Wilson Furr's wild journey to the U.S. Open
"Wait, we're playing for the U.S. Open right now?" How the Jackson, MS, native made the most of a longshot opportunity
Wilson Furr was hungry. He’d opted against eating breakfast that morning, partly because of the early hour at which his newly-minted day job beckoned him, and mostly due to the long odds of him actually playing a competitive golf hole that day.
The date was June 7 and Furr stood on the eighth green of Long Cove Club in Hilton Head, South Carolina, pondering how to get food and to get someone to carry his golf bag for the remaining 28 holes.
He’d arrived at the course just after 6 a.m. that morning, as an alternate to the 121st U.S. Open sectional qualifying event taking place that day. Furr lost in a four-way playoff for the final advancing spot at a local qualifier a month prior and was awarded second alternate status for sectionals, meaning, in theory, if two of the four men that advanced at his local qualifying spot dropped out, he would earn a spot in sectional qualifying. It’s not as likely as it may sound, as he put it.
“That’s not really a thing,” Furr said. “You don’t get in. Second alternates don’t get into U.S. Open sectional qualifiers. If you have to go through local qualifying, you’re likely not dropping out unless you’re injured or sick.”
Furr wasn’t even in the state of South Carolina that week for the purpose of waiting for a potential spot in the event. He’d turned the page to other opportunities. It was not remotely on his radar. He turned professional a week prior after graduating from the University of Alabama, where he earned All-SEC honors in his final spring season. Furr successfully made it through a Thursday qualifier for the PGA Tour stop that week in Ridgeland, South Carolina. That got him a spot in a Monday qualifier (which was actually played on Sunday June 6) for the actual event itself the following Thursday.
Confused by all these qualifiers yet? Welcome to the life of a young professional golfer trying to make it onto the PGA Tour. It’s a lot of flights, hotels, waiting, changing of plans and confusing exemptions and status thresholds, all in the name of determining whether you’ve earned the right to swing a club for your paycheck that week.
Furr failed to make it through the Monday (turned-Sunday) qualifier for the PGA Tour event that week. Failed is an accurate word, but perhaps too harsh of a description as these things usually consist of a field of 90-100 of the world’s best golfers playing in a one-day, 18-hole tournament, vying for two or three spots into a tournament at the highest level of professional golf. He planned to leave for a mini tour event in Greensboro, North Carolina, later that week before returning to Sea Island where his agency is based to practice and figure out the rest of his schedule. Just as he was packing up, his agent stopped him and asked about his status from last month’s U.S. Open local qualifier. Furr explained his status as second alternate.
“Let me make a few phone calls,” the agent said.
Next thing Furr knew, he was standing in a tent at Long Cove Club at 6 a.m. explaining to the local USGA Staff who he was and why he was there, admittedly skeptical of the point of going through all of this.
“It’s a great day to be an alternate,” one of the staffers said.
Guys were dropping out left and right. There are 12 sectional qualifying spots scattered across the United States. Ten of them were held on June 7, in what is known as Golf’s Longest Day. Each event is 36 holes and awards a varying number of spots into the U.S. Open depending on the size and strength of the field. This particular qualifier awarded five spots. One of the benefits of Furr being at the one adjacent to the PGA Tour event that week is that PGA Tour players are really the only ones that have the financial stability and professional status to simply elect against trying to get into the U.S. Open. Three alternates were ahead of Furr on the list. All three got in as he stood and watched. Then, PGA Tour player Patton Kizzire elected not to show up and Furr got a phone call a little after 7 a.m. — he was in the field if he could make it to the 1st tee box at 8:38 a.m.
“Holy cow, I am really in this thing,” Furr said to himself.
You’ll see PGA Tour players at every U.S. Open sectional, but this particular qualifier was littered with them with the Tour’s event later that week being just down the road. Guys like Bill Haas, Brandt Snedeker, Chesson Hadley and Bo Van Pelt were all there. Furr was one of the most decorated junior players of his class and played at a collegiate powerhouse. He’s not one to feel out of place, but with everyone else around him having a caddie, sponsored gear and a previously-secured spot in the qualifier, he couldn’t help but feel a little behind the eight ball as he toted his own walking bag up to the first tee. Why hire a caddie for an event you likely aren’t getting in? Furr had never seen this golf course before and didn’t play a practice round. He was just happy (and surprised) to be there.
Furr didn’t have much time to dwell on it. He had about 45 minutes to warm up, hit some putts and get to the tee. He was paired with John Augenstein and PGA Tour player Scott Harrington.
“That’s sort of the thing with professional golf,” Furr said, “no one cares about you. Not in a bad or malicious way, but it’s their job too. They have things to accomplish and they’re here to beat you. No one is going to feel bad for you for carrying your own bag. It’s kind of what I love about it. It motivates me.”
The motivation worked. Furr birdied hole two and then went back-to-back on six and seven. Three-under par thru eight holes, with 28 left to play, he was in this thing and decided he needed to prepare for the long haul. Playing on an empty stomach while carrying his own bag was no way to make the most of this opportunity. He spotted a spectator following their group, a man that looked to be around 60 years old. Furr approached him with an odd question.
“I just thought, ‘okay, well if I am here and in this thing, I am going to try to do this right,’” Furr recalled. “So I asked him ‘do you know anyone who could show up here and carry this bag for me?’”
The man was a bit surprised but said he’d make a few phone calls. A couple holes and pars later, a man who appeared to be in his early 30s called J.D. showed up. J.D. lives in the area and caddies at another club.
"What do you need from me?” J.D. asked. Time was limited. The two men hadn't even introduced themselves.
"Can you bring me as much healthy food as you can find and come back? I'll handle the bag until then," Furr responded. J.D. nodded and disappeared toward the clubhouse. Furr birdied No. 11 to get to four under. This was beginning to get real.
J.D. re-emerged a few holes later with a couple of chicken wraps and some chips. Furr scarfed it down and the two introduced themselves.
"What do you need from me?" J.D. asked again.
"You've played here before, right? I don't need golf help as far as reads or anything, I just need you to point me to the center of the fairway and tell me where the trouble is," Furr said. “Oh, and carry the bag, please.”
Off they went as these two strangers formed the oddest of duos. One man was gunning for the opportunity of a lifetime, the other was just glad to spend the day outside and lend a helping hand. What Furr didn't ask for was a calming presence, but J.D. provided it in spades.
"I'll give him credit, that man was as cool as a cucumber," Furr recalled. "That helped me."
Furr parred out and turned in a 4-under 67 on the first 18. He was firmly in the mix, but he didn't exactly know where he stood. U.S. Open sectionals have live scoring, but it isn't the ShotLink, minute-by-minute style updates players accustomed to at PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour events. In the brief time between rounds, Furr saw a lot of nine-hole scores and a couple of finished numbers. He knew enough to know he had a chance, but not much else beyond that. He got some food and headed to the tee to begin the second 18 holes. He parred the first and made a bad bogey on the second hole after electing to putt from the fringe instead of chip.
A distant memory entered his mind.
This wasn't Furr's first U.S. Open Sectional experience. He made it through local qualifying at the ripe age of 14 in 2013 and played in a sectional qualifier at Colonial Country Club in Memphis. He played with an Ole Miss alum named Pope Spruiell that day. Spruiell was a mini tour guy at that point and in a similar position that Furr found himself in now -- firmly on the qualifying number with a handful of holes left. Spruiell imploded. A back-nine 40 that included four bogeys and a double cost him a shot at making the U.S. Open.
“That dude was in the number with nine to play and shoots like 40 on the last nine," Furr recalled. "That’s a guy, at the time, basically with my status.. I could see how that was a pretty important moment.”
Despite the stage, the costly bogey and the enormous opportunity hanging in the balance, Furr didn't allow the pressure to consume him. The 22-year-old was focused, but not nervous. The sheer fact that he was standing on this course with a chance to get into the U.S. Open was a longshot in its own right. The ever-calm Caddie J.D. inadvertently helped ease the tension in an exchange that might just encapsulate this entire day better than anything else.
The two walked down the fairway of the 24th hole of the day. In an effort to break the silence, J.D. had a question.
“So, where do you go after this qualifier if you get through? Where is the next spot?” he inquired.
“What do you mean? This is it. I go to the Open if we make it," Furr said.
“Wait, we are playing for the f**king U.S. Open right now?” J.D. exclaimed.
“Yeah."
“Holy sh*t. That’s awesome."
Furr couldn't help but laugh. He made six consecutive pars after the bogey as he approached Long Cove's 18th green. (his ninth hole as he started on hole No. 10). Furr drained a 30 footer for birdie to get back to even on the side and 4-under total with nine holes left
With the way the course was playing, he thought if he could shoot one or two under on his back side to get to five or six under, he'd have a shot.
"Just keep going," he told himself. "I knew 5-under wasn't a lock, but I felt pretty good about it if I could get there."
He bogeyed No. 1, his 10th hole, but responded with back-to-back birdies on No. 3 and 4. He was back to 5-under with five holes to play. A birdie putt lipped out on five, a par on six and a massive up-and-down on seven that induced a fist pump left him at 5-under with two holes left. An adrenaline-boosted five iron on the 230-yard par-3 eighth to 15 feet left him with another birdie putt.
It was again beginning to feel real, particularly if that one went down.
The putt lipped out. One hole left. He piped a driver down the ninth fairway and flipped a wedge to six feet. One more chance to remove some more doubt. He missed it on the low side, an agonizing ending. Furr shot a 1-under 70 to get to 5-under in total. He knew he was close. As if this day could get any weirder, a scorer gave him a false sense of security.
"congrats, you're in the U.S. Open," the marker said as Furr walked off the final green. Furr's heart raced, and then sank. He checked the scores and realized five guys were at five under with holes still left.
"Dude, are you nuts?" he thought to himself. "I am inside the number, I am not in the U.S. Open, yet."
(Remember, there were five total spots awarded this site)
Furr and J.D. watched the action unfold. Tour player J.J. Spaun got up-and-down on 18 to finish at 5-under, the fourth man in the clubhouse that number.
"Ok, we are going to a playoff," Furr thought.
Ben Martin, also at 5-under, was next. He missed the 18th green short. He chipped up to about eight feet and missed to drop to 4-under. Four guys were now in at 5-under with two players left on the course at 4-under: Zach Sucher and Askhay Bhatia.
Both parred. Furr was in the U.S. Open. His miraculous day was complete.
"I just lost it," Furr recalled. “ I looked at J.D. and was like 'dude, we just made the U.S. Open.'”
He darted to the bar and bought himself and J.D. beers. It still hadn't sunk in that his professional debut was going to come at Torrey Pines.
“I cannot over emphasize this enough: if you told me two weeks ago I was going to play in the U.S. Open I would have laughed at you," Furr said. "I had written it off. Second alternates don't get in. I really mean that. It was not on my schedule. It was over with for me.”
Golf's Longest Day was just a bit harder and certainly more improbable than others for the Jackson, Mississippi, native. But he’s quite accustomed to both the highs lows of golf.
Furr arrived at Alabama as one of the highest rated recruits in the country after a decorated junior golf career. He won the Future Masters, one of the most prestigious junior tournaments in the country, twice by the age of 14. He won the 2015 Mississippi State Amateur by eight shots at age 16, the youngest winner in its 100-year history.
Success came easy, how hard could college golf be? Well, then came the summer before he arrived at Alabama, Furr began shoving it right off the tee. His game went to hell, as did his freshman fall.
“I was chipping and putting my ass off just to shoot 78," Furr said. "It was awful."
It took eight months to fix, but once corrected, he resumed his ascent. He won the State Amateur by 11 strokes in the summer of 2018, which earned him an exemption into the Sanderson Farms Championship -- Mississippi's PGA Tour event — that fall. He earned Ping All-Region honors as a sophomore, but felt the weight of the world on his shoulders as injuries and guys turning pro dismantled the team.
Then COVID-19 pandemic wiped away his junior spring just as he appeared to be blossoming into the star most thought he'd be from the time he was 11 years old. He was the medalist in the stroke play portion of the U.S. Amateur that summer, but was bounced in the round of 32 of the match play in a slugfest. Harrson Ott beat Furr in 19 holes. Furr shot a bogey-free 3-under and lost the match. He was playing great golf, medalist at the largest amateur tournament in the world, but had little to show for it. It frustrated him and would sometimes spill over into his on-course demeanor. One day before his senior season, in what he called a 'come to Jesus meeting with himself,’ he declared this had to get better if he was going to try to play golf for a living.
"I used to beat myself up on the course a lot," Furr recalled. "I was really hard on myself. One day I thought ‘you know, I want to do this for a living, and if I do that and continue doing this to myself, I’ll end up in a mental institution. It’s just not going to work. Just keep playing. Don’t react. I have really worked on that. Just stop reacting and keep playing golf.”
As he improved between the ears, the long-awaited accolades began to roll in. He led the Crimson Tide in in top-five finishes, top-20 results, and total number of rounds in the 60s. He led the team in strokes against par and was second in scoring average. Furr earned First Team All-SEC honors in his final collegiate season. He's stronger than ever mentally on the course. Nothing phases him, not even pulling a caddie out of the crowd to carry your bag for the final 25 holes of an event he got into on 45 minutes notice.
“I am pretty proud of that," Furr said. "It’s one thing to fix your golf game. It’s really hard to fix yourself. I have really worked on that and gotten better.”
He won't be fazed by the stage at Torrey Pines either as he plays against the best players on the planet. Why would he? Destined for stardom since he was in elementary school, Wilson Furr is still just tapping into his potential.
"Golf is funny in that you kind of disappear off the radar until you play well," he said. “I believe I was always supposed to be doing stuff like this and I think that is all that matters."