Editor's note: This summer Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today's list: the 10 most accomplished sports figures in Tucson history.
Jim Furyk was part of the most impressive recruiting class in UA golf history, and possibly any sport at the school.
In the spring of 1988, Furyk was ranked No. 2 by the American Junior Golf Association, a smart and steady golfer from Mannheim, Pa. But the son of a golf pro was only the third-highest ranked golfer in the UA Class of 1988 as signed by coach Rick LaRose.
South African Manny Zerman was the No. 1 junior amateur in the world as ranked by Golf Magazine, and Long Beach, Calif., golfer Jeff Manson was ranked No. 1 in the United States.
Manson ultimately left school and became a teaching pro in Southern California. Zerman reached the finals of the 1990 and 1991 U.S. Amateur, and was a first-team All-American as Arizona won the 1992 NCAA championship.
Furyk struggled a bit.
"My junior year, I didn’t play well," he told the Star in 1992. "I had a real off year. I had short-game troubles and I couldn’t count on my putter."
At the 1992 NCAA finals, Furyk played the No. 4 spot in the Arizona lineup. After that — wow. What else can you say?
Now 47, Furyk is the captain-in-waiting of the USA’s 2018 Ryder Cup team. He won the 2003 U.S. Open. He has won 17 PGA Tour events and in 2010 was the PGA Tour Player of the Year, winning the FedEx Cup.
From 1999-2015, Furyk was ranked in the world’s Top 10 for 430 weeks.
He is easily in the Top 10 of my rankings of the most accomplished sports figures in Tucson and UA history.
