Updated at 9:01 p.m., Sunday, January 28, 2007
Funk earns most lopsided win on Champions Tour
By Jaymes Song
Associated Press
The 50-year-old Funk, still a regular on the PGA Tour, ended the suspense early with six birdies in a front-nine 30 and finished with a tournament record 23-under 193 total in the tour's first full-field event of the year.
Funk earned $240,000 for his second Champions Tour victory in five career starts. He also went wire-to-wire to win the AT&T Championship, the last full-field event in the 2006 season.
Funk, who missed the cut in the PGA Tour's Sony Open and tied for 28th last week in the Champions Tour's 41-man MasterCard Championship, put on another show with his sweet putting, using a new wider stance he picked up during the pro-am.
"Probably my best three days of putting I've ever had," said Funk, the only player in the 78-player field without a bogey in three days.
Tom Kite, who tied for second last week in the MasterCard, went double bogey-bogey on the last two holes to close with a 71, dropping him into a five-way tie at 12 under with 2006 winner Loren Roberts (66), Tom Purtzer (66), Denis Watson (68) and Kiyoshi Murota (72).
Tim Simpson (68), D.A. Weibring (68) and David Eger (69) were another stroke back at 11 under.
The legendary surf was up on O'ahu's North Shore, but the wind wasn't. It was calm for a second day, setting up the layout for birdies.
