Jim Furyk, 48, turns in his best-ever round at THE PLAYERS

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The 80th round at THE PLAYERS Championship is always the sweetest.

Jim Furyk, who has been a PGA TOUR pro since 1994, who has 17 victories but is making his 23rd start at THE PLAYERS without a win, flattened fearsome TPC Sawgrass on Friday morning. He hit all 14 fairways and all but three greens in regulation, made nearly 100 feet of putts, didn’t make a bogey, and signed for an 8-under 64 to reach 9-under overall.

It’s his best-ever score here, and he’s near the top of the leaderboard.

“I think as I've grown on TOUR, I've kind of got used to it,” Furyk said of Pete Dye’s signature course. “I've maybe gotten a little bit more comfortable on this golf course knowing there's places where you have to attack, and I think early in my career here I played somewhat conservatively in spots, and you can't do that here.”

Tied for 53rd place after an opening-round 71, Furyk zoomed up the leaderboard and briefly held the top spot before overnight co-leader Tommy Fleetwood went 4-under for his first three holes.

To say this was a surprise would be an understatement.

“I'll be honest, when I went to Honda, I didn't realize I had an opportunity to play my way into this field,” Furyk said, “so was kind of planning my schedule with this as an off-week.”

He tied for ninth at The Honda Classic, and leapt 22 spots to 64th in the FedExCup. Furyk was still on the outside looking in, but a few players in the locker room at PGA National told him he had a good chance to get in. He came home to Ponte Vedra Beach and prepared as if he’d tee it up, and sure enough, when a few players withdrew, he was in.

His round Friday was the 215th of his career without a bogey, and the 43rd in which he has hit every fairway.

“I've played it pretty aggressively off the tee for the first two days,” he said, “and I've driven the ball very, very well, and I think that's what's given me the opportunity to play so well.”

Furyk lives nearby and once practiced at TPC Sawgrass. Although he no longer does, and it’s said that familiarity breeds contempt, he denies having such strong feelings. He accepts this place. Understands it. It’s just not the course he’d pick if it were the last round of his life.

“It's not that I dislike the golf course,” he said. “It's just I have a lot more that I like on TOUR, that I'm more comfortable on, that I've played a lot better at in the past. So, if you asked me to rank it, is this one of your three, five favorite courses on TOUR, I'd say absolutely not because I've never won here and my track record.

“We're all selfish,” he added. “My track record is not that great around this golf course.”

Well, it’s not terrible. He was second in 2014, one of four top-10 finishes in 22 starts. He’s only missed five cuts. But when you put it up against the rest of his career, those two sub-60 rounds including a 58 at the Travelers Championship, it’s not going to make the first few paragraphs of his bio.

Winning the 2010 FedExCup will be up there, Furyk with his cap turned backwards in the rain and hollering up to the heavens as his final putt fell to capture the TOUR Championship.

Ask about winning just once in the last eight years, at the 2015 RBC Heritage, he cites not his Ryder Cup captaincy last year but injuries. He withdrew before the start of the 2015 TOUR Championship with a wrist injury, and had surgery that kept him out until May of 2016. He finished T2 at the U.S. Open, but soon he was juggling his own game while also keeping an eye on the careers of the top two dozen or so American players.

“But I wasn't healthy, either, honestly,” he said. “I haven't really had a healthy season since 2015 and I was playing great at that point. I got hurt at the end of that season, had surgery in '16, reinjured myself in '17 with an all new bundle of stuff and chest and collarbone, and honestly that carried through for almost over a year until kind of late last year I started to feel a lot better.”

He shot a final-round 63 to finish T4 at the regular-season-ending Wyndham Championship, and began this season with a T6 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in November, when he led the field in greens in regulation (47/56). He finished T14 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Then came The Honda Classic, and that fateful T9. All of a sudden, he was PLAYERS-bound.

Did he see himself being this competitive on the cusp of 50?

“I wanted to kind of keep an open mind,” he said.

He’d have been fine without playing this week. He has a freshman and a junior in high school, and spends his off-weeks either doing work for his foundation or watching his kids’ athletic exploits. Or, recently, a little of both. “I'm missing three days of volleyball starting today in Orlando,” Furyk said. “I missed a game in Orlando last night for lacrosse. I love going and watching my kids play sports and being around and being at home.”

Being at home and watching after his own athletic career has proven enjoyable, too. He’s seen THE PLAYERS in March, May, and now March again. He’s just never seen the trophy ceremony. Fred Funk, another Ponte Vedra Beach resident, won here in 2005. He was 48. Could history repeat itself this week? Furyk, the trophy in his sights, is keeping an open mind.