You’d love it too if you could hit it 340 yards and almost always down the middle fairway with apparent ease. Furr did that quite a bit last week at The Preserve in Biloxi. Furr won the Mississippi Amateur championship by a wide margin. He played a challenging course with slick greens and he was able to finish ahead of everyone else. Furr shot rounds of 68-69, 66, 69 and 69 on the par71 course to win by 11 shots. He could have put up a 14. on the par-4 final hole to win the tournament. Let’s get this out of the way: Furr was able to make a 14 on the par-4 final hole six months ago. Furr was once one of the best junior golfers in the world, but he had an eight-month slump that made it difficult for him to keep his ball on the course. Furr would swing his once-trusted driver four to five times per round and watch the ball fly 300 yards in the wrong direction. He smiles and says, “I called it my Hi-yaaaah” shot. Furr was a highly sought-after golf recruit when he was sent to the University of Alabama. Furr could have attended college in any part of the country with a scholarship for golf. He got to Bama, but he couldn’t make the traveling team. Alabama participated in four fall tournaments, Furr didn’t participate in any. He says, “I was terrible.” “I couldn’t keep it up on the course,” Furr said. This was something Furr had never experienced – complete failure. This is Furr, who as a junior won the Future Masters twice and was ranked as high as No. His age group ranked him No. 2 in the world. This is a 16-year-old Mississippian who won the state’s amateur championship in 2015. He won the state’s amateur championship by eight shots. He couldn’t make it to the team. He says, “It wasn’t fun, it was not fun at all.” “It was no fun, no fun at all,” Furr says. Furr tried many different remedies and sought advice from experts. He tried everything, but nothing worked. He tried, tried again and kept searching for the right answer. He shot an 80 in one Alabama qualifying round. He says, “First time that I didn’t break 80 since 13 or 14 years old.” He thanks Alabama coach Jay Seawell, who encouraged him to persevere and not give up on him. Seawell assured Furr that he would figure it out. Furr began to wonder. Furr finally decided to display his swing in front of another set of eyes last December. To see Jeff Smith, a well-known golf instructor, he flew to Las Vegas. Smith, without getting too technical, saw that Furr’s backswing was putting his hands in a position that made it nearly impossible for them to keep up with his hip rotation and shoulder rotation. The body was lagging behind the hands. This is why the ball went farther right than an Alabama Republican. Smith gave Smith some ideas. Furr worked. Furr is a huge fan of the practice. He says, “It wasn’t that difficult a fix.” “It was just getting back to my old swing really.” He participated in all of the Alabama team trips this year, which helped the team to become a national runner up. He recovered from competitive rust and got better each season. He finished in the Top 10 at the SEC Championship with a score of 63. He finished third at the NCAA Regionals in Stockton, Cal, with a 64. His victory in the State Am earned him an automatic exemption to the Sanderson Farms Championship at Country Club of Jackson in October. This is the course where he first learned to play. He says, “That’s why I played in State Am. To have a chance at that exemption.” It’s my dream to be on the tour. To play my first tournament on my own course on the tour will make it even more special. “I can’t wait.”