Furyk hangs on at LVI

Monday, Oct. 19, 1998 | 11:28 a.m.

Although he had a six-stroke lead with eight holes to play, Jim Furyk hadn't started planning how he would spend the $360,000 winner's share of the Las Vegas Invitational.

It wasn't that Furyk was doubting his ability to protect a lead. He just knew all too well how a player's fortunes can change on the closing holes at the Tournament Players Club at Summerlin.

"I think the last time I was ahead by six shots was probably in high school," Furyk said.

"I knew that it's possible, coming into those finishing holes ... that a guy can get real healthy through there."

Just as Mark Calcavecchia did Sunday. Trailing Furyk by six shots, Calcavecchia rallied with five birdies on the final eight holes. But he came up short when Furyk saved par from a greenside bunker on the 18th hole to win the $2 million LVI by a stroke.

In capturing his first tournament since February 1996, Furyk became the first two-time winner in the 16-year history of the annual PGA Tour stop here.

Scott Verplank closed with a 67 and finished three shots behind Furyk in third. Bob Tway had a 65 to finish four back in fourth and Davis Love III took fifth.

It appeared after nine holes Sunday that Furyk would run away with the title, but Calcavecchia did his part to keep it interesting. Calcavecchia birdied Nos. 11, 13, 15 and 16 to get to 23 under for the tournament, but still trailed Furyk by three shots with two to play.

Furyk bogeyed the par-3 17th, Calcavecchia made par there and the lead had dwindled to two shots.

"Standing on the 16th green, I kind of thought, 'Well, I still might have a shot here,'" Calcavecchia said. "Then he bogeyed 17 and then he hit it right on 18 and I knew it was in the trap. And all of a sudden I'm right in the thick of things."

Calcavecchia stuck a 7-iron to within 3 feet of the hole on 18 and made birdie, forcing Furyk to get up and down from the sand to avoid a playoff. Furyk blasted out of the trap to within 8 feet and sank the putt for par and a narrow one-shot victory.

"It got pretty exciting," Calcavecchia said. "It turned out to be a good show after all. I know six- or seven-shot wins are kind of boring -- I've had a few of them."

After going winless for more than two years after winning two PGA events in four months -- including the 1995 Las Vegas Invitational -- Furyk said Sunday's win was a relief.

"I try not to put too much pressure on myself (to win), but after a while it'll start to bother you," Furyk said. "Like everyone else, I tee it up on Thursday trying to win the golf tournament.

"Finishing in the top 10 is great ... but eventually you want to kind of break the door down and get a win under your belt. I think this one was the toughest for me. I got my first one in '95 and a lot of people say the hardest one is the second, but mine came very quickly."

After winning his first PGA title here in October of 1995, Furyk picked up his second in Hawaii four months later. He didn't win again in 1996 or 1997, although he recorded 13 top-10 finishes last year and finished fourth on the money list.

Coming into Las Vegas, Furyk had nine top-10s -- including two second-place finishes -- and more than $1.3 million in earnings.

Through it all, Furyk said he never doubted that he would win another tournament.

"I always had confidence in myself that I was good enough to win a golf tournament," he said.

"I'd rather get myself in contention and keep knocking on the door and keep playing solid golf. I knew if I kept doing that, it would be a matter of time."

Perhaps, but not even Furyk could have imagined his time would come -- again -- in Las Vegas.

"I was surprised to hear that this is the first time in all the years the tournament has been here that there has been a repeat winner -- that's pretty amazing," Furyk said.

"The last couple of years, I have been trying to figure out how the heck I shot 28 under and won this golf tournament (in 1995). Now that I have done it again, I still haven't figured it out -- that's a lot of birdies."

But after reflecting on his previous six tournaments, in which he missed two cuts and did not finish in the top 20 in the other four, Furyk stumbled upon a possible answer.

"One thing I haven't been doing the last month or so, I haven't been playing poorly, but I just wasn't making any birdies," he said. "Maybe I just saved them up for the last month or so and got them all this week."