When Jim Furyk shot a PGA Tour record 58 in the final round of the Travelers Championship on Sunday, he did it with a Maine influence at his side.

Furyk’s longtime caddy is Mike “Fluff” Cowan, a Winslow native and veteran PGA Tour caddy.

Cowan has been on Furyk’s bag since 1999. He was with Furyk when the golfer won the 2003 US Open.

A PGA Tour caddy since the mid-1970s, Cowan gained notoriety when he worked for Tiger Woods from 1996 to 1999. Cowan caddied for Woods when he won his first major, the 1997 Masters. Along with Furyk and Woods, Cowan has caddied for pros Ed Sabo and Peter Jacobsen.

This season Furyk has played 11 PGA Tour events, making the cut nine times. His best finish was second place at the US Open. With the 58 on the final day of the Travelers Championship, Furyk finished tied for fifth.

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The Maine State Golf Association’s Match Play Invitational Championship will be played next Tuesday through Thursday at Brunswick Golf Club.

The tournament is limited to 32 players. The top 16 finishers and ties at the Maine Amateur Championship are invited, and the remainder of the field is made up of the top point earners in the MSGA’s player of year standings.

Match play consists of two golfers playing head-to-head for 18 holes. If one player cannot catch the other, the match is over. The first two rounds of the tournament will be Tuesday, with the quarter and semifinals set for Wednesday. The championship round will be played Thursday morning. Andrew Slattery is the defending champion, winning at his home course, Martindale Country Club of Auburn, last year.

Since the inception of the match play championship in 2010, no player has won back-to-back titles. Jeff Cole was runner-up in each of the last two match play championships.

With his win last year, Slattery became the fourth player to win both the Maine Amateur and match play titles, joining Ryan Gay, Johnny Hayes, and Ricky Jones.

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Hayes, who won the Match Play Championship at Natanis in 2012, will not be one of the 32 golfers in the field at Brunswick next week. Hayes will compete in the US Amateur Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Hayes earned his spot by winning a regional qualifier tournament last month at The Ledges Golf Club in York. Hayes shot 7-under over the two-day tournament, finishing three strokes ahead of runner-up Peter French of Bellingham, Mass.

Hayes tees of at 3 p.m. Monday in the first of two stroke play rounds. Hayes will play his first round at Oakland Hills Country Club’s South Course. After two days of stroke play, the top 64 players advance to match play on Wednesday, culminating with Sunday’s championship match.

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The New England Junior Championship will be Monday through Wednesday at Cochecho Country Club in Dover, N.H.

The tournament is an invitational, featuring teams of the top seven junior players ages 15-17 from each of the six New England states. As Maine junior champion, Logan Thompson of Lincoln earned a spot on the team.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

<URL destination=””>tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

</URL>Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM


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