$39 putter wins Jim Furyk millions

[Auggie]

9-28-10 / espn.com news services

Golf can be an expensive game. But the putter that netted Jim Furyk an $11.35-million payday at the Tour Championship on Sunday cost him a whopping $39 at a discount golf shop near Boston.

Furyk picked up the used "Yes! Sophia" putter at Joe & Leigh's Discount Golf Pro Shop at Pine Oaks Golf Course in Easton, Mass., earlier this month. He bought it during a quiet visit to the shop after the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston in Norton, The Enterprise of Brockton first reported.

That same putter was in Furyk's hands when he made a 2-foot putt for par that clinched the $1.35 million Tour Championship and another $10 million for winning the FedEx Cup.

The putter landed at the discount shop when two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Paul Szep traded it in, The Boston Globe reported. Szep, who worked at the Globe from 1967 to 2001, now lives in Florida and is an avid golfer with a 7 handicap.

MORE: http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=5625279

[Kingofalldems]

1. Great story

Yes, sometimes putters are magical.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. What A Bargain!

A 350,000-fold return on investment! Pretty good deal!

Given how many people think they can buy a game, this is a good lesson for all of us.
GAC

[Auggie]

3. Yeah -- it's not always the fancy equipment

but how you play the game.

[PVnRT]

4. Anyone who spends more than $100 on a putter is crazy

The putter is important, but if you can't read a green and swing straight and smooth, you might as well put with a driver.

I'm always amazed by beginners who seem to think they need to spend hundreds buying top-of-the-line equipment. Get decent used stuff and learn how to use it first; that seems to be working well for me.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. I Paid $108

The $8 makes me crazy? That doesn't seem fair!

Actually i bought it because it felt like the perfect weight for me. It was heavier than the one i was using, not as heavy as some of the other mallets, and the design made it easy for me to align it, which is important because i'm blind in one eye.

I feel like i'm putting a bit better. I'm averaging about 31 putts per round, which is a bit less than one less putt per round compared to the last two years. (Yeah, i'm a golf geek. I keep my own stats.)

And, besides it's a cool looking putter.

And, really i paid about exactly 100. There's tax involved, ya know! So, maybe i'm crazy, but maybe not!
GAC

[PVnRT]

6. You're a Cubs fan - the crazy there is a given

Actually, I was referring more to the ones hovering above $150 - there are plenty of putters just as good for half the price. I don't see the point in spending that much, since putting is about 80% skill and 20% putter.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Point Taken

You're right. It's official. I'm not right.
GAC

[hughee99]

8. That's a dollar more than I paid for my first set of irons...

I didn't that kind of return on my investment, though. Not a bad used set (Titleist Acoushnet) for a 12 year-old. I got 10 good years out of them.