Jim Furyk fine with playing at 40

You could excuse Jim Furyk for chuckling any time there's a discussion about what age group is dominating play on the PGA Tour, especially now that he's turned 40 along with Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els.

Having reached the milestone age last month, the former West Chester and Lancaster-area resident is playing as well as ever. He's a two-time winner on tour. He ranks third in earnings and in FedExCup points and continues to hold down the No. 5 spot in the World Golf Rankings.

Forty? It's just a number to Furyk.

"Obviously there's a stigma to it and now everybody wants to talk about Phil turning 40 and Ernie turning 40 and it seems like we're getting older," Furyk said Monday before hosting a clinic at Waynesborough Country Club for employees of SunGard, one of his sponsors.

"The story is always, a bunch of young guys go win a couple of events and all of a sudden it's the young guys, and this and that. And then Ernie wins a couple of times, I win a couple of times, and Phil wins the Masters - and, all of a sudden, the 40-year-olds are taking over. So it's just part of the cycle that everyone goes through."

Furyk will have to carry the banner for the 40-year-olds this week because neither Mickelson nor Els will be at the AT&T National at Aronimink Golf Club. He will have to do battle with 20-somethings such as Sean O'Hair, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose, and also contend with Tiger Woods, the leader of the 30-and-over pack.

Furyk concedes this has been a different type of season for him. In the last two years, he reached the top 10 in 20 of 49 tournaments (40.8 percent) but the consistency came without a win.

This year, he's only 4 for 13 (30.8 percent) in top-10 finishes but has two victories - the Transitions Championship in Tampa and a playoff win over Brian Davis at the Verizon Heritage at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

"When I've played well, I've gotten over the hump," he said. "I won't say luck is involved when you win, but there's always those couple of moments in an event where you have an opportunity to win, and is the other guy going to hit the key shot or knock in a key putt?

"Brian birdied the last hole at Harbour Town, which you don't see very often, to get in a playoff but then knocked it in the water, made a 6, and kind of handed over the tournament. I got a big lead in Tampa and I tried to screw it up, but things just seem to be working out and falling into play, and they hadn't done that the previous couple of years."

Furyk's last event was the U.S. Open, where he tied for 16th. The 2003 Open champion said "a little bit of everything" - putting, ball-striking, decision-making - contributed to his inability to get in contention at Pebble Beach.

"The U.S. Open has a way of beating you up, and in the end, it got me," he said.

As for his game entering this week, Furyk described it as "OK, nothing to write home about yet. I'll say it's very average."

Furyk now lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., but loves returning to his home state; his family also has lived in the Pittsburgh area. By his estimate, the AT&T National will be his sixth event in Pennsylvania counting three SEI/Marconi Pennsylvania Classics - two of them played at Waynesborough - and two U.S. Opens at Oakmont.

He also returned to the Philadelphia area from 1999 through 2009 for the Exelon Invitational, a one-day event with four tour pros that raised $1.7 million for charity - most of it for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Philadelphia - over 11 years.

Furyk admitted it felt "a little empty" this year not having to rush from the Memorial Tournament to conduct the event.

"Part of me is a touch disappointed," he said. "It was fun. I'm proud of what we accomplished and the money that we raised. Most guys don't have events that lasted as long as ours. In ways, I do wish that it went longer, but I'm proud of what we did."

Although he enjoyed an excellent amateur career in Pennsylvania, Furyk never competed at Aronimink. He did make the rounds playing junior events in the area.

"It definitely is coming full circle," he said. "I played in junior golf here when I was 13, 14 years old, so to come back now at 40 and play in the area will be a lot of fun."