MasterCard Championship: Final-Round Notebook

text size

Jan. 21, 2008
By Phil Stambaugh, PGA TOUR Staff

KAUPULEHU-KONA, Hawaii -- Fred Funk won his third career title on the Champions Tour Sunday in his 14th overall start on the circuit. He ended an eight-event victory drought on the Champions Tour.

Fred Funk has won in Hawaii in each of the past two seasons. (Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

Inside the Numbers

Final Leaderboard

Player	Score
1. Fred Funk	195 -21
2. Allen Doyle	197 -19
T3. Bernhard Langer	199 -17
T3. Jay Haas	199 -17
5. Tom Purtzer	200 -16
6. John Cook	201 -15
7. Loren Roberts	202 -14
T8. Craig Stadler	203 -13
T8. Tom Watson	203 -13
T10. Bob Gilder	204 -12
T10. Brad Bryant	204 -12
T10. D.A. Weibring	204 -12

• Funk's win at the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai marked the second consecutive year he's won a tournament in Hawaii. Last year at the Turtle Bay Championship on the North Shore of Oahu, Funk waltzed to an all-time Champions Tour record 11-stroke victory.

• Fred Funk continued a stellar streak in Hawaii in 2008. Before teeing it up at Hualalai, Funk played two events on the PGA TOUR. He tied for 25th at the Mercedez-Benz Championship and tied for 10th at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

• Funk earned 300 Charles Schwab Cup points in the season-opening event and took the early lead in the season-long competition. Last year, Funk finished 11th in the Charles Schwab Cup race. The winner of the Schwab Cup competition earns a $1 million annuity.

• Funk was tied for 17th after an opening-round 67 on Friday. That's the deepest position in the field anyone has come from behind to win in a 54-hole Champions Tour event since Gil Morgan won last year's Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach after being tied for 18th at the end of the first round.

• Even though he didn't win, Allen Doyle's runner-up performance at the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai was his best effort on the Champions Tour since finishing second at the 2007 ACE Group Classic last February. Doyle also registered his third consecutive top-10 finish and seventh top-10 overall in this event, tying him with Raymond Floyd, Al Geiberger and Chi Chi Rodriguez for the most in tournament history.

• Mark Wiebe did not have a three-putt in the event and extended his streak of holes without a three-putt to 288 in a row.

• John Cook finished sixth in his first appearance on the Champions Tour since posting a victory last year at the AT&T Championship in San Antonio. He had just one bogey this week (eighth hole/first round) and played his last 46 holes at Hualalai without a bogey.

• Hualalai played its hardest for the week on Sunday (69.951). On Friday, the scoring average for the field was 67.537, and 69.756 on Saturday. On Sunday, there were 30 rounds below par compared to 28 rounds below par on Saturday and 35 on Friday. On Sunday, there were 21 scores in the 60s compared to 23 sub-70 scores on Saturday and 31 rounds in the 60s on Friday. The cumulative scoring average this year was 69.081 compared to 68.715 last year.

• Fred Funk's winning score of 21-under 195 extends the run of MasterCard Championship winners with a 54-hole total of 20 under par or more to three straight. Loren Roberts won in 2006 with a 25-under-par score, and last year Hale Irwin's three-round total to par was 23 under. Funk extended to eight straight years the number of winners who have not had a round out of the 60s.

• Bernhard Langer's 65 Sunday propelled him up the leaderboard into a tie for third with Jay Haas. Langer had the highest finish among the eight first-timers at Hualalai this year. The others were: John Cook (sixth), Mark Wiebe (tied for 13th), Lonnie Nielsen (tied for 18th), Denis Watson (tied for 18th), Keith Fergus (tied for 23rd), R.W. Eaks (tied for 23rd) and Scott Hoch (36th).

• Jay Haas, the 2007 Champions Tour Player of the Year, has now carded nine consecutive sub-70 rounds at Hualalai and has tied for third, tied for fifth and tied for third in his three career appearances in the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai.

• Bob Gilder tied for 10th at the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai, his first-ever top-10 finish in the season-opening event in seven trips to the Big Island. Gilder made his 94th consecutive appearance in a Champions Tour event this week, the longest current streak.

• Defending champion Hale Irwin finished tied for 30th in his quest for a 10th official win in Hawaii.

• The Champions Tour moves over to Oahu for next week's Turtle Bay Championship. Fred Funk, the defending champion in the event, attempts to become the first player since Loren Roberts (2006) to win the first two starts of a season.