Homesick Furyk striving to stay focused

Sick and tired, Jim Furyk's mind is starting to wander towards home. He's been away too long, playing in poor weather too long. Three weeks on the road, suffering a first-round loss in the World Matchplay followed by a big defeat in the Ryder Cup, his mind isn't entirely on the American Express championship which gets under way at The Grove, near Watford, today.

"Right now, what I miss most is my kids. I'm not saying I want to go hop on a plane and leave but, three weeks away, I'm slightly miserable to say the least," said Furyk.

It was a familiar sentiment, expressed by American players suffering the hangover of defeat at The K Club and struggling to come to terms with exactly went wrong for Team USA.

Ten of the US team that featured last week are here, the only absentees being Phil Mickelson, who has taken a break from tournament play until next year, and Vaughn Taylor. The only European player absent is Paul McGinley, who has fallen out of the world's top-50 and didn't earn an invite here.

Like his team-mates, Furyk has been searching for reasons why they should have been so comprehensively outplayed in the Ryder Cup? "Everyone wants to ask the question immediately after the event, 'what can you do?' You just got slapped in the face and it is hard to come up with an answer right off the bat.

"I think it's actually a good time for reflection, you can run with it probably a million different ways. We've obviously got outplayed in all aspects, and we've done just a horrendous job in the five Ryder Cups I've played in, four of them we've done a horrendous job on Friday and Saturday in team play. I guess if we had all the answers that were that simple, the results would probably be a little bit better for us."

The fact Furyk is playing at all is breaking with his traditional stance the week after either a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup appearance.

"If I had my way and I were making the schedule, I'd never play the week after a Presidents Cup or a Ryder Cup. Ever. It's an emotional high or a let-down either way. If you play well and the team wins and you have a great time, it's tough to get your thoughts back in it.

"If you play poorly, it's the same thing. The team loses, you're in a grouchy mood."

Grouchy mood or not, Furyk is back playing strokeplay for the first time since he won the Canadian Open, while Tiger Woods, who is chasing a sixth successive win in strokeplay tournaments, believes his own winning streak came to an end when he was beaten in the first round of the World Matchplay.

Indeed, he lumped in the Ryder Cup as another defeat in his eyes. "I'm going for six-in-a-row on our (US) tour, but not six-in-a-row tournament wise because I've played two (since winning the Deutsche Bank) and lost both."

Woods will partner Darren Clarke for the first two rounds of the AmEx. Yesterday he said the words he spoke to Clarke on the 16th green at The K Club will remain private. It's back to future business. "Darren is a fantastic guy. But when it is time to compete, it is time to compete. He's trying to beat me as hard as I am trying to beat him. That's the nature of sport.

"When I play with my best friends, it doesn't matter. I am trying to knock them off and they're trying to knock me off. That's the way sports should be."