Fred Funk

Frederick "Fred" 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. [http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/2006/110.html] 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.

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.

Professional wins (16)

PGA Tour (8)

*1992 (1) Shell Houston Open
*1995 (2) Ideon Classic at Pleasant Valley, Buick Challenge
*1996 (1) B.C. Open
*1998 (1) Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic
*2004 (1) Southern Farm Bureau Classic
*2005 (1) The Players Championship
*2007 (1) Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun

Other (4)

*1984 Foot-Joy PGA Assistant Professional Championship
*1993 Mexican Open
*2005 Merrill Lynch Skins Game (not an official event on the PGA Tour), CVS Charity Classic (with Chris DiMarco)

Champions Tour (4)

*2006 (1) AT&T Championship
*2007 (1) Turtle Bay Championship
*2008 (2) MasterCard Championship at Hualalai, JELD-WEN Tradition

Senior major championship is shown in bold.

Results in major championships

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

United States national team appearances

*Ryder Cup: 2004
*Presidents Cup: 2003 (tie), 2005 (winners)

ee also

*Golfers with most PGA Tour wins

External links

* [http://www.pgatour.com/players/00/13/81/ Profile on the PGA Tour official site]