Fred Funk feared the worst.
But he had a caddie, Mark Long, who mapped golf courses for yardage books as a side gig. And when Funk’s approach shot at the par-4 18th hole of the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in the final round of the 2005 Players Championship seemed to draw too hard, then disappear over the left edge of the green, the long-time Ponte Vedra Beach resident squinted into the setting sun, then ducked his head in dismay.
“I said, ‘That’s in the water,’” Funk said. “I was aiming right at the flag, and it was just a little pull.”
And just like that, Funk thought his one-shot lead was gone.
But Long quickly assured him that the ball had settled into the bunker left of the 18th green, not great, but not a disaster either. Long had not only walked the course numerous times as a caddie, but he knew every bunker, swale, undulation, and bump on the course and he knew, from the ball flight of the 179-yard shot, struck with Funk’s 6-iron, that it had found the trap, not water.
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A swing from the sand and 6-foot putt later, Funk had the best par of his life, and The Players victory. He spiked his hat on the green in sheer joy and relief, as a long, arduous 32-hole day over and his biggest professional victory in hand.
Funk remains the oldest Players winner ever, 48 at the time of the victory.
The 2022 Players Championship will need to go to its first Monday finish since Funk won, and depending on how much golf the field is able to play Saturday and Sunday, it might rival the 2005 tournament for the most holes needed to finish.
Some Monday finishes have involved only a handful of players. When Tiger Woods won in 2001, he was one of 22 who had to return on Monday. The year before, when Hal Sutton won, 20 had to come back.
In 2005, the entire weekend field had to play most of its third round and all of the fourth round.
“Everybody had to play more than 30 holes on Monday,” Funk said. “It was tough for everyone. The whole week was a nightmare but we had no choice. When the weather is bad and you can’t seem to get through the first two rounds and make the cut, it’s brutal.”
The first day of the tournament was the easiest. Under sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-70s, Steve Jones shot 64 to lead and Funk was just a shot behind at 65.
“The best round I ever played there,” Funk said.
It also sustained him throughout the week. The field couldn’t play a single shot that counted on Friday — 20 players were on the course when storms hit, and their scores were wiped out — and Saturday and Sunday were messy, convoluted days in which the players were sent out, called back in, sent out, called in again … a frustrating, mind-numbing exercise in futility.
“They thought we’d have a little window, and put us out there,” Funk said. “Sometimes we’d get a couple of holes, sometimes we’d get seven or eight. You could never get any momentum going, no rhythm. All you could do was try to remember that everyone was going through the same thing. But I had that good first round behind me. With birdies, you’re making a deposit in the bank. You just have to make more than you withdraw.”
Funk posed scores of 72-71 and started the fourth round on Monday afternoon four shots behind Luke Donald.
He and Long made an agreement: no leaderboard-watching.
“I didn’t want to think about what might happen,” he said. “Just finish the tournament and see where I stood.”
Funk started a run with birdies at two tough holes, Nos. 7 and 8, and was 1-under on the front. He then birdied Nos. 12 and 13 but finally needed to know where he stood.
Funk had a three-shot lead.
He was hitting the ball as straight as usual off the tee, and his iron game was dialed in. But the putter began betraying him and Funk lost two shots of his margin with three-putt bogeys at the 14th and 15th holes.
He got one back with a birdie at the 16th, set up when a 3-iron approach — a new TaylorMade weapon that he had been deadly with all week.
The lead was back to two, then one again, courtesy of another 3-putt, at No. 17.
A few minutes later, he was studying his bunker shot at No. 18 and realized he had caught a big break.
“It left a pretty good fried egg hole, but the ball had popped out of the egg hole and was sitting right on top of the lip,” Funk said. “I had short-sided myself and if that ball stays in the hole, I would have had nothing.”
Funk prided himself on his mental toughness. Indeed, it’s what sustained a PGA Tour career that didn’t start until he was 33 years old but eventually resulted in eight PGA Tour titles and nine on the PGA Tour Champions.
But he said the three players tied for second would have been a formidable group to beat had he not made the final putt.
“Look at those guys … Lehman, a bulldog … Verplank, a bulldog … Luke Donald, one of the most consistent players in the world at that time. That was an amazing group come down the stretch. I’m just glad I ended it when I did.”