Devil Ball Golf 18 for ’15 (Part 12): Jim Furyk

Welcome back to Devil Ball Golf’s 18 for ’15, our 18-part series looking at every major aspect of professional golf heading into the New Year. As we work our way through the 2014-ending world top 10, we arrive at the seemingly ageless Jim Furyk.

Jim Furyk hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since he won the FedEx Cup at the 2010 Tour Championship. It’s been more than 11 years since he won his major at the 2003 U.S. Open. Nevertheless, Furyk is the No. 7 player in the world.

Part of the reason is Furyk’s 2014 trip through the majors was his best since 1997. In ’97, Furyk had three top-six finishes in the majors and a T-28 finish in Tiger Woods’ first Masters win. This past year, Furyk had top-fives in the final two majors, a T-12 at the U.S. Open and a T-14 at Augusta National.

Really, after the Masters, Furyk was masterful. He had his typical top-10 finish at Hilton Head. He was runner-up in consecutive weeks — first at the Wells Fargo Championship, then at The Players. All told, in the 14 starts Furyk had after the year’s first major, he posted nine top 10s, including a pair of additional second-place finishes.

Alright, great: Furyk can rack up world-ranking points, just like Jason Day or any of a handful of high-ranking players who don’t win very often. With close calls at the 2012 U.S. Open and 2013 PGA Championship probably still haunting him, can Furyk win a second major championship and truly earn his place in the World Golf Hall of Fame?

With his lack of length, Furyk is behind the 8-ball at the Masters. Chambers Bay doesn’t seem like it would set up well for him at the U.S. Open. How about the Old Course? Nope — two missed cuts in three career Open Championships there. Whistling Straits hasn’t been good to Furyk in a pair of starts either.

It doesn’t seem like 2015 lines up well for Furyk to break out of a major funk, but it’s clear he played well enough last year to prove it’s only a matter of time before he’s a PGA Tour winner again. Four years is too long.

Read all of the Devil Ball Golf 18 for ’15: