Jim Furyk out of crucial event after sleeping in

Published on Wednesday 25 August 2010 15:10

Jim Furyk overslept yesterday and was late for his pro-am time in The Barclays, leaving PGA Tour officials no choice but to disqualify him from the first of four FedEx Cup playoff events.

A two-time winner on tour this year, Furyk is No 3 in the standings as the race for the $10 million prize gets under way at Ridgewood Country Club without him. It is unlikely he will fall too far down the standings, although he eliminated any chance of improving. "I'm kicking myself," Furyk said. "I have a way of climbing into situations that are all my fault."

Furyk sets his alarm on his cell phone, and he awoke at 7:23am to find out that his phone lost power overnight. He threw on some clothes and shoes, bolted out of his hotel room and rushed to Ridgewood, arriving at 7:35am.

The pro-am was a shotgun start that began at 7:30am. Furyk was to start on the 11th hole, and he realised when he arrived that he had no chance of getting there on time. Furyk was in such a rush that he did not put on a belt or socks, and he still had not tied his shoes. The PGA Tour adopted its policy on pro-ams in 2004 after some players began skipping the Wednesday events for suspect reasons. Now, players are automatically disqualified from the tournament if they miss the pro-am except for injury or family emergency.

Retief Goosen was disqualified from the Nissan Open in 2005 when he overslept and missed his pro-am. Furyk said it was the second time in his career that he had overslept and missed a pro-am time. The other occasion was years ago at Bay Hill, when an alternate filled in for two holes until he arrived. That possibility no longer exists under the new policy. Although he said he was upset about not playing Ridgewood or the tournament, Furyk said the worst of his disqualification was "to possibly, severely hurt a good year." "I played my heart out all year," Furyk said. "I've got no one to blame but myself."

It might not be all that bad. A year ago, Zach Johnson was No3 in the standings. If he had not played the Barclays, he would have fallen only two spots to No5. Furyk will have to see how many players behind him in the rankings play well this week.

He has headed home to Florida before going up to the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second round of the playoffs, outside Boston next week. Furyk's children started school this week. "And I wound up missing that, too," he said.

Meanwhile, Dustin Johnson returns to golf today believing he was simply involved in a "freak" incident at the US PGA Championship two weeks ago.

Johnson led by one on the final hole of the year's final major when he incurred a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club on what he thought was just "a piece of dirt". It was deemed to be a bunker, though, and what he thought was a bogey to drop him into a play-off was changed to a seven that dropped him to fifth. "I'm going to think twice about it every time I get in a bunker," said Johnson, now in New Jersey for The Barclays. "It's just a lesson learned, I guess, and anytime I'm on any type of sand I'm going to be quite careful."