Fred Funk

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Fred Funk
Fredfunk.jpg
Personal information
Full name Frederick Funk
Born June 14, 1956 (1956-06-14) (age 53)
Takoma Park, Maryland
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Nationality  United States
Residence Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Spouse Sharon
Children Eric Justin, Taylor Christian, Perri Leigh
Career
College University of Maryland
Turned professional 1981
Current tour(s) PGA Tour (joined 1989)
Champions Tour (joined 2006)
Professional wins 19
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour 8
Champions Tour 5
Best results in Major Championships
The Masters T17: 1997
U.S. Open 6th: 2004
Open Championship T66: 2006
PGA Championship T4: 2002

Frederick Funk (born June 14, 1956) is an American professional golfer.

Funk was born in Takoma Park, Maryland. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1980 with a degree in law enforcement. He turned professional in 1981 but worked as a golf coach at his alma mater from 1982 to 1988, not becoming a member of the PGA Tour until 1989.

He picked up a number of wins from 1992 onwards, and without quite becoming one of the top stars on the tour, did well enough to reach the top 20 on the career money list.[1] He was a member of the United States teams at the 2003 and 2005 Presidents Cup and the 2004 Ryder Cup.

Since turning 50 in June 2006, Funk has been eligible for Champions Tour events and debuted in the 2006 U.S. Senior Open. When he turned 50, he still featured in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings. He won a further PGA Tour tournament in 2007 after his senior debut, becoming only the second over-50 player to win on the PGA Tour in over thirty years, though his win came at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, which was an alternate event to the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, so none of the world's top 64 ranked players were in the field. By winning the first Mayakoba Golf Classic Funk became the first man to win a PGA Tour event held in Mexico.

Funk is generally regarded as one of the shortest drivers on today's PGA Tour, but is always at or near the top of the driving accuracy statistics. In fact, many of his playing competitors are now regarding him as perhaps the straightest driver to ever play golf; in the past 14 years, Funk has achieved the highest driving accuracy on the PGA Tour seven times, and has been in the top five of this statistic for every year in that period--save one.

On March 28, 2005, Funk picked up the biggest win of his career, becoming the oldest player ever to win The Players Championship as well as the Skins Game, during which, to satisfy a friendly bet, he wore a pink skirt that Annika Sörenstam pulled out of her golf bag when she outdrove Funk on the par five third hole. The skirt was actually picked out by his wife, Sharon.

In August 2008, Funk won his first senior major, the JELD-WEN Tradition.

On June 8, 2009 Funk became the oldest qaulifier, at age 53, for the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black by shooting 139 over 36 holes at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland, surviving a playoff.

In August 2009, Funk won his second major championship on the Champions Tour at the 2009 U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana. Funk dominated the rest of the field and cruised to a 6 shot victory over Joey Sindelar.[1]

A popular player on tour, his fans are referred to as "Funk's Punks." The iconic songs -- Play That Funky Music, and We Want the Funk -- have become theme songs for the fan favorite.

Funk currently resides in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA.

Contents

[edit] Professional wins (19)

[edit] PGA Tour (8)

No. Date Tournament Winning Score Margin of Victory Runner(s)-up
1 May 1, 1992 Shell Houston Open -16 (68-72-62-70=272) 2 strokes United States Kirk Triplett
2 Jul 30, 1992 Ideon Classic at Pleasant Valley -20 (66-63-66-73=268) 1 stroke United States Jim McGovern
3 Oct 6, 1995 Buick Challenge -16 (69-67-69-67=272) 1 stroke United States John Morse, United States Loren Roberts
4 Sep 21, 1996 B.C. Open* -19 (68-66-63=197) Playoff United States Pete Jordan
5 Jul 19, 1998 Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic -18 (69-64-69-68=270) 2 strokes United States Paul Goydos, United States Franklin Langham,
United States Tim Loustalot
6 Oct 3, 2004 Southern Farm Bureau Classic -22 (69-67-64-66=266) 1 stroke United States Ryan Palmer
7 Mar 27, 2005 The Players Championship -9 (66-72-71-71=279) 1 stroke England Luke Donald, United States Tom Lehman,
United States Scott Verplank
8 Feb 25, 2007 Mayakoba Classic at Riviera Maya -14 (62-69-64-71=266) Playoff Argentina José Cóceres

*Note: The 1996 B.C. Open was shortened to 54 holes.

Fred Funk dons a skirt

[edit] Other (6)

[edit] Champions Tour (5)

Legend
Champions Tour Major Championships (2)
Other Champions Tour (3)
No. Date Tournament Winning Score Margin of
Victory		 Runner(s)-up
1 Oct 22, 2006 AT&T Championship -12 (65-67-69=201) 1 stroke United States Chip Beck
2 Jan 28, 2007 Turtle Bay Championship -23 (65-64-64=193) 11 strokes United States Loren Roberts, United States Tom Purtzer,
Zimbabwe Denis Watson, United States Tom Kite, Japan Kiyoshi Murota
3 Jan 20, 2008 MasterCard Championship at Hualalai -21 (67-63-65=195) 2 strokes United States Allen Doyle
4 Aug 17, 2008 JELD-WEN Tradition -19 (69-66-65-69=169) 3 strokes United States Mike Goodes
5 Aug 2, 2009 U.S. Senior Open -20 (68-67-68-66=268) 6 strokes United States Joey Sindelar

[edit] Results in major championships

Tournament 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
The Masters DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
U.S. Open T23 CUT CUT DNP CUT
The Open Championship DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
PGA Championship DNP DNP T47 DNP DNP
Tournament 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
The Masters DNP DNP DNP CUT T38 DNP T36 T17 CUT CUT
U.S. Open DNP CUT T33 T7 T44 CUT CUT T43 DNP CUT
The Open Championship DNP DNP 73 DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP WD
PGA Championship DNP T57 CUT T44 T55 T39 T26 T61 T23 73
Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
The Masters T37 DNP DNP CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT DNP DNP
U.S. Open CUT T44 DNP T35 6 T23 T40 T30 DNP 60
The Open Championship CUT DNP DNP CUT DNP CUT T66 DNP DNP DNP
PGA Championship T9 T70 T4 T7 CUT T47 T20 CUT DNP DNP

DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Yellow background for top-10

[edit] Results in senior majors

For consistency, results are listed in the current order of play. Since Funk began playing on the Champions Tour, the order of play of the majors changed twice:

  • In 2006, the order was Senior PGA, U.S. Senior Open, Senior Players, Senior British Open, The Tradition.
  • In 2007, the order was Senior PGA, U.S. Senior Open, Senior British Open, The Tradition, Senior Players.
  • The current order was instituted in 2008.
Tournament 2006 2007 2008 2009
Senior PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP T5
Senior British Open DNP DNP DNP T2
U.S. Senior Open T11 DNP 2 1
The Tradition DNP 11 1 T5
Senior Players Championship T11 T3 2 T7

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

[edit] United States national team appearances

[edit] See also

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fred Funk

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Funk makes history on way to U.S. Senior Open triumph". USA Today. 2009-08-02. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/champions/2009-08-02-us-senior-open_N.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-03. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
United States Ryder Cup team – 2004
Chad Campbell · Stewart Cink · Chris DiMarco · Fred Funk · Jim Furyk · Jay Haas · Davis Love III · Phil Mickelson · Kenny Perry · Chris Riley · David Toms · Tiger Woods · Hal Sutton (non-playing captain)
 United States
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