Furyk grinds his way into position for one final charge

Under the radar all week, Jim Furyk will tee off Sunday within reach of the leaders. He'll take a look at the situation and the setup in the morning, then figure out what kind of number he'll need to shoot.

By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM Site Producer

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It’s all in the grind, like a good cup of coffee.

The 73rd Masters Tournament is hardly playing like a U.S. Open, especially with that sea of red that swept over Augusta National two days ago. But you might not know it if all you did was look at the names on the leaderboard.

Angel Cabrera has won a U.S. Open. So has Jim Furyk, who is just three shots back of co-leaders Cabrera and Kenny Perry with 18 holes to play in the year’s first major championship.

Furyk is often considered the consummate grind-it-out player, suited perfectly for courses with 8-inch rough and even narrower fairways. But his game is a lot more flexible than a piece of steel from Pittsburgh.

The winner at Olympia Fields in 2003, Furyk also has a pair of fourth-place finishes here, a course where rough is almost non-existent and the greens have more curves than Scarlett Johansson. The last of those came in 2003. The first of those came in 1998, when he shot rounds of 67-68 on the weekend.

That’s what it might take this time around, too. For three days, Augusta National has played maybe more like Augusta Country Club, yielding 800 birdies, compared to 829 pars. Eleven of those came courtesy of Anthony Kim on Friday. “I’m still a little stumped [by that],” Furyk said Saturday. “But I understand a guy shooting 4 or 5 under today. It’s out there.”

Also out there is a lot of “disaster and catastrophe,” as Furyk put it. Yet, he’s been able to avoid it so far, hitting 11 of 14 fairways and all 18 greens Thursday and 12 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens Saturday.

How Augusta National plays on Sunday is still TBD. The Green Jackets have control over that with their SubAir system that can suck as much, or as little, moisture out of the greens as they want. Whatever they do, it doesn’t matter to Furyk. It usually never does.

“If I play a good round tomorrow, I have a chance,” Furyk said. “If it plays softer and we can be aggressive, I just have to shoot that much lower of a number. If it plays a little firmer, then a lot can happen quickly. I just have to assess the situation in the morning and take a look at the putting green and see what it looks like, see the first couple of holes and you get an idea of what it’s playing like and what type of number you have to shoot.”

Whatever the number, or whatever the setup, it’s not going to be easy. The roars have returned to the rolling hills of Augusta National, but Amen Corner hasn’t exactly been answering too many prayers this week, either.

“There’s severe conditions in both events,” Furyk said of the Masters and U.S. Open. “The penalty here is the undulation on the greens. If you hit a shot that comes up a yard or two short and it catches a ridge, it’s 50 feet downhill to the right and in a spot where you can’t get the ball up-and-down.

“It’s a different approach because the golf courses are so different. Mentally, I don’t think there’s a big difference. You know that you’re in for a grind and that you’re going to have to be very patient and that things are not always going go to your way and you’re going to have to grind it out and eventually execute.

“It’s just completely different, but I enjoy both tests.”

That’s nothing new. Furyk’s as tough as Pennsylvania winter and with the way he’s playing right now, I’d like his chances if they were teeing it up on Magnolia Lane.

So would Ben Crenshaw, who said of all the players in contention, he likes Furyk’s chances the most. It’s a little hard to argue with Crenshaw when it comes to predictions, isn’t it?