weeks.
“I putted horrible last year. I’ll be the first one to admit it. I made those adjustments toward the end of last year after I after we got to our playoff season and I went and played McGladrey with a belly putter and decided that I was going to put that down, I think, after the two events in China.
“I kind of committed myself back to the short putter and started working on something the week before the Presidents Cup last year and putted lights out there. It was probably in my career that’s probably my best putting event of my career was the Presidents Cup last year.
“I’ve been much more comfortable on fast greens this year. I don’t know if I’ve ever played greens faster than the Presidents Cup last year. They were scary at times.
“But we just went through a stretch like at Greenbrier and the British Open where the greens were much slower than what we had seen, say, at Memorial, the U.S. Open and then the AT&T. The British Open is always a lot slower because of the windy conditions. And obviously, at Hamilton you can’t make those too quick because the greens are so severe. They got a little quicker. But I’m more comfortable on fast greens like we’re seeing this week.
“My eye and the way I read putts, I kind of read things to really break and feed into a hole, and it just doesn’t happen as much on slow greens. You have to take some break out, and I just don’t see that as well.”
Jason Dufner is alone in 4th position and Kim Kyung Tae, who finished 6th in this event last year en route to securing a Presidents Cup spot is alone in 5th position.
The best of the Australians is John Senden who was unable to add to his opening round of 66 but, at 4 under, he shares 8th position while Geoff Ogilvy is one shot further back in 12th place.
“I’ve been gearing up for the bigger events this year, and I’ve been playing consistently all year,” said Senden. “I think that hopefully I can keep the trend going in regards to the big events. Working into this weekend and PGA next week and lots of FedEx Playoff events coming up, so I need to stay focused, and that’s what’s been the difference the last couple years.”
Defending champion Adam Scott improved marginally with a round of 70 to be 12 shots from the lead in 35th position.
Tiger Woods is one shot behind Scott at 2 over.
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