Jim Furyk

Lore & Background

Few golfers have ever looked quite like Jim Furyk on the fairway. While the rest of the field winds up and releases in the conventional plane, Furyk grips the club as a right-hander but swings it as a left-hander, producing a low, laser-like trajectory that seems to flatten out the wind and hug the ground. The swing was not a gimmick born in a practice lab; it was the product of a kid in Chicago who picked up a club and simply found a motion that worked, one that he has refined and defended for over thirty years. To watch him strike a drive is to see physics bent just enough to be memorable, and that visual identity has made him as recognizable as any player in the game.

His major championship résumé, while compact, is loaded with dominance. The 2003 Masters at Augusta National is the crown jewel: a 63 in the final round, a six-stroke margin over the field, and a performance that left commentators searching for superlatives. Two years later, he added the 2005 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, cementing his status as a player who could win the biggest events when it mattered most. Between those peaks, Furyk accumulated a steady stream of PGA Tour wins and a reputation as a player who could grind out a win on any week, on any course, in any conditions.

The partnership with caddie Mike McHugh was a cornerstone of that consistency. McHugh was not merely a bag-carrier; he was a strategic partner, reading greens, managing Furyk's temperament, and serving as the calm voice in the storm of a major championship. Their years together produced a rhythm that translated into birdies on the back nine and clutch putts when the pressure peaked. In the lore of the Tour, the Furyk-McHugh pairing is remembered as one of those duos where the chemistry between player and caddie was as much a weapon as the swing itself.

In Their Own Story

Augusta, April 2003. The air hangs thick with azalea scent and the low hum of a crowd that has been on its feet for three days. Furyk stands over a 14-footer on the 16th, the flagstick trembling in the breeze. Mike McHugh crouches behind him, reading the break, murmuring something only the two of them will ever fully understand. The putt rolls, breaks, and drops with a soft thud. Furyk doesn't celebrate. He never does. He simply adjusts his cap, looks down the line of the 17th, and walks. The scoreboard behind him reads six clear. The Masters is over, and the man with the left-handed swing has done it the way he always does — quietly, precisely, and without ever asking the gallery to believe him first.

Reader's Guide

The Lefty. That's what the galleries called him before the cameras caught the swing and the name stuck. Jim Furyk, right-handed grip, left-handed swing, a Chicago kid who turned pro in 1994 and spent the next two decades proving that mechanics don't have to be conventional to be lethal.

His rise wasn't a single explosive season but a slow, grinding accumulation of confidence. Early Tour years saw him collecting runner-up finishes and top-10s, his low ball flight cutting through the wind on courses where others lost control. The breakthrough came in 2003 at Augusta, where a 63 in the final round and a six-stroke victory turned a respected contender into a major champion. The 2005 PGA Championship at Southern Hills followed, confirming he wasn't a one-trick player.

At his side for the better part of a decade stood Mike McHugh, caddie and strategist. McHugh read the greens, managed Furyk's competitive fire, and kept the rhythm steady through 72-hole marathons. The two moved like a single unit — McHugh calling the break, Furyk executing the swing, the low ball tracking true as if on a rail. Equipment loyalty ran deep; Furyk was a long-time Callaway player, trusting the same set of irons and driver through seasons of change on the Tour.

His legacy stat: two majors, 15 PGA Tour wins, and a swing that will outlive every conventional mechanic who ever tried to copy it. The moment that made him a household name? That 63 at Augusta, the putts dropping, the crowd finally understanding that the weird swing was the right one all along.

Did You Know?

• Jim Furyk grips the club right-handed but swings it left-handed — a combination that produces a low, penetrating ball flight almost unique in professional golf.
• His 2003 Masters Tournament victory included a final-round 63 and a six-stroke margin, one of the largest winning margins in the event's history.
• Longtime caddie Mike McHugh was with Furyk for over a decade, serving as both strategist and emotional anchor during major championship weeks.
• Furyk's signature 'stinger' drive — a low, flat, penetrating shot — became a defining visual of his game and a shot other players have struggled to replicate.