Fred Funk

The media and fans alike are rabid with envy and gossip when it comes to the longest hitters in the field. Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Long John Daly, Tiger Woods, Hank Kuehne, and this year’s bomber “Bubba” Watson are center stage in the drama that is the PGA Tour. While the distance debate rages in the hearts and minds of avid golf fans some players make a pretty good living by keeping it in the first cut.

Fred Funk one such “accuracy over distance guy” who is coming off his best season ever. He hit 74.9% of fairways in 2005, second only behind Q-School graduate Jeff Hart, and earned $2,830,046, good enough for 11th on the money list.

Four of Funk’s seven Tour victories have come in his forties. He’s gotten older, yes, but he’s also gotten better. After turning pro in 1981, Funk played his way on Tour in 1989. Prior to playing on the Tour he was the golf coach at the University of Maryland.

Players like Funk are keenly aware that being able to hit it a long way is almost a prerequisite to winning a modern golf tournament. In 1980 the longest driver on Tour was Dan Pohl who averaged 274.3 yards. Jack Nicklaus was averaging 269.0 yards per drive. Funk averaged 270.0 yards last year, the year he won the Players Championship. I’m not sure how long Funk would hit it with a steel shafted persimmons driver, but it wouldn’t be the 270 yards he is getting now.

He had this to say about distance in a Golf Hawaii interview:

I’m limited to where I can play well. I think there are certain golf courses that would be just about impossible for me to compete on. Augusta is definitely one of them. I think its gone way beyond, its out of control what they’ve done to Augusta in my opinion and a lot of guys opinions. They’ve put it so only a handful of guys can win and I really predict that Tigers going to win, if he stays healthy, at least ten green jackets.

There’s only a handful of guys that can play and compete at Augusta National and of those handful that can do that there’s only half of those who can do it mentally.

Chris DiMarco is great in mental competition. He has a great game. He’s proved the last two years that he loves Augusta and that he can play well there but they keep stretching it out that even Chris is angered by it. He looks at it like, “Last year might have been my last year I can compete there.”

Funk would have been at a disadvantage in driving in any era. Keep in mind that Funk was about forty yards shorter than the longest hitters in 2005. It gives you some perspective on what he, and those like him, are up against. Regardless of his distance off the tee which was only good enough for 197th, he was 67th in GIR’s at 66.2%. It seems to confirm our own Dave Koster’s theory that being a good iron player means that you hit more greens regardless if you have a short or mid-iron into the green.

Funk has made a living on Tour because he is a great golfer. He doesn’t have the distance tools some of the other players have but he’s played well in other areas to make up for it. He’s done what he can about distance by playing the right club and shaft combination too.

Putting, not driving, is the stat that has held Funk back the most. In 2005 he was 168th in putting average at 1.804 and in one event this year is at 1.899 putts per green. If he was able to roll the rock a little better he’d be in a better place to win. Consider the fact that he was 29th in scoring average and you see what a difference dropping a few more putts a round can make.

2005 was a great year for Grand Master Funk. His emotionally charged win at the Players Championship was a crowd pleaser. Weather was a problem but Funk held on during a Monday finish. Erik Barzeski had this to say at the end of the Players Championship: “His 1-under 71 was stellar given the conditions. The scoring average was about 76.5 on the final day at the TPC at Sawgrass, which saw wind gusts that measured up to 50 MPH and which routinely howled at 30+ MPH.” The final round was basically a bloodbath as the whole field staggered to the finish line. Funk became the oldest winner of the Players at age 48 by playing better than anyone else when conditions were at their worst.

Fast forward to the Silly Season and we see Annika Sorenstam out-driving Funk and handing him a skirt for the favor. He was a good sport about it and it might have made a little progress in proving that the skins game doesn’t have to be a bore. Short hitting aside, Funk pocketed $925,000 of the $1,000,000 purse and became the oldest winner of the event.

If old age and treachery beats youth and skill then we have an explanation for the great play we see week in and week out from the old guys. Golf Today did a piece following the 2005 Players Championship saying that “Funk’s win highlights lack of young US talent.” I disagree on a couple of levels. First, I think that conditioning has extended a golfer’s competitive years so that they can truly improve well into their forties. Vijay Singh proved this to us with his nine wins in 2004. Funk’s Players Championship win was no mistake. He reaped the rewards of hard work and perseverance and earned his win by being the world’s best golfer that week. The best weren’t good enough.

Secondly, you have to realize that the world’s young players are great golfers. But there’s some others who are better. The young guys are on the driving range trying to find out what guys like Funk, Singh, Mickelson, Goosen, Els, Funk and a host of others already know. They aren’t tournament tested and haven’t proved that they can stand up and get it done on a regular basis. If you could bottle victory they’d be the one’s standing at the check-out counter with a six pack. Fred Funk’s win at the Player’s Championship proved that Funk is a competitive 48-year-old (now 49). Nothing more, nothing less.

Funk has a good sense of humor and seems like a regular guy. He has a degree in Law Enforcement from the University of Maryland and I think I can see Funk in a police uniform about as easy as I can see him strolling the fairways in slacks. Maybe more easily.

Funk turns 50 in June and will be one of those players who continues to play as many events as he can on the PGA Tour. He’ll likely follow in others’ footsteps by splitting his time between the PGA and Champion’s Tour. He’s proven he can still compete against the young guys and he is exempt through 2010 for his win at the Players so there’s no reason to do it any other way. I hope Funk can grab another win or two before he hangs up his PGA Tour hat. He’s proven that short-hitters can get it done too.

Photo Credit: AP, Golf World: Charles Laberge.