Why would Captain Corey Pavin do that? Hmmm. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Furyk has lost more fourball matches than any other American player in Ryder Cup history. Furyk's record in fourballs is 1-7-1.
Furyk, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods have been the mainstays of American Ryder Cup teams during golf's Woods Era. And they have some of the worst Ryder Cup records of any American golfers.
Why is that? Is it because they are bad match play golfers? Is it because they are poor team players? No and No. It's the caliber of the competition. American fans who wonder about these stars' poor Ryder Cup records often seem to overlook the talents of the guys these three - and other American Ryder Cuppers - are trying to beat.
Arnold Palmer and Billy Casper are the most successful US Ryder Cuppers, but they were beating up on the likes of Dave Thomas and Harry Weetman, George Will and Brian Huggett, Neil Coles and Bernard Gallacher. Sure, there were Brits of that era who had successes - Peter Alliss and Peter Oosterhuis, for example - but those Great Britain and, later, GB&I teams, were usually overmatched, and by a large margin. As they should have been - the United States had (and has) a much larger population than Britain, a much larger pool of golfers.
But the demographic tables have evened in the modern era of Team Europe. And players like Lee Westwood, Colin Montgomerie, all the members of the Spanish Armada, the Langers and Faldos and Lyles, the Darren Clarkes - the modern European Ryder Cup teams are far superior to their British antecedents. Of course today's American Ryder Cuppers lose more often than their compatriots from the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
Which is not to excuse Woods, Mickelson and Furyk from their poor records - they've unquestionably underperformed. Their overall Ryder Cup records are, respectively, 10-13-2, 10-14-6 and 8-13-3. But Palmer and Casper and Ben Hogan and Sam Snead and all the players from America's Ryder Cup glory days would have much less impressive records had they been playing against teams of today's European caliber.
Woods, Mickelson and Furyk might set some records during the 2010 Ryder Cup - records they'd rather not own.
The current record for most Ryder Cup matches lost by an American is 16 (Raymond Floyd). Mickelson is second with 14 losses, and Furyk and Woods are tied for third with their 13.
The record for most singles losses by an American is four, and Mickelson already shares that mark (with Floyd, Jack Nicklaus - who once lost two singles matches in the same day to the same opponent - and Mark O'Meara).
As noted, Furyk already holds the US record for fourball losses (7). But Mickelson and Woods can catch or pass him - they each have six losses in fourballs.
Some combination of Woods, Mickelson and Furyk will almost certainly own all those records at some point, whether any of them occur in 2010.
But the news isn't all bleak for Mickelson. He already holds the US record for most fourballs played, and with five wins in fourballs is only two behind the record currently shared by Palmer and Lanny Wadkins.
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