Finally, Furyk find his comfort zone off the tee

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Jim Furyk was able to attack pins at Bellerive on Saturday because he was consistently on the short grass.

ST. LOUIS -- Jim Furyk with a driver doesn't produce distance. Jim Furyk with a driver produces accuracy.

Jim Furyk with a driver this year, however, has produced merely frustration. And it has resulted in a revolving-door approach in his bag; in fact, his experimentations with his driver may have reached mad-scientist level.

But Jim Furyk with a driver on Saturday at the BMW Championship was a thing of beauty.

In playing 36 holes on a long day at Bellerive, Furyk hit 26 of 28 fairways. It was vintage Furyk, the kind of accuracy that he has displayed in winning 13 PGA TOUR events, including the 2003 U.S. Open.

At one point, in fact, Furyk hit 24 consecutive fairways. Had he hit 25, he probably would've left the course Saturday night with the lead. Instead, a missed fairway on the finishing hole put him in a tough spot in the rough, forcing him to lay up on the par-4 18th with his second shot, resulting in bogey to drop him to 12 under. That was good enough for the clubhouse lead, though, with Camilo Villegas having to finish the final five holes of his third round on Sunday morning.

But that final bogey -- coming on a day when Furyk did little wrong, shooting a combined 12 under, including a tournament-low 62 in the second round -- just underscored the importance of finding the fairway this week. The rough at Bellerive has sprouted, thanks to the rain. Hit your drive there, and you may or may not have to hack out. While this course may be long, the bomb-and-gouge mentality doesn't work here.

Instead, you must find the fairway to wreak havoc on the pins, the soft (albeit large) greens making for target practice. Furyk was Exhibit A on Saturday in that regard, especially in his second nine of his morning round when he carded five birdies and an eagle on holes 1-9 to shoot himself back in the tournament.

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Furyk's second round was littered with crazy stats: 23 putts, seven birdies, one eagle, 13 of 14 fairways hit.

"That one side that I played where I shot 7-under, I think I split the fairway for basically seven fairways," Furyk said, "It definitely makes it a lot easier to play it. ... You're definitely not going to score from the rough out here if you miss too many fairways."

And you're definitely not going to win too many tournaments if you keep changing drivers.

Furyk is winless this year, his last victory coming in Canada in 2007. Part of the reason is his inconsistent putting. But part of it is the driver, especially early in the year during a nine-tournament stretch in which he had just one top-10 finish and two missed cuts, a ratio hardly befitting the world's 13th-ranked player who entered this week fifth in FedExCup points.

So Furyk sought relief by changing drivers. And changing drivers. And changing again and again and again. He changed drivers so much that you'd have thought Donald Trump was in the backseat, firing his chauffeur once a week.

It got laughable at one point, with Furyk using a new driver in each round of the AT&T National. To make the situation even more absurd, he finished third, hitting the four drivers "all actually pretty darned good, to be honest with you," he said.

But Furyk knew the driver du jour approach, while perhaps offering a short-term solution that week at Congressional, was a long-range problem. He needed to find one he was comfortable with, settle on it, gain confidence in it, and make it work.

After all, he hadn't really felt good with driver in hand since the end of the 2006 season when he broke his favorite Srixon. He had been hunting for a suitable replacement every since then, the winless streak making things worse, acclerating his search.

The search may be over. The driver he had Saturday -- one that he had made at Royal Birkdale -- certainly proved effective.

"That Srixon was one of my favorites," Furyk said. "Until now, I really haven't had one that I look back and say, 'You know, that was one of my favorite drivers I've ever had.' "

But this latest driver -- the one he used to shoot 7-under 28 for nine holes, the one he used to shoot 62, the one he used to put himself in position to end his winless streak and perhaps make Vijay Singh sweat a little in the final Playoff event at East Lake -- well, that one might just be his new favorite.

If nothing else, he probably won't be using a new driver in Sunday's final round.