Early life

Fred Funk was born in Takoma Park, Maryland. He tried several sports, and even boxed for eight years for a junior boys club. He played on the golf team at High Point High School in Beltsville, Maryland.

Funk went to the University of Maryland, College Park, but was cut from the golf team in 1975. He transferred to Prince George's Community College, then returned to UM two years later to earn a top spot with the Terrapins golf team. At the time he also held a job as a circulation supervisor for the Washington Star. He graduated from the University of Maryland in 1980 with a degree in law enforcement. He turned professional in 1981, but worked as a golf coach at UM from 1982 to 1988.

PGA Tour career

After also playing in a few PGA Tour event for several years beginning in 1982 but with little success, Funk finally became a member of the PGA Tour in 1989, playing in 29 official tournaments and several unofficial ones. He earned his biggest paycheck to date with $12,500 in a tie for ninth in the Chattanooga Classic.

In 1990, he struggled with consistency, missing the cut in nearly half the tournaments he entered. However, there were some bright spots, including a T-3 to earn $34,800 in the Chattanooga Classic as well as a fifth-place finish in the Buick Open to pocket $40,000. In 1991 he had slightly more success, with top-10 finishes in five tournaments.

Funk broke through in 1992 with his most successful year to date, including his first PGA Tour win. In May, he captured the Shell Houston Open with a 16-under score for a two-stroke win over Kirk Triplett and winnings of $216,000.

In 1995, he won his second PGA Tour tournament with a score of 16-under at the 1995 Ideon Classic, for which he earned $180,000. He followed that up with a win just two months later at the Buick Challenge, with another 16-under for $180,000.

Funk was a member of the United States teams at the 2003 and 2005 Presidents Cup and the 2004 Ryder Cup. He received some criticism in 2004 for opting out of The Open Championship, one of the tour's four major tournaments, despite having qualified. He played instead in that week's B.C. Open, a much less prestigious event, but one which also offered Ryder Cup ranking points.

In 2005, Funk scored his biggest PGA Tour win when he captured The Players Championship, also becoming its oldest winner at 48 years, 9 months, 14 days by defeating Tom Lehman, Scott Verplank and Luke Donald by a stroke. He earned $1.44 million for the win.

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 Ranking.

He won a further PGA Tour tournament, his eighth career win, in 2007 after his senior debut, becoming only the second over-50 player to win on the PGA Tour in 31 years. That win came at the first Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun, 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 Mayakoba Golf Classic, Funk became the first man to win a PGA Tour event held in Mexico and, at age 50 years, 8 months and 12 days, became the fifth-oldest champion in PGA Tour history and the oldest since Art Wall (51 years, 7 months, 10 day) at the 1975 Greater Milwaukee Open.

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 but one in that period.

On March 28, 2005, Funk picked up the biggest win of his career, becoming the oldest player ever to win The Players Championship. He also won the unofficial Skins Game tournament, 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 Funk's wife, Sharon.

In August 2008, Funk won his first senior major, the JELD-WEN Tradition.

After years of chronic knee pain, Funk underwent a total knee replacement in 2009. Later that year, on June 8, 2009, he became the oldest qualifier, at age 53, for the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black by shooting 139 over 36 holes at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland, surviving a playoff.

In August 2009, Funk won his second major championship on the Champions Tour at the 2009 U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana. Funk dominated the rest of the field and cruised to a six-stroke victory over Joey Sindelar.

With his third senior major victory at the 2010 Jeld-Wen Tradition, he became the first player to win a PGA Tour-sanctioned event after knee-replacement surgery.

A popular player on tour, his fans are referred to as "Funk's Punks." The iconic songs — Play That Funky Music and Give Up the Funk — have become theme songs for the fan favorite.

Funk has publicly endorsed a number of products including clubs, greens, and golf balls. He maintains professional relationships with Southwest Greens, TaylorMade for its clubs, Titleist golf balls, and Stryker Orthopaedics.

As of the 2013-14 season at age 57, Funk currently still plays in several PGA Tour events a year while devoting most of his time to the Champions Tour.

At the end of the 2013 season, Funk ranked 38th in career PGA Tour earnings with just over $21 million in earnings. He ranked 23rd in all-time Champions Tour earnings with over $9.1 million.

Personal life

Funk married his wife, Sharon (Archer), in 1994. They currently reside in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. They had a son, Taylor Christian, in 1995. He is home-schooled but plays golf for Ponte Vedra High School and won the Florida 2A state championship in October 2013; he has committed to the University of Texas for 2014-15. They have a daughter, Perri Leigh, born in 1999. Fred has a son, Eric Justin, born in 1991 during Fred's first marriage, which ended in 1992; Eric graduated from Virginia Tech in 2013.

Funk has been enshrined in both the University of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame as well as the state of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame.

Professional wins (29)

PGA Tour (8)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	May 3, 1992	Shell Houston Open	−16 (68-72-62-70=272)	2 strokes	Kirk Triplett
2	Jul 30, 1995	Ideon Classic at Pleasant Valley	−16 (66-63-66-73=268)	1 stroke	Jim McGovern
3	Oct 1, 1995	Buick Challenge	−16 (69-67-69-67=272)	1 stroke	John Morse, Loren Roberts
4	Sep 22, 1996	B.C. Open1	−16 (68-66-63=197)	Playoff	Pete Jordan
5	Jul 19, 1998	Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic	−18 (69-64-69-68=270)	2 strokes	Paul Goydos, Franklin Langham, Tim Loustalot
6	Oct 3, 2004	Southern Farm Bureau Classic	−22 (69-67-64-66=266)	1 stroke	Ryan Palmer
7	Mar 28, 2005	The Players Championship	−9 (65-72-71-71=279)	1 stroke	Luke Donald, Tom Lehman, Scott Verplank
8	Feb 25, 2007	Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun	−14 (62-69-64-71=266)	Playoff	José Cóceres

1 Tournament shortened to 54 holes

PGA Tour playoff record (2-3)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1996	B.C. Open	Pete Jordan	Won with birdie on first extra hole
2	1996	Buick Challenge	Michael Bradley, Davis Love III, John Maginnes, Len Mattiace	Bradley won with birdie on first extra hole
3	1998	Buick Challenge	Steve Elkington	Lost to par on first extra hole
4	1999	B.C. Open	Brad Faxon	Lost to par on second extra hole
5	2007	Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun	José Cóceres	Won with birdie on second extra hole

Other (12)

• 1977 Middle Atlantic PGA Championship
• 1978 Middle Atlantic PGA Championship
• 1979 Middle Atlantic PGA Championship
• 1983 Maryland Open
• 1984 Foot-Joy PGA Assistant Professional Championship
• 1987 Maryland Open, Middle Atlantic PGA Championship
• 1988 Middle Atlantic PGA Championship
• 1989 Middle Atlantic PGA Championship
• 1993 Mexican Open
• 2005 Merrill Lynch Skins Game (unofficial money event-PGA Tour), CVS Charity Classic (with Chris DiMarco)

Champions Tour (9)

Legend

Champions Tour major championships (3)

Other Champions Tour (6)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Oct 22, 2006	AT&T Championship	−12 (65-67-69=201)	1 stroke	Chip Beck
2	Jan 28, 2007	Turtle Bay Championship	−23 (65-64-64=193)	11 strokes	Loren Roberts, Tom Purtzer, Denis Watson, Tom Kite, Kiyoshi Murota
3	Jan 20, 2008	MasterCard Championship at Hualalai	−21 (67-63-65=195)	2 strokes	Allen Doyle
4	Aug 17, 2008	JELD-WEN Tradition	−19 (69-66-65-69=269)	3 strokes	Mike Goodes
5	Aug 2, 2009	U.S. Senior Open	−20 (68-67-68-66=268)	6 strokes	Joey Sindelar
6	Aug 2, 2010	JELD-WEN Tradition	−12 (68-69-70-69=276)	1 stroke	Michael Allen, Chien Soon Lu
7	May 6, 2012	Insperity Championship	−14 (66-69-67=202)	1 stroke	Tom Lehman
8	Oct 14, 2012	Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn	−15 (66-66-69=201)	1 stroke	Duffy Waldorf
9	Jun 8, 2014	Big Cedar Lodge Legends of Golf (with Jeff Sluman)	−20 (61-50-48=159)	1 stroke	Jay Haas & Peter Jacobsen

Champions Tour playoff record (0-3)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	2009	Principal Charity Classic	Mark McNulty, Nick Price	McNulty won with birdie on fourth extra hole Price eliminated with birdie on second hole
2	2009	Senior British Open	Mark McNulty, Loren Roberts	Roberts won with par on third extra hole Funk eliminated with birdie on first hole
3	2010	Posco E&C Songdo Championship	Russ Cochran	Lost to birdie on first extra hole

Results in major championships

Tournament	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
Masters Tournament	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
U.S. Open	T23	CUT	CUT	DNP	CUT
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	T47	DNP	DNP

Tournament	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Masters Tournament	DNP	DNP	DNP	CUT	T38	DNP	T36	T17	CUT	CUT
U.S. Open	DNP	CUT	T33	T7	T44	CUT	CUT	T43	DNP	CUT
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	73	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	WD
PGA Championship	DNP	T57	CUT	T44	T55	T39	T26	T61	T23	73

Tournament	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Masters Tournament	T37	DNP	DNP	CUT	CUT	CUT	CUT	CUT	DNP	DNP
U.S. Open	CUT	T44	DNP	T35	6	T23	T40	T30	DNP	60
The Open Championship	CUT	DNP	DNP	CUT	DNP	CUT	T66	DNP	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	T9	T70	T4	T7	CUT	T47	T20	CUT	DNP	DNP

Tournament	2010	2011
Masters Tournament	DNP	DNP
U.S. Open	T70	CUT
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP

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

Summary

Tournament	Wins	2nd	3rd	Top-5	Top-10	Top-25	Events	Cuts made
Masters Tournament	0	0	0	0	0	1	12	4
U.S. Open	0	0	0	0	2	4	22	13
The Open Championship	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	2
PGA Championship	0	0	0	1	3	5	18	15
Totals	0	0	0	1	5	10	58	34

• Most consecutive cuts made - 5 (1993 U.S. Open - 1994 PGA)
• Longest streak of top-10s - 1 (five times)

Senior major championships

Wins (3)

Year	Championship	Winning score	Margin	Runner(s)-up
2008	JELD-WEN Tradition	−19 (69-66-65-69=269)	3 strokes	Mike Goodes
2009	U.S. Senior Open	−20 (68-67-68-66=268)	6 strokes	Joey Sindelar
2010	JELD-WEN Tradition	−12 (68-69-70-69=276)	1 stroke	Michael Allen, Chien Soon Lu

Results in senior majors

Results are not in chronological order before 2016.

Tournament	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
The Tradition	DNP	11	1	T5	1	T18	T9	T12	T16	T9	32
Senior PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	T5	T23	T39	CUT	T13	T39	CUT
Senior Players Championship	T11	T3	2	T7	T16	DNP	T9	T18	T65	T39
Senior British Open Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	T2	T3	T7	T57	T69	T29	T34
U.S. Senior Open	T11	DNP	2	1	T43	T50	T2	2	T33	T20

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

U.S. national team appearances

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

[ Source: Wikipedia ]