Furyk a hot tip for more Florida success

Another star-studded field will contest this week’s Valspar Championship which kicks off today on the Copperhead course at Tampa Bay’s Innisbrook Resort.

Major winners Retief Goosen (twice), Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk (pictured) and Mark Calcavecchia all are past winners at Innisbrook while other tournament champs include former World No. 1 Luke Donald, former PLAYERS Championship winner K.J. Choi (twice) and defending champion John Senden.

Six of the last seven Valspar winners have finished the season of their win inside the top 30 in the FedExCup standings, highlighted by Furyk winning the Valspar and FedExCup in 2010.

“I think you need to play pretty solid golf to do well around here because it’s narrow in spots, the greens are smaller. It’s a very strategic course.

“If you’re smart around here you can actually do really well and even if you do lay it back a little bit here you can still score well,” said Senden.

2013 Masters champion Adam Scott will be making his sixth Innisbrook visit and he too knows full well what to expect and reckons veteran Furyk will again be a major threat, saying: “You’re looking at someone who can really control the golf ball very well in all areas of the game.

“I look at a guy like Jim Furyk as maybe the best ball-striker out here for a long period of time. I think he’s got total control over his golf ball a lot of the time.”