Constellation Furyk & Friends gets better, not necessarily bigger. That's fine with the hosts

The first weekend of October is becoming Furyk & Friends & Family time.

The PGA Tour Champions event launched last year at the Timuquana Country Club has become a must-play for most of the players, who have flocked to the First Coast to tackle the classic Donald Ross-designed course in the middle of the stretch run to make the final 72 who will qualify for the Charles Schwab Cup playoffs.

And with Phil Mickelson out-dueling Miquel Angel Jimenez to win the inaugural Furyk & Friends and an all-star list of contenders this year — such as tournament host Jim Furyk, Mike Weir, Steve Stricker, Padraig Harrington, Jerry Kelly, Bernhard Langer and Davis Love III – the competition has been stout.

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• Timuquana memories: David Duval remembers idyllic days of golf, cheeseburgers and river swims

With the exception of a thunderstorm that chased fans from the course in the first round in 2021, the weather has been perfect.

Players say the golf course, which underwent a renovation this year, is nearly so.

“It really is a great layout and a fun golf course,” Harrington said. “It’s a hidden gem.”

But Harrington also touched on another reason the first two years of Furyk & Friends has been so successful.

“Once Jim and Tabitha asked, I was coming,” he said of Furyk and his wife.

David Duval went a step further.

“Jim and his family are very well thought of and revered in the game of golf,” he said. “They’ve always been honest, forthright and giving people and to put together such a wonderful event, everybody’s going to show up.”

Tabitha Furyk said comments like that, “warms my heart.”

Better, not bigger

The tournament is an evolution of the two-day affair the Furyks sponsored for a decade at the Sawgrass Country Club. But after they moved from Ponte Vedra Beach to Jacksonville, they wanted to join the PGA Tour Champions schedule.

More than two years of planning went into it, which included the daunting task of selling sponsorships during the COVID-19 pandemic. But with Constellation signing on as the title sponsor (a company that had sponsored Furyk on the PGA Tour for two decades) the event debuted last season with nearly 20,000 fans attending on the weekend.

And despite the success of last year’s event, Tabitha Furyk said the tournament was determined to find ways to be better.

“What we learned is that truly we have a great community and that folks are going to come out and support us,” he said. “So our goal was to enhance the fan experience, especially for kids. We wanted everybody to have somewhere to go.”

Jim Furyk said he never wants the event to lose its cozy, intimate feel.

“I don’t really like to use the word ‘bigger,’” he said. “So we’ve tried to make it better … in a lot of areas. We’ve tried to make the fan experience even that much more fun and special.”

A variety of venues

The usual amenities of a modern Tour event are at the Furyk & Friends. Almost every culinary taste, from pizza to Koren food, can be satisfied at numerous food trucks.

There are several levels of hospitality areas, including the Circle K ParTee Porch that comes with the price of the lowest admission, the Patriots Outpost for military and retirees (tournament tickets and food and beverages in the Outpost are free) and Club 58, the highest-level venue that honors Furyk’s record PGA Tour score for 18 holes.

And at the Publix tailgate village, fans kept up with college football on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday on big-screen TVs that also keep a golf leaderboard on-screen.

By the way – beer is $5 on the course. Soda and water are two for $5. And after every birdie at the par-3 seventh hole, the ParTee Porch offers $2 beers for seven minutes.

More public seating was constructed and more entrances to the golf course were established. The wildly popular Mamitas River Taxis, which are free and offer free parking at the point of embarkation, were increased.

Emphasis on children, parents

Activities for children and places for parents to take a break have been enhanced, starting with children and youth under the age of 17 admitted free with ticketed adults.

Parents and their children were seen at nearly every spot on the golf course and the hospitality venues. But one of the busiest areas was the Kids Zone, sponsored by the Jacksonville Zoo. There were toys, games, a hopscotch pattern, dinosaurs and a thatched fort with books and more games inside.

The Family Lounge, presented by Wolfson Children’s Hospital and Baptist Health and located next to the Kids Zone was open to all families and included free WiFi, more interactive games, a children’s coloring table, changing tables, stations for nursing mothers, and educational information.

The lounge is attached to the tournament’s first aid station, also sponsored by Baptist Health.

Timuquana also has a number of old trees with branches that stretch out close to the ground. Kids were climbing them without anyone from the tournament yelling at them to stay off.

“I really haven’t a tournament that caters to the parents and children like this one,” said Jackie John, the daughter of Champions Tour player Bernhard Langer, who was carrying her daughter Jordan while watching her father play. “It’s very unique.”

Also new this year was a small petting zoo. On Saturday, Zoo education staffers Madison Williamson and Alexis Welch were showing kids a box turtle and tarantula, and enjoying the looks of wonder and curiosity on the kids’ faces.

“We wanted to make sure that on the fan side, we were taking care of them, adults and children, the best way we could,” Tabitha Furyk said. “We’re always looking for anything we can do to make their experience special.”

Charities also family-oriented

And it’s no accident that a tournament so family-oriented is benefiting families and children on the First Coast year-round. More than $1.17 million was raised for charity last year and Tabitha Furyk said the tournament is on track to do even better.

“We don’t have the total ticket sale figures yet but with the pro-am participation and the commitment from Constellation, we are definitely on target to surpass that number,” she said. “It’s what we’re really here for and we’re always going to be looking to expand this so we can stay in Jacksonville for a long time to come.”

Among the charities who benefit: Beaches Habitat for Humanity, the MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation, The First Tee, St. Johns Riverkeeper, Blessings in a Backpack and Wolfson Children’s Hospital.

The tournament brought out some heavy hitters to assist.

Jack Nicklaus and his wife Barbara appeared at the Champions Breakfast on Saturday as part of their Play Yellow campaign to bring awareness to children’s hospitals (Nicklaus hit the first tee shot with Jack Jones, a former Wolfson Children’s patient),

And the Celebrity Challenge for Charity, featuring former Jaguars Tony Boselli and Josh Scobee vs. former Steelers Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome Bettis, resulted in $100,000 going to Blessing in a Backpack and Habitat for Humanity and the players’ foundations.

Players volunteers tapped

Every pro golf tournament needs a strong volunteer base and the Furyk & Friends staff made an extremely smart decision: they put out a call to Players Championship volunteers, long considered among the best volunteer base on the PGA Tour.

Past Players chairman Robert Davis has been the Furyk & Friends chairman for the first two years. Another “Redcoat,” Damon Olinto, will take over for Davis next year.

Other past Players chairs such as Anne Nimnicht and Michelle McManamon were hard at work.

“It’s one of the reasons things have operated as smoothly as they have here,” said tournament director Adam Renfroe. “We would not have had as much success in the first two years had it not been for the expertise they bring in running tournaments. That willingness to support us while continuing their work for The Players is an amazing sacrifice they’re making.”

Renfroe also said another constituency deserves the tournament’s gratitude: the fans who have bought tickets, patronized the food vendors and enjoyed the golf.

“It’s a testament to everyone who is involved,” he said. “Everyone should be proud of how Jacksonville is being shown off to the world and they play a part in it when they come here.”

Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GSmitter

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Furyk & Friends is another First Coast Fall Classic in its second year