Star power at Timuquana: Phil Mickelson will head an A-List at Furyk & Friends

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — The stars are falling on the Timuquana Country Club.

Jim Furyk, the host of the Constellation Furyk & Friends PGA Tour Champions event Oct. 8-10 in Jacksonville at the historic Westside club, unveiled some of the big names who have committed during a news conference on Tuesday.

And after rattling off names such as World Golf Hall of Fame members Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Bernhard Langer, Davis Love III, Vijay Singh, Fred Couples and Mark O’Meara, Furyk saved the biggest for last.

Yep.

Lefty will be here.

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Phil Mickelson, the World Golf Hall of Fame member, six-time major champion, 2007 Players champion and the oldest major champion is the feature act in a field of 80 other players who will be vying for a $2 million purse and Charles Schwab Cup points.

Mickelson has often spoken of a fondness for the Donald Ross course astride the St. Johns River, and will bring his booming drives and short-game magic to its tree-line fairways and tricky push-up greens.

And the day after Furyk’s tournament was announced in March of 2020, Mickelson said he would make every effort to play.

Furyk was always cautiously optimistic that one of his oldest friends on the PGA Tour would play in his inaugural event but said the tournament “had to be the right fit” for Mickelson’s schedule.

Apparently it fits just fine.

Mickelson won the PGA Championship earlier this year at Kiawah Island, setting the all-time record for the oldest player to win one of golf’s four major championships. It was his 45th PGA Tour title and he’s won twice on the PGA Tour Champions, in his first two starts last year.

“There was no arm-twisting with Phil,” Furyk said during the news conference, on the back porch of the Timuquana clubhouse with the vista of the St. Johns River in the background. “We talked to him, said we’d love to have you and he is excited about being here. During The Players he’s played here a few times and he likes the golf course.”

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But that’s not all. Also committed are the two 2021 Ryder Cup captains, Steve Stricker of the U.S. and Padraig Harrington of Europe, with the first round coming only 10 days after the final day of the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.

Harrington, a three-time major champion who turned 50 years old on Aug. 31, is making his PGA Tour Champions debut.

Furyk said getting Stricker to Jacksonville involved a bit of a trap. He was grouped with Couples and Stricker in the first round of the American Family Insurance Championship in June in Madison, Wis., which Stricker hosts.

“We’re on the first tee and Freddie says, ‘I love that you two [host] and event,’” Furyk said. “’Stricks, I’m happy to be here. Jimmy, I can’t want to come to your event.’

“Then he looked at Stricks and said, ‘you’re coming, right,’” Furyk said. “It was awesome … then I told Stricks that hunting season didn’t start in Wisconsin until Thanksgiving. I checked. Then he laughed and said he’d be here.”

Also committing so far are John Daly, Darren Clarke, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Colin Montgomerie and Mike Weir. Players have until 5 p.m. on Oct. 1 to make their final decisions.

If that wasn’t enough star power, Jack Nicklaus, the all-time leader in major championship titles with 18, will appear with his wife Barbara at the Furyk & Friends Champions Breakfast on Oct. 8. Information on purchasing tables for the breakfast at Timuquana can be obtained by emailing jon@furykandfriends.com.

“We expect to have really, really strong crowds for this tournament,” said Miller Brady, president of PGA Tour Champions. “We were the first [Tour] to have spectators about this time last year [in South Dakota] and as we gradually went through the season we had more and more spectators and we are clearly back to full capacity at this time, still following safety protocols.”

The tournament hospitality venues will be open-air and masks will be required inside the clubhouse for those with access.

Even though the final round of the tournament will be the same day as the Jaguars home game against Tennessee, and key college games, Miller said the hospitality areas will have TVs tuned to football.

Florida will be playing host to Vanderbilt, Florida State is at North Carolina and Georgia is at Auburn on Oct. 7.”

“We’re not here to compete against football, we’re going to embrace it,” Brady said. “Make it a fun, festive party atmosphere. Come watch football, have some great food and beverages and watch the golf.”

Tickets and hospitality packages are available by visiting constellationfurykandfriends.com, as well as parking information and ticket details on the concert Oct. 5 at Daily’s Place with Darius Rucker and Scott McCreery. 

The tournament is in the first of a five-year deal with Constellation, with $2.6 million committed to charity. Local charities that will benefit this year are Blessings in a Backpack, Habitat for Humanity, the First Tee, the MaliVai Washington Foundation and the St. Johns Riverkeeper.

Tournament week will begin on Oct. 4 with a Monday pro-am involving 26 PGA Tour Champions, and a Monday qualifier at Eagle Harbor in Orange Park, with four spots open.

Pro-ams will be held on Oct. 6 and 7.

The charities of the day have been decided, with Wolfson Children’s Hospital on Oct. 8, Military Appreciation Day on Oct. 9 and Blessings in a Backpack on Oct. 10. In addition to free admission for the military, reservists, veterans and their families, at least 1,000 tickets to the Darius Rucker concert have been committed to military and their families.