Golf, food, music and community: Constellation Furyk & Friends offers something for everyone

The Furyks are throwing a party at one of the most historic Donald Ross golf courses in the South and they have one message.

Y’all come.

PGA Tour Champions golf returns to the First Coast for the first time in 19 years as the Constellation Furyk & Friends tournament will be played Oct. 8-10 at the Timuquana Country Club, one of the oldest continuously operating clubs in Florida.

There, among fairways lined with trees dripping with Spanish Moss, on the banks of the St. Johns River, 17-time PGA Tour winner Jim Furyk and his wife, Tabitha, are hosting the first PGA Tour Champions event in the area since 2002, the final year of the Legends of Golf at the World Golf Hall of Fame King & Bear.

It’s a new generation of Champions Tour stars who have come out to test their skills on the meandering fairways and tricky push-up greens of Timuquana.

The field is led by reigning PGA champion Phil Mickelson, who became the oldest player in history to win a major championship in May at Kiawah Island, S.C., plus other major champions such as Schwab Cup points leader Bernhard Langer, Vijay Singh, Davis Love III, Furyk, Fred Couples, John Daly, Ernie Els, Mark O’Meara and Jose Maria Olazabal — plus Ryder Cup captains Steve Stricker and Padraig Harrington.

If all of the players who have committed or indicated they will have committed by the Oct. 1 deadline show up at Timuquana, the field will have 58 past PGA Tour winners who have combined for 438 titles; 20 players combining for 38 major championships; 56 past PGA Tour Champions winners combining for 261 titles; and 23 PGA Tour Champion major winners who have combined to win 50 majors.

The tournament has the backing of Constellation Energy for five years — which means a commitment of $2.6 million to charity — and the presenting sponsor is Circle K.

Other corporate support will be seen in the number of restaurants that set up shop at the course (such as M Shack and Taco Lu), participants in three pro-ams (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday of tournament week) and the purchase of hospitality packages.

Also coming will be musical stars Darius Rucker and Scott McCreery, who will perform at a concert on Oct. 5 at Daily’s Place.

The Furyk factor

Why the strong support from both players, the entertainers and the First Coast business community, in the tournament’s first year, in the middle of football season?

PGA Tour Champions President Brady Miller has an easy answer.

“It’s Jim and Tabitha,” he said of one of the First Coast’s leading power couples in golf. “They have supported charities; Tabitha is on numerous boards and everyone wanted to be a part of because of them. The question was, what level?”

Tournament director Adam Renfroe said there was some uncertainty about how the tournament would be received. The dates were announced several days before the Tour was forced to cancel The Players and officials have been monitoring the impact of the COVID surge this summer.

Renfroe called the overall response by the business community and fans a “pleasant surprise.”

“It speaks to the relationship Jim and Tabitha have in Jacksonville and their charity work,” Renfroe said. “I think there’s confidence in the corporate community that their money and their sponsorships are going to be put to good use. We’re really proud of Jacksonville and the response we’ve gotten.”

The race to Schwab playoffs

The competition will be important to the players since the Furyk & Friends is the next-to-last tournament to insure a top-72 finish on the Schwab Cup points list and qualify for the three-tournament Schwab Cup series.

It’s been a two-year process, because of the pandemic, with 2020 and 2021 folded into one race.

Langer’s runnerup finish to K.J. Choi last week at Pebble Beach gave him a lead of more than $164,000 over Furyk, with Jerry Kelly, Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez rounding out the top-five.

Langer is seeking his sixth Schwab Cup title.

Dylan Buell/Getty Images

And what golf purist from the First Coast won’t want to see how the field attacks Timuquana?

“It will be set up firm and fast and the greens allow for defense,” Furyk said. “Depending on the weather, single-digits [under par] could win. If you drive the ball well you will have a short iron in your hand a reasonable number of times. The par-5s are reachable. But with the pushup greens and some putts that can break a little funny, you can make bogeys as well.”

When Furyk first approach Miller about holding a PGA Tour Champions event, he said they both had the same idea: play at Timuquana.

“It’s a hidden gem,” Miller said. “I don’t think it’s going to favor a certain style and I think the guys are going to love having to hit different shots into and around the greens.”

Come for the golf, stay for the party

But just as much as it will be a golf tournament, Tabitha Furyk wants it to be a community celebration. The 2020 Players Championship was canceled because of the onset of the pandemic. The 2021 Players was held with limited spectators.

Furyk & Friends could be a way for golf fans to unwind in a comfortable setting.

“We want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to feel like they own part of this tournament,” she said. “It’s super-important to us that this just isn’t about golf, but also about the great food the Jacksonville restaurants have to offer and the music. It’s a party in our community and we want everyone to come.”

There will still be safety measures in place. All hospitality venues are open-air, hand sanitizers will be plentiful and social distancing is being encouraged. Masks are required for those with clubhouse access.

But autographs will be allowed and Miller said that close to 90 percent of the PGA Tour Champions members are vaccinated.

Furyk said another reason he’s enthused about the tournament: almost every player in the field competed in The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra for years but most of them have never seen Timuquana, downtown Jacksonville or the Ortega area.

“They’ve really only seen the airport, the beach and the TPC Sawgrass,” Furyk said. “Now they’re going to get a chance to see our downtown area and the beautiful areas on the river we have.”

PGA Tour Champions on the First Coast

Senior Players Championship

1987: Gary Player shot 8-under 208 at the Sawgrass Country Club to beat Chi Chi Rodriguez and Bruce Crampton by one shot at the Sawgrass Country Club.

1988: Billy Casper’s 10-under 278 at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course beat Al Geiberger by two shots.

1989: Orville Moody lit up the Valley Course for a 17-under 271, the lowest 72-hole individual score in a Champions Tour event on the First Coast. He beat Charles Coody by two shots.

Legends of Golf

1998: The tournament was played at the Golf Club of Amelia for one year when the World Golf Hall of Fame Slammer & Squire Course wasn’t ready. Charles Coody and Dale Douglass won the team competition for the third time in sudden death against Hugh Baiocchi and David Graham after both teams finished 24-under 192.

1999: Hubert Green and Gil Morgan shot 22-under 194 at the Slammer & Squire to beat John Mahaffy and Tom Wargo by three shots.

2000: Jim Colbert and Andy North won at 25-under 191 at the Slammer & Squire, outlasting Bruce Fleisher and David Graham by one shot.

2001: The same two teams remained at the top after a rain-shortened 36-hole event, which was moved to the King & Bear. Colbert and North shot 20-under 124 and nipped Fleisher and Graham by one shot.

2002: The tournament format changed to individual stroke play for the Senior Division, with earnings counting for the first time. Doug Tewell edged Bobby Wadkins by one shot at 11-under 205 at the King & Bear. It was late announced that the tournament was moving to Savannah.