U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Jim Furyk enjoying Scottie Scheffler's run

Jim Furyk was as dialed into Scottie Scheffler’s Masters victory as anyone else on Sunday – but unlike most, Furyk had a specific rooting interest in Scheffler’s success.

Scheffler, who became the first golfer since Tiger Woods in 2001 to win both THE PLAYERS Championship and the Masters in the same season, sits on top of the United States Presidents Cup team standings and he’s unlikely to fall from that spot prior to teeing it up at Royal Montreal Golf Club in September.

Furyk, who will captain that U.S. team, is thrilled to see Scheffler’s early-season success.

“The two biggest events to date are THE PLAYERS and the Masters and Scottie dominated both events and finished both events with a flurry and is just on a roll right now,” Furyk said on a conference call with media about five-and-a-half months from this year’s Presidents Cup. “I think he’ll be making the transformation from one of the younger players to now one of the leaders of the team.”

Furyk will captain the American side against Mike Weir and the International team for the 15th edition of the Presidents Cup. Furyk has had plenty of his own success in Canada, winning the RBC Canadian Open in back-to-back years and finishing runner-up in 2014 when the tournament was played at Royal Montreal.

He was also part of the winning U.S. Presidents Cup team at Royal Montreal in 2007.

As always, the Americans will be favored this time around, but Furyk is not going to be resting on his laurels through the summertime stretch. He said he “definitely” wants his players to scout out Royal Montreal ahead of time, or at the very least get there early in the week to get comfortable with the course.

“I want these guys to be ready,” Furyk said.

He praised the last few captains on the International side – Ernie Els and Trevor Immelman – for bringing that team closer together. Now comes Weir, who was a captain’s assistant for both South Africans and is expected to lean into their successes.

Furyk said no one is overlooking how much closer the matches have gotten recently.

“I expect a very talented group of 12 players on the International side,” he said. “I know they’re hungry. We know the record and they want to change that, and the U.S. doesn’t want to let it go.

“We like the roll we’re on and we want to keep that momentum rolling.”

One person Furyk was non-committal about being a part of the team was Tiger Woods, the 2019 U.S. Presidents Cup captain in Australia who also went a perfect 3-0-0 as a player. As for him being in Montreal as a captain’s assistant, Furyk said he would wait to see if Woods is named the American Ryder Cup captain for 2025.

Woods was asked at the Masters about that Ryder Cup captaincy.

“We’re still talking about it,” he said. “It's something that Seth (Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America) and I are going to sit back and talk about it after this event.”

So, Woods is a maybe. Scheffler is a sure thing. Max Homa went 4-0-0 at the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow and was one of the Americans’ lone bright spots at the Ryder Cup in Rome last fall. Neither of those results escaped Furyk’s notice, and nor did the fact that Homa finished tied for third at the Masters, his best career major result.

Homa, whose road to the game’s elite level was not linear, was one of six American potential team members who were inside the top 10 at Augusta National, and Furyk is excited to see him continue to shine on golf’s biggest stages.

“From an aspect of everything involved – as far as being a good person, being a great teammate, being good in the team room and then also being very talented, I think he’s a great package,” Furyk said, “A guy that you love seeing playing well and a guy you’d like to qualify for your team.”

While Furyk’s team – including his assistants – will be confirmed later this summer, he is eager to build off the lessons he learned as U.S. Ryder Cup captain at Le Golf National in Paris in 2018. (One of those, he said, would be sticking to his game plan versus changing things on the fly.) And he knows that when it comes to the Presidents Cup, and the U.S. side’s history of success, there’s not much need to change.

“We’re still in the early rounds of a prize fight here for guys trying to qualify for this team and it’s been a lot of fun,” Furyk said. “It’s my job to lead our group of 50 and keep the ball rolling.”