By Robert Wilson
Wilson Furr is back home. The 26-year-old Jackson Academy alumnus grew up playing the Country Club of Jackson course.
And Friday, Furr will try to make his trip back home a little longer.
Furr shot a 2-under par 70 Thursday and is tied for 68th after the first round of the Sanderson Farms Championship golf tournament entering Friday’s second round at CCJ in Northeast Jackson.
He tees off Friday at 1:40 p.m.
Furr is one of 132 golfers who were entering in the event. Three have withdrawn. The projected cut is 3 under meaning that Furr needs to at least shoot a 1 under par 71 to make the cut and be able to play in the next two rounds.
Furr is in his third pro season after playing at Alabama.
This is Furr’s 20th event this year in his first year playing on the PGA Tour. He has made the cut five times and has one Top 25 finish. Furr shot 9 under and finished tied for 13th in the Procore Championship and won $86,515 on Sept. 15 at Napa, California.
Furr made his first cut as a PGA Tour card holder and finished tied for 39th and shot 7 under in the Mexico Open in February.
It was his third PGA Tour even since he earned his card last fall.
Furr shot a 6-under par 66 in the first round of the American Express in his first event in January but shot a 77 playing with back pain and withdrew after two rounds.
He bounced back from his back issues and shot 70 in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open but shot 75 in the second round and didn’t make the cut in late January.
Furr earned his PGA Tour card after a tie for sixth place in the Korn Ferry Championships in Indiana last October. He was in 32nd place in the points list on the Korn Ferry Tour and finished 24th to get his PGA Tour card. The Top 30 received their cards. Furr was one of five players who started the week outside of the Top 30 and played well enough to finish in the Top 30. Furr finished strong, with six Top 25 finishes in his last seven events last season.
Furr made his professional debut at the U.S. Open as an automatic qualifier in 2021 at Torrey Pines, Calif. Furr shot 77 and 82 in the first two rounds and didn’t make the cut. He received one of the 54 automatic qualifying spots when four players withdrew.
Furr helped Alabama reach four consecutive NCAA Regionals, including a national runner-up finish in 2018. He shot a 9-under 62 in the second round of the 2020 U.S. Amateur on his way to becoming the second player in Alabama men’s golf history to win stroke play medalist honors.
Furr was a second-team Rolex All-American in 2015 while at JA and finished second in the 2015 Junior PGA Championship. At age 16, Furr became the youngest player in the 100-year history of the Mississippi State Amateur to win the event, winning by eight strokes and missing the tournament record by two strokes.
In 2018, Furr won the Mississippi State Amateur for the second time, qualifying him to play in the PGA Sanderson Farms Classic in Jackson.
Furr was ranked as the No. 6 high school prospect in the country in the 2017 class by Golfweek.com.
He was one of six players named to the boys United States Junior Ryder Cup team in the summer of 2016.
