“Go f–k yourself”: Jim Furyk opens fire on reporter after Presidents Cup question

Jim Furyk lost his cool after being offended by comments before the 2024 Presidents Cup

There was a sense, emphasized as much by his demeanor in defeat at the 2018 Ryder Cup rather than the actual loss itself, that Jim Furyk is a mild-mannered fellow.

Any such notions have been completely blown out of the water ahead of this year’s Presidents Cup when he will lead Team USA for a second time.

When Golfweek’s Adam Schupack met up with the 54-year-old to discuss his captaincy he suggested that defeat for the Americans, who have won 14 of the 16 editions of the Cup, might be no bad thing.

What followed was extraordinary. “Really? You’re American,” Furyk told Schupack. “I do actually take offense at that. I don’t hate you but it’s a pretty sh-tty thing to say.”

He then told a story about a PGA Tour official irking him in a similar manner ahead of the 2017 match and said to Schupack: “So it’s not like I’m killing you right now, but F–k you. Go f–k yourself. You can quote me on that one.”

Wow. This was passion unlike anything witnessed in Paris. Which is not to say that he wasn’t fiery behind closed doors, of course, but a pre-match joint press conference alongside Thomas Bjorn was notable for Furyk’s many attempts at light-heartedness that Bjorn batted aside. Not in a rude fashion, but in a manner that made it clear he was there to do business rather than create a cuddly atmosphere. It put the European captain one-up before the first session.

That 2018 Ryder Cup defeat hurt, of course. Ahead of the match American fans and journalists were convinced the team was as strong as any their nation had assembled in decades. In stark contrast to the previous US defeat in Europe (2014 at Gleneagles), however, the players did not throw the captain under the bus. In fact they were bullish about Furyk’s leadership, to the extent that when Rickie Fowler was asked why Bjorn was a better captain than Furyk, Rickie Fowler said: “He wasn’t.”

Furyk is no fool, however, and he admitted when announcing his wildcard picks that lessons have been learned. “There are already some different ideas in the captain’s picks,” he said. “I think I’ll have some different thoughts on pairing these guys together.”

Critically, perhaps, he added: “I have a much easier group to pair this year (because of) our chemistry, our team room. But I’m me. I’m the same guy. These guys know what to expect from me. I’ve been an assistant or a vice captain on a lot of their teams. They have an expectation of who I am and how I do things, and that won’t change, but I’ll definitely apply some lessons.

• How to watch the 2024 Presidents Cup.

“My real goal is that this is their team. I’ve already had some leaders step up. It’s our job as captain and vice captains to put them in situations where they’re comfortable and let them shine, let them go do what they do the rest of the year and play the best golf they can.”

With so much experience behind him (he has also been vice-captain in the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits and Rome) there is little Furyk will encounter in Montreal that he will not have seen or done before, but even he was shocked when one of his potential players – Keegan Bradley – was named as next year’s Ryder Cup captain. He had no hesitation handing the 2011 PGA Championship winner a wildcard but he acknowledged that the scenario is an unusual one.

“One of Keegan’s first remarks when he was named captain was he was surprised,” he said. “So if he was surprised, I think the rest of us were a little bit surprised, correct?”

Furyk will have to manage how he deals with Bradley’s double role: as a player on the one hand and future captain on the other.

“It’s in his best interest right now to go out there and prepare as a player,” Furyk said. “It’s not fair to ask him to mix and match his time. What I will do, what our stats team will do, what our assistants will do, is we’ll all circle back with Keegan.

“I’ve assured him that I want to help him as much as I can to prepare and be ready for the Ryder Cup. We’ll let him know how we came to certain decisions, how we got where we were, who we put on the team, how we paired them, and how the week went. But we’ll have that after the event happens.”

It is remarkable that Jim Furyk’s playing career in the Ryder and Presidents Cups almost exactly mirrors Team USA’s fortunes.

In the contest against the Europeans, he played in nine matches and was on the winning team just twice. His individual record was 10 wins, 20 defeats, and four halves.

In the Presidents Cup, he played seven times, winning five, losing one with another tied. His playing record was 20 victories, 10 losses, and three halves.

Having lost as captain in the Ryder Cup, if the trend maintains he will win the Presidents Cup.

And if he breaks the pattern and inadvertently steers Team USA to another defeat we know one thing for certain: it will be absolutely no consolation that Schupack and a PGA Tour official will consider it a win.

About the author

Matt Cooper
Contributing Writer

Matt Cooper has been a golf journalist for 15 years. He’s worked for, among others, Golf365, SkySports, ESPN, NBC, Sporting Life, Open.com and the Guardian. He specializes in feature writing, reporting and tournament analysis.

He’s traveled widely in that time, covering golf from Kazakhstan to South Korea via Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

More straightforwardly, he’s also covered numerous Majors, Ryder Cups and Solheim Cups.

Follow Matt on Twitter.