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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, January 24, 2008

GOLF REPORT
Cheerful Funk on roll here

 •  A whole new ball game for Rhoden

Advertiser Staff

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Fred Funk

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WHAT: Champions Tour, first full-field event of 2008

WHEN: From approximately 8 a.m. tomorrow and 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday

PRO-AM: Today from 7 a.m.

WHERE: Palmer Course at Turtle Bay Resort (Par 36-36—72, 7,088 yards)

PURSE: $1.6 million ($240,000 first prize)

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Fred Funk (tournament-record 23-under-par 193)

FIELD: 78 players, including Hawai'i's David Ishii and Dave Eichelberger, and Hale Irwin, Scott Simpson, Dick McClean and Kiyoshi Murota

ADMISSION: $10 daily starting tomorrow, or three-day ticket for $25. Free for military with ID and children 17-under with ticket-bearing adult. Parking, with shuttle service, is free.

TV: The Golf Channel, 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow, 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday

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Fred Funk was so far ahead at last year's Turtle Bay Championship it was comical.

Trailing by eight shots as they made the turn, Tom Kite turned to Funk and grinned. "I'll press," Kite said, joking about the double-or-nothing bet golfers make as holes run short.

Funk laughed then and is still laughing now. He won last year's title by 11 shots at the Palmer Course, shattering a Champions Tour record for 54-hole events. Last week at Hualalai, Funk won the season-opening MasterCard Championship.

He opened the year at the Mercedes-Benz Championship and Sony Open in Hawai'i. His self-described "Hawai'i Slam," a perk the 51-year-old earned by winning on both the PGA and senior tours last year, has netted him more than $500,000 this month. Why not laugh?

The 50- and 60-somethings tee off tomorrow at 8 a.m. in the first round at Turtle Bay. The first full-field event features six golfers with local ties, including Hawai'i Golf Hall of Famers David Ishii and Dick McClean.

All are chasing Funk. He smoked the back nine on the Big Island Sunday to overtake Allen Doyle. A year ago on the North Shore, he closed with 64-64 to eliminate any chance of being caught. He became the 12th in tour history to go bogey-free.

The man known for his precise drives was third in fairways hit (86 percent), second in greens in regulation (83 percent) and led the field in putting. "I made everything I looked at," Funk says a year later, still in awe.

They might have been playing for second, but the rest of the seniors were hardly hacking. The average score last year was 70.957. In the seven years the event has been played at Turtle Bay, the best previous average was 72.338; every other year it was over 73, and almost 74 in blustery 2003 when the Palmer was the fourth most-difficult course on tour.

Japan's Kiyoshi Murota, who was second last year, is back and now represents Turtle Bay. He is hoping to follow the example of Dorothy Delasin, the resort's LPGA representative, who captured the Women's World Cup of Golf Sunday in South Africa.

NOTES

Monday's "Golf Hawai'i" show will feature 1996 Hawai'i state high school champion Parker McLachlin, now in his second year on the PGA Tour. The show will also focus on Waikoloa Beach Resort. Mark Rolfing's "My View" will be about the effectiveness of tour golf statistics. The program will premiere on The Golf Channel at 7 p.m. and re-air Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. and 9 p.m., and Feb. 4 at 1:30 p.m.

• • •

TURTLE BAY CHAMPIONSHIP

Tomorrow's starting times
First round
Palmer Course at Turtle Bay
First Tee

8:10 a.m.: Dick Mast, Rick Rhoden, Dick McClean

8:21: Roy Vucinich, Mitch Adams, David Ishii

8:32: Rocky Thompson, Jim Albus, Fulton Allem

8:43: Leonard Thompson, Joe Ozaki, Mike Donald

8:54: Mike McCullough, Joe Inman, Jimmy Powell

9:05: Hugh Baiocchi, Danny Edwards, Walter Zembriski

9:16: Mark Wiebe, Bruce Summerhays, Bob Gilder

9:27: Scott Hoch, David Eger, Scott Simpson

9:38: Lonnie Nielsen, John Jacobs, Denis Watson

9:49: Bobby Wadkins, Allen Doyle, Mike Reid

10:00: R.W. Eaks, Ron Streck, Isao Aoki

10:11: Brad Bryant, Tom Jenkins, Curtis Strange

10:22: D.A. Weibring, David Edwards, Dana Quigley

10:33: Gil Morgan, Tom Purtzer, Ben Crenshaw

10:44: John Cook, Jerry Pate, Loren Roberts

10:55: John Harris, Morris Hatalsky, Bruce Lietzke

11:06: Fred Funk, Mark McNulty, Tom Kite

11:17: Bernhard Langer, Jim Thorpe, Lee Trevino

11:28: Hale Irwin, Keith Fergus, Jeff Sluman

11:39: Dave Eichelberger, Phil Blackmar, Wayne Grady

11:50: Don Pooley, Tim Simpson, David Ogrin

12:01 p.m.: Jim Ahern, Walter Hall, Kenny Knox

12:12: Chip Beck, Donnie Hammond, Bruce Vaughan

12:23: Mitch Adcock, Boonchu Ruangkit, Robert Thompson

12:34: Massy Kuramoto, Kiyoshi Murota, Jim Woodward

12:45: Tom McKnight, Rick Karbowski, Mike Goodes