2016 Travelers Championship Roundup – Furyk Shoots 58

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The final leaderboard for the 2016 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conneticut is in. While Russell Knox was able to eek out the win by one stroke over runner-up Jerry Kelly (marking his second Tour win), the big story of the week was 46-year-old Jim Furyk shooting 58 in the final round — the lowest and first ever shot in PGA Tour history. Below is the truncated top-10 leaderboard:

(1) Russell Knox (-14)
(2) Jerry Kelly (-13)
(T3) Justin Thomas (-12)
(T3) Patrick Rodgers (-12)
(T5) Jim Furyk (-11)
(T5) Robert Garrigus (-11)
(T5) Tyrone Van Aswegen (-11)
(T5) Daniel Berger (-11)
(T9) Marc Leishman (-10)
(T9) Brooks Koepka (-10)

Here are some statistics on the champion and Mr. 58 Jim Furyk:

Winner: Russell Knox (-14) – This is Knox’s second PGA Tour win and first since the HSBC Champions last November, which he won by two shots. His best finish in a major is a T22 at the previous week’s PGA Championship. Aside from his win this season, Knox also posted a pair of T2 finishes at the RBC Heritage and OHL Classic; at the same time he has missed a few cuts (most recently at the Masters) and posted many sub-30 results, so his form has been fairly spotty to say the least. Previous results at the Travelers for Knox include a W/D in 2015, T61 in 2014, T13 in 2013 and MC in 2012 — not much evidence of any meaningful course form trends. This win may just give Knox the confidence boost he needs to really get out there and put himself in contention consistently. It will be interesting to see how he plays moving forward into the playoffs.

Final round: 4 birdies and 2 bogeys for a 2-under 68. Despite a bogey on 16, he was able to par in and stay one shot ahead. Daniel Berger, who led by multiple shots after 54 holes, went on a run of bogeys on the back nine and fell out of contention. Scores in regulation: 67, 67, 64, 68 (266).

Jim Furyk (-11) – Not only is Furyk the first man to ever shoot a 58 on the PGA Tour, but he’s also the first to shoot more than one round in the 50s (the other, 59, came at the 2013 BMW Championship). I didn’t actually watch his round live, but it was impossible to avoid hearing about it after all was said and done — for good reason obviously. Who would have thought this could happen to someone approaching the age of 50? I suppose that if it could happen, Furyk would be a great candidate to pull it off. I mean, he’s gotten incredibly hot on the golf course before, most notably at the 2013 BMW Championship where he shot 59 in tough conditions. He has proven to be one of the best golfers of the generation, with a major win and 16 other wins on Tour. Something about his swing and his mindset allows him to “get in the zone” and go on amazing streaks like nobody else can. I do think we still have plenty more golfing excellence to witness from Jim Furyk.

Final round: 10 birdies and an eagle (hole-out from the third fairway) for a 12-under (!) 58 (27 on the front nine). What people might not know is he had several good birdie looks under 10 feet that he ended up missing, so his round could have easily been even lower. Scores in regulation: 73, 66, 72, 58 (269).

Have any congratulations for Knox, Furyk or any other thoughts about the 2016 Travelers Championship? Be sure to leave a comment below!

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