Like Singh, Furyk will reach height of career in his 40s

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Besides being among the world's top golfers, Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh share some other common ground.

Both live in Ponte Vedra Beach -- not far from the PGA TOUR's headquarters -- and both won their first Player of the Year Award relatively late in their careers. Singh was 41 when he won in 2004; Furyk was 40 when he received the Jack Nicklaus Trophy on Saturday night.

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I think there will be another similarity between these two men when their careers are over: Both will have played their best golf in their later years.

Singh, 47, holds the TOUR record with 21 victories in his 40s, bettering Sam Snead's mark. Furyk, who won three times his year, has 20 more to catch Singh, because only his victory at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola came after his 40th birthday on May 12.

But Furyk clearly showed this year by winning the FedExCup that his best golf is not behind him.

"I'm not going to play on the PGA TOUR for 17 more years, so I realize that I'm moving toward ... maybe the middle of the second part of my career," Furyk said Saturday night. "I don't think the fourth quarter has started quite yet, put it that way."

More like early in the third quarter.

You would be hard-pressed to find a player who has been more consistent on the PGA TOUR than Furyk since 1997. Throw out the 2004 season, when he finished 116th on the money list because wrist surgery limited him to 14 events, and Furyk has finished no worse than 17th in earnings in each of the last 14 years. Eight times he has finished in the top seven.

A bad slump for Furyk lasts about two weeks.

And you want to know how Furyk hurt his wrist? He fell while catching a football during a tailgate party before watching his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. He was injured being an athlete, in other words.

Like most players of his generation, Furyk has been hitting the weights for most of his career. His build -- 6-foot-2, 185 pounds -- isn't much different than when he played basketball in high school. (He also was a quarterback in midget football). Furyk may be in better shape at 40 than he was at 30.

He certainly knows and trusts his unorthodox swing better now than he did when he joined the TOUR and had to listen to just about everyone tell him how he would never last with that loop in his swing. Fortunately for Furyk, his dad, Mike, was always in his other ear, telling him not to change a thing.

It may be true that no golfer ever owns his swing, but Furyk has imminent domain on his unique move. He swings the club as effortlessly as you and I open a door. There will be no lost time as he re-tools his swing as so many other players are forced to do in their 40s.

The biggest knock against Furyk is, until this year, he had never won more than twice in a TOUR season. Well, you know how many times Singh won more than twice before he turned 40?

Zero.

Then Singh won four times, then nine times, then four times. That's how you catch Slammin' Sammie, with 17 wins in three years. Singh had 13 TOUR wins when he turned 40, Furyk 15.

Furyk's career-best three-win season in 2010 is a great portent to the rest of his career. Just like it took David Duval a while to figure out how to win his first title -- then he didn't stop winning for the next three years -- sometimes it takes longer for the best players to win in bunches.

Furyk certainly isn't going to take a breath after this year. His two children are 8 and almost 7, and Nick Price always said a player performs at his best when he has young children and everything is smooth and wonderful in their personal life.

Here's one other thing to consider: His peers have often said you don't want to get into a putting contest with Furyk. But a peek at this year's statistics showed he ranked only a so-so 56th in putting average.

And he still was judged as the TOUR's best player with the three wins and the season-long FedExCup.

That's a little scary.

Craig Dolch is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.