Subpar - Fred Funk talks shooting a 65 at age 66, competing against prime Tiger Woods

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, 8-time PGA Tour Winner Fred Funk joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and jicky jack legend Drew Stoltz for an exclusive interview. The 66-year-old breaks down his recent round of 65 at The Ally Challenge, growing up boxing before turning to golf and what it was like competing against prime Tiger Woods. Subpar Podcast: https://linktr.ee/Golf1271 Birdie Juice Merch: https://proshop.golf.com/collections/birdie-juice-collection -- Thanks to our official sponsor Dewar's. Make sure to check out their Reserve Bar listings today: https://www.reservebar.com/collections/house-of-dewars    This week's episode was brought to you by Rapsodo. Just go to www.Rapsodo.com/Subpar and use Promo Code SUBPAR for $100 off the MLM personal launch monitor. Right now, Rapsodo is also offering a $30 off bundle discount for MLM and their Premium Subscription. So SubPar listeners have the opportunity to save over $130 total, with purchase of the bundle package.

Hello world. Welcome back to golf subpart with Colt Nost and Drew Stoltz. So as I thought, we almost had an I'm back moment with Ricky Fowler at the C.J. Cup over in Japan. Ended up finishing tied for second behind Keegan Bradley, who gets his first win in over four years. And it was a very emotional victory. Really, really cool to see. But those two were battling it out, coming down the stretch. Ricky had the 54-hole lead. You know, he's made some changes, made a caddy change. He's gone back to Butch Harmon, had a top five at...

Napa, followed by a miscut at Shriners when I pick him, of course, and then comes over here and finishes tied for a second. Things are getting better, but I was a little concerned with that final round. I don't know how much of it you got to see, but with the 54-hole lead, I thought things were just a little conservative, possibly for Ricky Fowler. You're talking conservative, like, in terms of strategy and decision-making, or in terms of, club selection, things like that? Was he just not making birdies, or was he just playing it too, say,

the tea into greens would you not like i thought his iron game was a little soft uh he made a early birdie on number two i believe and then did not make another one until the 18th hole which is a pretty easy part five for those guys but you got to tip your cap to kegan bradley because this guy was in cruise control was two up with four to play or two of a five to play made up bogey on 14 made an unbelievable par save on 15 and then a horrendous bogey on 16 and then follows it up with what he says was arguably the greatest hole he's ever played and golf with the par four 17th, which I believe was around 485 yards, stripes it down the middle, hits it in there about 12 feet, and makes the putt.

And fortunately, he had a two-shot lead, didn't have to make birdie on the last. But awesome performance by Keegan Bradley. Seems to always play well over at the Zozo. If you remember, he was in the final group when Tiger Woods went over here just a couple years ago. He loves it over there for whatever reason. And good to see him back. I read the, I read the strangest stat. Like, it didn't really register with me until I read it.

How about it had been since Keegan Bradley's last win on the PJ Tour, both Tiger and Phil have won major championships, which is just mind-blowing to think, like two guys kind of on the tail end, you know, and Kagan being a guy that's been, you know, playing on team events and major championships and things like that. This was one, I didn't expect him to get as emotional as he did, but you can see what it's meant, dude.

Like some of these guys that, you know, we talk about the winners every single week on here, but there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, guys that aren't winning. You don't know how hard they're working to try to get back there until something like this happens. Shout out Kegan Bradley, man. And that's been a long time coming for him.

And this could be a little jumpstart, a little shot in the arm to try to get him back where he's been, you know, in years past. Yeah, the guy works his ass off. There's no doubt about it. I mean, you saw if Justin Thomas tweeted out afterwards, said, look, I get to see the work firsthand out at Grove 23. The man puts in the time. Like, he is a grinder. He wants it. He wants to be great.

And how about you look at those two guys, like Keegan Bradley, Keegan Bradley, Ricky Fowler. Obviously, Ricky Fowler is the bigger superstar there. But if you look at their resumes, they both got five. wins. I know Ricky's got the players. Keegan's got the major championship when he won the PGA's rookie year. It's crazy to think that their careers are that close and possibly even Keegan's a little better. It's really, really comparable. And I mean, if you ask me, here's resume A, resumes B's one's got a major one done. I mean, what do you take? You know what I mean? I think it's kind of a no-brainer. That's what you play for. But they guys have really similar resumes. I just think with

Ricky, with all the changes, like you said, he's kind of wiped the slate clean, gone back to some, you know, old coaching, which Bush, which seems to work for virtually everybody that does it. He's changed clubs, changed caddies, he's got Ricky Romano on the bag now. It just needed like a new start. And whatever it is, whether it's the swing, whether it's the clubs, whether it's the caddy or the combination of the three, like, it's working. It's just fun. It's just nice to see him. Speaking of guys that have worked their ass off and we haven't seen a whole lot of them in terms of results for a while, Ricky Fowler's in that thing.

So just to see him having a chance. He didn't play bad the last round. He just didn't do enough, you know, kind of like you said. But it's a pretty good sign. Two top sixes and three starts. It's been a while since we could say that about Rick. Yeah, no doubt. And also, it was a massive football weekend,

which I know you're going to save part of yours for the doers' cheers moment of the week. But how about Alabama, Tennessee? I don't know if I've ever seen a scene like what we saw there at the end of that Tennessee game. That was incredible and so much fun to watch. It was one of the best weekends of college football watching that I can remember in a long time. That Tennessee game was nuts. Did you see the picture afterwards? words after the game and concluded.

Oh, yeah. It took the goalposts out and took them down to some bar down there. It would have been a hell of a night to be in Knoxville. And then the picture I loved was the one from outside the stadium, like across the river or whatever with the smoke coming out. They're like, this is what 100,000 cigars looks like. And the whole place was up. It looked like the up and smoke tour over that.

I was like, that is what shit is about in college. It's so fun. You don't, the NFL's awesome, but you don't get it in the NFL. And this week, like the three big games, all of them, all of them were close to is what we've been what we've been asked for. The only thing that sucked was your horn frogs were playing Oklahoma State at the same time. I'm not sure how you dealt with that. How about Friday? My TV calls me. He goes, hey, can we come over this morning and install your second TV in your media room? I'm like, yes, this is perfect because I don't want to move all weekend. So I had them both on at

the same time. It was heaven. I need it. I need that setup so bad, dude, because I was back in 14. Obviously, I'm watching every snap of TCU. And then when it was all right, commercial timeout, whatever, click over and all I got to see every time was like whatever the score was let's say it was 21 21 whatever it was I click back to be 28 21 and I click back 28 28 I was like god damn they're scoring on every possession I'm missing all kinds of stuff but I had to stay loyal to my boys we're in a we're in a vicious cock fight also something very interesting I don't know if you saw this the tennessee volunteers Twitter account you know tweeted out listen unbelievable win so happy our goalposts are gone we obviously need goalpost to play next week they started a go fund

to replace their goalpost. I looked last night. It was at $63,000. I'm not sure what it is now. But hey, guys, you probably just made a goddamn gazillion dollars. You can pay for your own goalpost. I think their quarterbacks getting like in the millions, you know, from all the various NIL people.

As he should be. Also, yeah, they're like $100,000 fine that you get fine from the SEC for Storm in the field. Big 12 does, they all do the same thing. They started go fund me for that too. And someone tweeted out a thing of their, the University of Tennessee's current endowment. and it's in like the super billions. You know what I mean? Like maybe you feel 100.

You peel 100. Don't need to do a go-futemy to put the Gold Post back up. Just as a little thank you for the fans that showed up and made that place what it is. But dude, the college football weekend. I actually won a couple of bets. Not an incredible, but I'm off to Schneid.

I feel like it was just a hell of a Saturday. And Sunday, too, for that matter. Well, Sleaz, I know you're not here in Scott still right now, but there's actually a little bit of a crispness in the air, which means perfect doers drinking weather. What do Matthew Fitz, Cameron Smith, and Scotty Sheffler have in common with Doers' four-time master blender of the year, Stephanie McLeod? They're all at the top of their game. In Stephanie's case, that means creating the new Doer's 12-year-old. Double-aged in First Field Bourbon

cast, the new Doers-12 is smoother and richer with a profile full of fruit, vanilla, floral notes, and a spice. It's earned a 94-point rating from Whiskey Cast, a 93-point rating from Whiskey Advocate, and four stars from Paul Pocklitz of the Spirit Journal. It's proof of what you can do when you're a true champion of your craft. Try it, enjoy it, and please drink responsibly. It is now time for the doers' cheers moment of the week. Sleys, I'm going to just go ahead and give you a little cheers and say, here's to my liver over the next three weeks,

because this could be a problem. Tomorrow? It's been really taking it easy for a while, hasn't it? Yeah, I know. I've been really slowing her down. Now I've got to really step it up and start drinking again. Good. All right, well, I head up to Las Vegas tomorrow.

Southern Highlands member guest with our guy Ben Lamb and the wife is out of town for the week he said we are going to absolutely send it which terrifies me because he's a damn maniac so that's a problem. I come home for a quick little hour, a couple hours, change clothes head right back to the airport

Thailand for the Asian Pacific amateur heard in Thailand's rather nice heard there's a few things to do over there. Should be interesting. Come back here land Monday afternoon get on a plane Tuesday afternoon to Nashville Tennessee one of my favorite cities in the world for Justin Thomas's wedding.

This might be it. Some part, you might be looking for a new co-host. Good drunken cities, huh? God. Good drinking cities. Do we not spread this shit out a little bit? Yeah, it's tough. You got some other stuff coming up after that, man.

It's just, you know, sometimes you go hard, you go home. You know? The bear might have to go into hibernation here in a month or so. Wake the hell up. Yeah, you got to get seasoned up for the holiday season. of drinking to be had for the rest of the year. My doer's moment of the week is the mighty TCU horn frogs taking down the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Not only because it was a big game, obviously they're in the top 10, and now we get the slide in there after that, but because of what it meant for my

friendships with some of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, most notably my child, my firstborn son, Wyndham Clark, who owes me a substantial payment upon his arrival back home in the States. And also our good friend, Colt Hayden Wood, former Oklahoma State Cowboy, who has a very public humiliation coming his way. For the remainder of every, for every Saturday, for the remainder of the football season, which I look forward to on Instagram. If you don't follow him, I don't know his handle off the top of my head, but just look out for Hayden Wood, posting some great things coming out.

That's a great bet for him because no one knows who the hell he is. That's what I said. And my loss was going to have to say a bunch of shit about him on the pot. I was like, this ain't fair. This ain't a fair bet. But you know what? I'm a man. I'll take the bet.

But just look forward to it. It's going to be good. 42 people get to see him. It all is his entire hundreds of thousands. Extended family are going to be seeing that. I'll make sure maybe we have to repost here on subparters so everyone can see it.

All right. Well, let's get to our guest this week. The man who can hit it straighter than anybody that's ever played, he makes me look crooked. Our man Fred Funk, who recently, just like about six weeks ago, beat his age out on the PGA Tour champions. I've played with this. First of all, he's one of the few guys I can relate to on the golf course.

It's nice. about 270 down the middle, you know, hits it on the green, makes some putts, whatever. Players champ, the man can put, the man has had a pretty decent career for how far he hits it. You ever get paired with Freddie and just look up and be like, Dad?

You're away? You're away. You're away, Dad. Yeah. But man, he was a lot of fun. Let's not waste any time. Let's get to it. Here's Fred Funk on Golf Subpar.

All right, the man with us here today. He's been winning golf tournaments for a long time. He's got eight wins on the P. tour at nine on the champions a proud Maryland Terrapin and I think the first guy we've had on this show that makes Colt look crooked we got Fred Funk wow how are you Freddie oh good that's pretty good I like that there ain't many of them there's not many of guys that grew up there's not many guys that grew up modeling their game after Fred Funk but I'm one of them that's it I got what that's that 1.0 and 2.0 you had to hit it longer to me there's no question I don't

know I don't know Fred it'd be a hell of a battle right now I think I'm glad this This is this little conversation is starting to happen right now. So, Fred, are you one driving actually six times on the PJ tour? Colt, you wanted once in 2016. Do you know your highest ever percent of Fairways hit off the top? Almost 82. Whoa. Yeah, that's correct.

I thought mine was like 75. 81.24, according to the internet, Fred, which never lies. And Colt, 73.36, pretty not a lot of rough. I mean, with my speed, though, it's obvious that I hit 8% less. Yeah, Colt was like, 122 club head, I think, at the time. Yeah, but I have a secret, though. You know, the walking scores that control, you know, they're putting down all your stats.

Yeah, I always bribed them. If I was really close, I did it. Yeah. First cut is a fairway. Exactly. And fringe is a fairway. If I'm standing in the fairway, that counts. Yeah. Couldn't agree.

Could not agree more. I love it. Well, you are one of the straightest hitters. Is that like growing up? Was that kind of your strength? Even as a young guy? Were you just the shorter strength? greater guy? I was definitely the shorter guy. I was definitely really straight. My ball really never

curved. My misses were pulls and pushes. I didn't really curb it much. And obviously, your dispersion can't be that wide when you're not that long. So, you know, my misses actually on majors were kind of a penalty because I was in the thickest part of the rough. I would never get to the wide stuff where the gallery was. So if I was missing fairways in the majors on a U.S. opener or PGA setup, I was dead. I mean, you're just, just hacking it out. And that was more of a focus. I was then, usually I aimed down the middle and I was always somewhere left or somewhere right. But in the majors, when I was playing really well, I would aim down one side and draw it back in a little bit. But most often I'd aim down the left side and kind of hold it and use the whole fairway and try to eliminate one side, even as short as I was, at least eliminate the left side of the golf course. was usually what I would do. And that worked pretty good. Yeah, for all our listeners up there.

I'm glad they came up with hybrids. Had they not come up with hybrid, the best invention for me in all the golf, that saved my career when they came up with those. How many are you carrying it right now? Obviously enough, because you just shot 65 of a Michigan beat your age, by the way. For the first time in competition,

congratulations on that. How many, but how many hybrids you got in the background? I got a bouquet. It's, I got a, my first, hybrid is my foreiron, which I've had, it was an original hybrid by Taylor Made. And that's kind of my money club. It used to be, I'd hit at 175 to 200. I could get 200 yards out of it back in the day. And now I might get 190 if I really stomp on it. I'm feeling good. But it was such an accurate club, and it was so versatile because, you know, I could hit it out of the light rough. I could hit it out of

the first cut of rough, I could get out of a divot. I could hit a high. I found one. It's a really short shaft and it's really stiff so it wouldn't balloon. And a lot of times when I was looking for a hybrid, when I first was looking for him, and it'd be the 22 or 24 degree loft and it would go straight up in the air and into the wind. It was useless. So George Willowd used to work for the tailor mate and he was our guy that built our clubs. He said, I got an idea for you. So he came out with a club that already had a 19 degree three iron hybrid. And he said, don't look at the bottom. It had the same head.

And I hit it. It was just a lot shorter. And I could hit it low. I could hit a high. And I could get 200 yards out of it. And it was a 19 head as well. But it was so much shorter and so much stiffer that I could keep it down. And that's still in my bag.

And then I got a three iron hybrid. I got another hot hybrid if I'd pull my three wood out. So I wish we could have. I have so much in common. I feel like I'm talking to Colt right now. The four iron hybrid. That's my favorite club in the back. It is.

It really is versatile. You can do a lot with it. And I just think it's a really easy club to hit. And a lot easier, your misses even with that are better than a four iron. And most people can hit a four iron and get them in the air. And I can still get those in the air. But the four hybrid off a tight lie is it's not an issue. I feel comfortable hitting it.

For me, when I was still playing, it's like the amount of times I had 200 into a par four or 200 yard three. It was ridiculous. So I might as well figure out a way to be pretty damn good from that yardage. Yeah. And there's a lot of them on it. Even on the championship store, we, you know, we're playing 215, 220 down the, you know, 180 part threes. They're in that range. So I need my three high.

I need my hybrids in that, in that zone. You mentioned you can get that. You mentioned you can get the iron up in there, but I focus on. that miss hit. The miss hit with the hybrid is just so much better. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, it doesn't hurt your hands. No, it doesn't. Bryce Mulder and I joked we would have quit a long time ago if they never came out with hybrids. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Although with the modern game now, I really would think it would be very difficult to see a player like me or a Corey Pavin. Guys, as short as we were on the highest level of the game to really compete. Now, they're still

golf courses that we can compete on. But these guys are hitting it so far nowadays. And they're hitting four arms, 230 and 240 yards. It's, you know, off the T, even off the fairway. And that's hard to beat. It's really hard to compete with that and hitting their drivers, you know, 300 plus in the air. It's a totally different power game like any other sport. It's gotten all about speed and power. And yet you still got to have a great short game in golf, which is the equalizer, but it's hard to beat a guy that's that long with that kind of power to, like Bryson has proven, to beat him when they're on their game. And that's what's difficult. And while we're on that topic of conversation, like as a guy who is never going to be that long,

like, do you like where the game's going now? Because I've always said, I don't think you'll see guys come out of college that play the way you, a Corey Pavan, or a Justin Leonard did nowadays. No, I don't think you will. It can't even compete in college at that level. It's just really gotten to be a speed game. It's the aerodynamics, the golf ball, the, the easiness, the easiest club in the bag to hit nowadays is the driver. You're putting it on a tee. It's a, it's a, you know, a lightweight head. It's a big head. It has a light shaft. It's not this old steel shafts and they're 45, 46 inches long. And they just learn how to not only train their body, but they learn how to train to hit a ball a long way. And even the little guys are hitting the ball a long way.

And it's amazing. They complain about, I'm not complain, but sometimes on the TV announcers, they'll say more cow and they say he was not one of the power guys, but he had 175 ball speed. And I think that's the sweet spot. That's a great area to be in. It's still plenty long enough to overpower and score on almost any golf course in the world, except for mining Colorado. and we'll talk about it but but yet he it saves in play and you know they were talking about that playoff was a year ago with de chambot and can'tley yeah in baltimore and uh caves valley yeah case valley and they go to that playoff and obviously de chambos way by can'tley but can'tly still hitting at 180 ball speed or whatever he was at and and that's certainly not sure he's still

driving a 300 plus. It's just Bryson's off the charts at 350. So, no, I would love to hit it. I'd love to see what that would feel like to fly a ball 300 yards. That'd be unbelievable. I can't comprehend. I'd tell you one thing. If I could hit a ball that far, like I watch my son, he's trying, he's out on the Canadian tour. He's got a lot of power. He's kind of the size of McElroy in almost the same speed, if not the same speed as he is off the team. But to, uh, to watch him play, it's just remarkable to see that kind of speed. And it's just when he's on his game and he's sitting at 70, 80 yards in the air past you, and he has nothing left into the hole. It's just every hole's a scoring opportunity. I would love to get out on a golf course

knowing there's nothing in the way. It's just a matter of managing your game and get it around there. If you're on your game and you got the power, you know, off you go. Just have a ball with it. Yep, all these young kids coming out. In SAA as you look at it, it's not like the one-offs anymore. It's almost like the entire field does it. It's a prerequisite anymore to be in some of these guys. I want to take you way back, though, because I am extremely interested in this. One question, before you get to that.

Oh, okay. One question. While we're on the distance thing real quick, I want to know because I know this really, this changed more after your PGA tour career, but at any point in your career, did you ever chase distance? No, I tried a little bit just on my own. And I was self-thought pretty much my whole career. And I read the Carl Lauren book, the one moved to better golf back when I was a kid.

And I kind of became my instructing book. And I never did. I just couldn't figure out. I never developed lag. I never knew how to create lag in my swing. When you see a guy like the extreme example of Sergio, and he brings a club down, and he's at hip level on the way down, and the club is still back here somewhere. And then the next frame is right on.

and through the ball. I can't imagine that kind of how you even do that. And yet he was one of the straightest. I put him as the top three drivers I've ever witnessed on tour, Norman, David Ball and him for distance and accuracy. So pretty remarkable how great a driver, Sergio was with that kind of lag and able to time that up all the time. Yeah, he is.

But to answer your question, I didn't chase it. Yeah. Not for very long. Good choice. Ended up being a good move. You had a pretty decent run out there, which we're going to get into a lot of that. But I want to get your career before your career

and this when you were a young child. I'm very interested in this because you boxed. Sorry, I believe starting at the age of eight up to 16. I got to know about Fred Funk the boxer. I'm very fascinated by this. Yeah, at eight years old, he had a guy down the street that moved in and he was an old golden gloves boxer. And he grabbed a couple of my friends down the street and myself

and said you want to spark. around and stuff. So put the gloves on and I kind of liked it. I don't know why I like it punched in the face, but I kind of liked it. And I was in College Park and I did all the College Park Boys Club, which is right by the University of Maryland campus, did all their other sports with football and baseball and basketball. But they didn't have a boxing team. So I went to a Delphi boxing team, which was the community next door. And they had a Golden Gloves coached there. He was 49 and one in Golden Gloves. And he had a great team. And we, I just liked it. I loved doing it. We had a great group. So we started training for a tournament that was in April.

We started training in October. And we would train three or four nights a week in his basement. And we had the heavy bags, the speed bags. And we'd spar each other. We'd run and we do all sorts of stuff. But at the end of the end of the, in April, we went to Aaron Drew's Air Force Base. had a big tournament, double elimination, and it was the same county as Sugar Ray Leonard grew up. He's the same age and same weight as I was, pretty much. And the way I remember, he started when he was about nine or ten. And when you're starting at eight years old, you don't know what you're doing. You get in the ring and you put your head down and go like this.

And then you start learning how to fight. Then you start learning how the art of boxing. Well, Sugaray, I remember when he showed up, he got in a ring and this kid, you know, He's a little tiny guy like we all were. And he got in the ring in hell. And he's dancing around like he's been in the ring his whole life. And throwing speed that you're just like, wow. So we always tried to, I wish I fought him.

Just to say I got my ass kicked by Trigger, right? Yeah. You're the only guy to ever say that. Yeah. But I did manage to avoid him in the way ends. We were always one-way class apart, whether I was lighter or heavier, but usually I was lighter. And, but I remember my first way, and I think I weighed 64 pounds and I weighed in at 59.

It was something stupid. It was, we got in a Volkswagen Beetle to make weight. We put about six of us in there, put a plastic bag over, so we're all in sweats, turn the heat on full blast. After we already just ran two miles. And we all just dropped all the water weight. And we're, it could have killed us. I mean, really could have killed us.

But that was fun. It was a good time. It came in handy at times. I was always a little guy, and I had an attitude sometimes. And I remember in junior high and high school, it came in handy a few times. But anyway, oh, there is a follow-up. So now we get to, so that was whenever I was 16. So in 1976, but a guy named Terry Butner come in and was trying for the Olympic team.

And he was a welterweight, 140 or 147. And I weighed about 160 at the time. And my coach asked a bunch of guys to come back and be his sparring partners. And I went, sure, I'll do it. What the hell. I hadn't been in the ring for four years. And I get in there and he is fast. I mean, when you're at that level, he's, and this is the year that Sugar Ray made it to the Olympics.

And Terry went to the, he lost in the finals of the trials to go to the Olympics. And the 76 and the 84 and also 1980 boxing teams, the Olympic teams were best ever, U.S. teams. But anyway, I got to ring for two months with him, getting my head kicked in with this guy. And he was so fast. It was unbelievable. And, yeah, I could, I guess I was more of a punching bag than I was. I was trying to beat him, but I couldn't. He was just so freaking quick. And not only with his hand speed, you know, you see these lightweights and how they can move

and jig and bob and do everything in the ring. And it was fun. It was a good experience. So I did. And I think it helped my mentality as far as my work ethic. I always had a really strong work ethic. I always felt like I had to out work the other guys to be good enough. And I felt like I did a lot of work.

Probably why I have a bad back now. Well, hitting golf balls for hours sounds a lot better than sitting in a Volkswagen beetle in a trash bag. Getting punched in the mouth. You know how to take it. You know how to get punched in the mouth. That's all golf is over and over. Just getting punched in the mouth. But you mentioned, well, Woody Austin does that to himself.

I've witnessed it. It is fantastic. Good point. He knocked himself out. I actually played with Sugar Ray, I believe 10 years ago at the old Bob Hope. He was my partner one day. Wow. And look like he could get in the ring right now.

He's still like so fit. It was unbelievable. Did he talk about being scared of this young kid growing up? He had not. Fred Funk. He did not bring up Fred. He inspired him to go on to what he went on to. But what a nice guy.

That's awesome. He is a nice guy. He is a nice guy. Career record in all your fights. What do you think you were? Were you knocking kids out? Like, were you, did you have some power? I never got knocked down.

I knocked quite a few guys down. I never knocked one out. I fell out of the ring once, though. We had the ring. That's awesome. Four feet, and the guy had me pinned against the rope, and I was just trying to cover up. So now I'm ready to get ready to throw a punch,

and I put my right foot back to get the leverage to throw. and my leg went out of the ring, and I just toppled right on out of the ring and fell four feet onto the floor, and I had to walk around. I was all scraped up on the inside of my leg because I hit that side of the ring and hop back in. I did end up winning that fight, though. I don't know what my record was. I think I probably, I mean, usually were fighting two to three fights in April. And now I was probably 50-50, maybe a little better than that. I thought there were some fights I won that they said I lost.

And quite a few of those, I thought, actually. And then there was some I lost that they gave me the decision anyway. So I don't know what they were looking at. You grease those judges like you did the stat people. I know what you did. Yeah. They can be bought. They're humans.

They're humans. That's right. They're human. It was okay. It was fun. Let's take a little break from our episode with Fred Funk. I want to tell you about Rapsoto. Play your best golf with the Rapsoto MLM, the number one rated personal launch monitor on the market today,

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for MLM and their premium subscription. So subpar listeners have the opportunity to save over $130 total with the purchase of the bundle package. Stop wasting time on the range with ineffective practice that doesn't lead to improvement. Get a Rapsoto MLM and get a plan for lower scores. Back to Fred Funk on golf subpar. Let's talk about your journey to pro golf because it was pretty incredible.

You started off University of Maryland. You get cut. You go away for two years to a community college. You come back. By the way, was that weird at all coming back after being cut from the same team? Now, I was still working at Maryland at the golf course. I was going to junior college at a local junior college.

And what was funny with the junior college when I, well, the first year, we had 12 rounds of qualifying and I missed by one. And I made the second hole of part three on the course I grew up on. I hit it in this dry creek and I walked off with about a nine because I kept trying to hit it out of this creek and it kept going to wrong direction. and ended up misqualifying by one just to make the team and I make a nine on that one hole. And the coach cut me. And I was working two jobs and I flunked out of Maryland and I said, all right, I'm going to go to junior college. So I went there and all the derelicks of PG County that were the number one golfers on the golf teams, five of us showed up that year. And we had an unbelievable team.

We scrimmaged Maryland at Maryland and beat them. We went to the nationals two years in a row. The local, you played over at Avenel and those, that's Potomac. That's the rich, not PG County, but Montgomery County. And that's the real rich county school, community college. And they have great teams. And we could never beat them. And we destroyed them for two years.

And then I went back to Maryland. And then I was between one and three. usually one and two of that team. They didn't have as good a team when I went back, but yeah, I played the last two years there and then finally graduated after could have been a doctor, I think. Because I wanted to be a cop at one time. So got a law enforcement degree.

And then I went to J.C. Goosey's mini tour down in Orlando. And I lived in Daytona. And I did okay in the spring series, went okay, in the summer series, enough to keep going. And then I got to the fall, I went belly up, came back, had no money left, spent some of my parents' money, all my savings. I was working manpower cleaning out just burned out warehouse in the middle of the wintertime in D.C.

And my coach got promoted to AD and assistant AD, and he offered me to coach in Java. I said, yep, I'll take it. And it was only making $18,000 a year. It wasn't like it was, they'd make a lot of money nowadays. But he gave me something. to do and that's when my game really started taking off in the mid-80s. That was 1981. 84, I won the National Assistance and kept qualifying for quite a few PGAs and U.S. opens and making cuts. And I said, okay, I'm maybe a little better than I thought. And

I finally got out in 89. So it took a while. I blew a rotator out in 86. So I had to battle that battle that injury back. And actually, I re-an imagine. out on tour on a boogie board and had it operated on a 91 during a season. So there's a lot of trojointed. Yeah, you got a lot of miles, boxing law enforcement, boogie board. Can't imagine why your shoulders sucked. Falling out of rings, getting hit the face.

I mean, shit, pretty good, in my opinion. At a face, it looked like it's been hit a lot. When you were coaching and you're coming back and then you said that's when my game's starting to get good. Are you getting to like play against the kids on the team? I assume you're beating them and think, like that because it's hard to stay sharp enough to pursue pro golf when you're doing something else is your actual job. Yeah, I did actually. I played the qualifying match rounds with them,

and I was playing in the section, all the section stuff in the middle Atlantic section. And me and Webb Heintzman were kind of dominating that for all the years I was there. We both got on tour the same year. He got injured early and dropped back off. But during the coaching years, I always played with the guys on the team. They kept me sharp. I wanted to beat them. They wanted to beat me. We'd go on the road. Most of the time we're going down 95. We're playing in the Carolines, like at Duke and Clemson and Carolina's tournament and all those. At first, I would tee him off and I'd watch them on the par threes and I'd be the typical coach. And they weren't very good. So I didn't do that anymore. I just went to the range and hit balls or old Dominions coach

went to a lot of our tournaments and he and I would go to another golf course and go play while my boys were playing and now they made that illegal because we did that. NCAA said no more. That's not happening. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, you obviously got going really well in tour. You spent a lot of your career in the top 50 in the world.

You win the players championship. You qualified for three team events, which we love talking about this, the 03 and 05 Presidents Cup and the 2004 Ryder Cup. I want to go to that 03 Presidents' Cup match in South Africa because that was one of the most exciting Presidents' Cups we've ever had. it ended in a 17-17 tie. But take us through that last day. Obviously, it was extremely close.

You got Tiger and Ernie, battling out in singles. Then they go to sudden death. It's winner-take-all, and pretty much the pitch dark. Yeah, it was, and it was pitch dark. You know, how the cameras can light things up a little bit, and it was really dark. But, yeah, it got down. You know it was going to be a close match,

and then it looked like it was definitely going to be a tie, and the captain's Nicholas and Player had to put in an envelope who they wanted, and obviously they wanted a Tiger and Ernie. And, yeah, big surprise. Yeah, big surprise. And they go out and I remember, you know, both teams were all watching them. And they both made great part puts on one. And, you know, either one of them misses it.

It's over. You know, you're just thinking of the pressure. But then they go to two, that stupid part three, the player, it was a player design golf course. And it was really a bad hole. It had a terrible, severe false front that went half the green. And then the pins in the back. and it's really hard to get the ball up there. And when I remember, Tiger hit it right and,

and forget where Ernie hit it, but Ernie hit his put to like six, seven feet short of the pin, and Tiger had that 12 footer and is dark, and it's a left of righter, and he makes it. It's like one of those that he does. He just, like he did at Tori Pines. It just somehow finds its way to the hole.

But Ernie still had a six-footer, a dark darker is it was straight in straight up but it's for the president's got to keep the tie and and uh and he buried that and he just we know we're all walked up so that's why that's tiger and that's why he's or they do what they do and they had that big discussion on the green on how we were going to decide who was going to retain the cup and and then it was settled with the marcos put at RTJ and I was part of that team too and the irony with that um First of all, the South Africa trip was probably the best trip I've ever been on. I went on to Sun City after that and played that event.

But my family went on a safari. But anyway, we go fast forward to RTJ and we get to the singles pairings come out and VJ gets Freddie. And VJ called out in the press. I think in an interview he says, Freddie have a cart ready for Freddie on 14. I'm taking them out. And you don't say that to Freddie. Freddy's one of the most fierce competitor there is.

Everybody thinks he's just a laid bad guy, but on the golf course, he's not laid back at all. And everybody's watching that match on the board. And we hear this huge board go up and Freddie took them out. I think it was on 17. And then, you know, everybody else's matches just move on. And then when it got all said and done, I had lost. I didn't have a very good match play record in any of those team events, unfortunately. But I went and followed Phil in his playoff to, or extra holes against Cabrera.

And he had it. Cabrera was out of play. Phil was going to win his match. He's, we're going to win the cup. In the meantime, DeMarco makes the putt on 18. And the celebration is going crazy. I'm the only guy on the team following Phil, and I'm 500 yards away from this huge war, this great celebration.

I'm watching the telecast later, and I'm seeing the tape of everybody jumping up and giving everybody just going crazy. And Phil and I were going, great match, way to go. Missing the party. Yeah, it was a lonely walk back. I tell you that, we were the only ones out there.

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Birdie juice 15. Back to Fred Funk. Go back to 03 in South Africa when the little huddle up after they both made the great putts in the dark. And ultimately, Jack and Gary Player were going to make the decision like this. We're done with this thing. Was it tough sell? on the American side, did they, like,

we're gonna split the cup, we're gonna share the cup, we're not gonna retain it? Or did the team have any saying it at all? No, not really. It came down, it was all Nicholas and player pretty much going back and forth. And I think player was pretty adamant.

And then, you know, Jack being Jack, it was a shared cup at that point, right? That's how it all ended up. And then they went, we went to RTJ as a shared cup. and everything got settled out. But it was really good. I'm shocked that we have, the American side has such an advantage in the President's Cup on the record.

When you look at the teams, then you just go, wow. I mean, the international team has a heck of a team. Every year, you look at the names. And how can we dominate that one? And the Ryder Cup, then we're getting our butts kicked in the Ryder Cup. You know, over the last year. That's interesting.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I don't think it's going to be much better in the President's Cup this year. Boy, I feel bad for trying. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know there's going to be any sharing going on in that thing. It's a whole different dynamic of what's going on right now. And with that, we're going to not playing out at all.

We're going to get to what's going on in the world of golf here in a second. But we mentioned Tiger, and I know you were out there when Tiger was in his prime. I mean, year 2000, just ridiculous what he did. What was it like playing alongside the guy back then? Is there like, is there any moment in all the time you spent with him that kind of sticks out? They're like, good Lord, this guy's just not even human. Yeah, every day I play with him. When I had a chance to play with him in a tournament round, it was unbelievable.

But he, yeah, I got to think of a couple. One, it was at Hazelstein. It was the PGA that Rich Beam won. And I was in the second and last group with Tiger. And he was playing good. And we were on number 12. I'm kind of out of it. I was kind of in it.

And then I was not in it after being made his eagle player on 11. And we were in 12. We heard this huge roar. And we realized this eagle goes up. And I'm like, I didn't know he was that long. Did he chip it in? And now he putted it in. I'm like, wow, it's unbelievable.

And Rich did hit a lot more. He still does, actually. It's a lot further than I ever gave him credit for it. But Tiger goes to the, it was 12. 13. It was a part three. And he's three putter. 14 was that short drivable par four.

He made a mess of that, made bogey. And he is living. I mean, he's just giving it away right there. And he does one of those tiger helicopter swing. He swung so hard on 15 of par five. And he pulled hooked it left and over the bunkers in the rough on the hill. And he's walking off the tea, and I won't use the pure language that he used that day, but he just says, the Stevie in clean terms that we're going to bury the last four,

we're going to win this thing. And I'm going to make, hey, Jared. that and Mark was my caddy Sevy and he goes yes so where do hell that come from he just went bogey bogey and then a wild swing and sure enough he goes birdie birdie birdie bird and buries them all and he just hit shots of the like all of a sudden he was just so zoned in and you know how he passed when he zoned in I mean I thought he was the best par putter ever he just refused to make bogey but rich ended up birdie and 16 at crazy par four with the water on both sides and kind of helped seal the deal, but it wasn't sealed when, you know,

tigers doing the four in a row coming to the house. So, yeah, he was pretty special, but that same tournament, and that day, we were walking from 10 to 11, had about 100 yards walk, and the crowd adopted me that year. They really were behind me, and it was really fun. And walking off the tea, and they're, come on, Freddie, you can go, come on. And obviously there were ones doing Tiger,

but we're standing on 11T, and he goes, and I walk up, Tiger was already there, and he goes, that's weird. I go, why? What's that? He says, you're cheering for you more than me. I said, get used to it, pal. So we had a funny moment there, but Tiger was really special. And then

just to see, you know, he and Phil would do things that the average guys wouldn't do with risk, you know, Phil would use the flop shot when he wouldn't have to or he hit the shot like it had to gust off the needles on 13 for the green. Why would you do that with his short game?

But he did it, pulls it off, and sometimes they don't pull it off, but they had the nerve to do it. And they had the skill to do it. And it really was fun to watch them play. I love being in that atmosphere or what those guys brought to the game. And I think right now the guys that are going at or Macaroid for sure.

You know, he's become the hero of the tour right at the moment. And the guys that are still with us, they're pretty special. Sheffler and Morcal and those guys, it's really good. Explain for the people, because you got to play with Tiger on a Sunday and a major championship. Not many people in the history of the world have gotten to do that. Explain the environment, playing with Tiger, and what it's like being in that arena where it's basically,

I mean, it sounded like you had some fans on your side, which is rare, but typically it's like, do you feel invisible most guys out there? Like you're just, as soon as Tiger's done, they're off. Yeah, and actually I experienced that with the year. I can't put the year, I don't know what the years were, but when Jansen won at Wingfoot or at Baltless Roll, the U.S. Open, I got paired with Nicholas on Saturday,

and Jack would not put out. He was like the third or fourth hole, unless he made the putt of course. But if he put it up and went even near my line and not worried about the through line or anything. I said, Jack, you can go. And he goes, no, I'm not going to do that to you. I said, what are you talking about? He says, well, the minute I put in, all these people leave.

And I went, wow, that's cool. I said, well, I'm one of the few guys that I really don't care. It doesn't bother me, but thanks. And it is the case with Tiger and Bill. I mean, there's so many people watching, and they just take off. But actually, that never bothered me because a group of people or a horde of people would never bother me. It was that one lone guy that would be moving or an official or not a volunteer,

sit there and say quiet, please, at the wrong time. Those things get to me, but when you're seeing it, hearing a constant noise or the constant movement, that never bothered me. And you expect it with that. I mean, there's no way you're going to have, have 20,000 people in one hole, and everybody's being quiet. You know, everybody's amped up. So especially if Tiger, Phil,

was in contention and staying in contention, whether you got him in the first round, but especially on a Sunday round. I had, that's cool. I had Phil when Retief won at Chinicock in the second and last group. And that was unbelievable because it became a two-horse battle between those two.

And I didn't know that Reteef was making every put that he was looking at and Phil knocked it to about a gimmy on 16 for Bertie. I think it was to tie retief. And then on 17, he hit it in the bunker and it was a real shallow bunker and it pins right there. But they had the rock rule that year. If you see a rock, you can take it out. But he hit it and that ball came out like a knuckle ball and it hit and went fast forward, had no spin on it, knuckled out.

He got a rock between the face and the ball. And it went about 12 feet by and three puck. coming back down the hill game set match for t birdie 16 all of a sudden he's got a three-shot lead it's all over it was like a more going up 18 with uh fill everybody wanted fill all those new yorkers obviously wanted one want to fill and um it's it's fun to be in that that situation to see how it all unfolds because you're really watching you know you're kind of watching history when you're paired in that situation with those guys something in the in the books is probably going to happen or something's going to happen that's going to be in the books and and it did on both

of those so it's really cool yeah no doubt it's really cool you got to play with both of those and then we got to go to the 2005 or sorry 2004 rider cup because you mentioned tiger and phil they get paired together the first day both sessions by captain how suttton didn't go too well they went oh and two but was this something you knew captain sutton was going to do like throughout the week or what was the what was the reaction like when y'all found out they were getting paired together well first of Well, we question why they were put together the first place. I mean, I would do an interview single. I'd go to Tiger first if I was a captain, and this is hindsight.

But I'd go to Tiger and say, hey, you want to play with Phil in the first round? I'm sure Tiger would have it, hell no. And then it's, it's over. That's not going to happen. Cool. And or he said yes. If Phil wants to, then he asks Phil and Phil says, hell no, then it's over. But they get paired.

And I rode back with Tiger in his car with Eelon. I had a courtesy car driver. Tiger sitting in the front. I'm right behind him and Ealing on the back left with me. And we just get in, going to the hotel about a 15-minute ride, and I said, how was it?

And he goes, how was what? Oh, wait, wait a minute. I go, how was it? And he did reply. And then I go, Tiger, how was it with Phil? And he's just shaking his head. He goes, I said, what's the deal?

He goes, he was useless. He was. He didn't help me one shot. He said, and that was the year he just switched over to Callaway with all new equipment. He was never with us all week. He was always somewhere else testing clubs, testing balls, and trying to figure it out. And he just said, he didn't know where the ball's going. He doesn't know how far to hit it.

He can't keep it on the golf court. He didn't help me one hole. And I went, okay, all right, you did. So I didn't go. And I got to play with him tomorrow. And then it's just so we're just laughing. And obviously that didn't go too well. And if I'm on the other team, you have nothing to lose.

You beat those guys. Huge momentum. If you lose, it's like, okay, all right, we kind of expected that. But, I mean, I got, I actually was out there on the course when that second day and it was on 18. And Phil hits it just completely off the golf course. and Tiger just making this I saw him look at his stevie's caddy and just going here we go

and that's what he was going through all the time you're exactly right though if if the European team beats them they know they have all the momentum because they're taking down the two big dogs on that team yeah that was a that one didn't work out too well the first match I feel like Fred it's like okay that's an experiment I agree with you you like you should go to Tiger

and like basically who do you want to play with you're the guy and let him pick but you run them out you trot them out there the first time it doesn't go as plans they lose. The second one to me is like, let's run that back again. Clearly, you just have a talk with Tiger and say how to go. He'd say the same thing he said to you. And he'd be like, okay, maybe we break that one up. That was just a, that was a whip. The second one is what blows my mind. Yeah, well, I agree. I agree. I thought both were a little, the first one was even questionable, but the second one would definitely, shouldn't have happened. The one day we were playing,

it was ordering a shot. And he, Halt took Kenny out. He said, Kenny's too tired. to go today and uh fred you go in for kenny i said i'll think okay i'll go in i'm walking and get go get ready and i'm thinking we're playing oakland hills it's one of the hardest longest golf courses we got i'm the shortest guy on a team i would tell kennie you're playing yeah suck it up kanny we need we need power out here we don't need a little pea shooter out here and uh especially in the alderman a shot and i was paired with davis and davis was driving the ball so far everybody was laughing how far and the 12th hole nobody was getting home on this far five and after he had a drive i had a six iron in and i backed off twice i'm over the ball back off

i'm over to ball back and davis what are you what are you doing i go davis this is the most pressure ever felt over a six iron he goes what are you talking about is this is i got a six iron in if i screw this up and we lose this whole and i did i hit it in the front bunker we didn't get up and down we lose the hole and i went so oh man it was unbelievable it's my first time ever with a six iron out of four five i lay up with this class relax this my first time experiencing this it really was it was unbelievable he he was he was he was davis never hit it as far as he did that week he was so amped up and it hit in the dead hitting it's dead straight and 350 every hole i mean it was stupid how far he was hitting it

that hole went about 400 it just rolled and wow it was ridiculous forget how hold how I think it was a 600-yard part five. And a little bit downhill. Anyway, doesn't matter. I already told that story. Before we get to our E-9, which is our really fun part of the show, give us your quick thoughts on everything that's going on between LiveGolf and the PGA Tour. Wow.

Yeah. It's a hard thing for me to answer. I think it's, I see both sides of it as far as I always thought the guys, if I was in a situation, of Westwood and Mickelson and Poulter, the three guys that kind of left early that were the biggest names. And I was in that part of my career. And they offered me that kind of money. I'm out. I'm going. Or I'm in, whichever way you want to look at it. But I'm taking it because, you know, what's their options to go stay on a regular tour and have all the young guys keep beating up on them, go to the champions tour. It's a great tour. But first.

aren't what even the regular tour are even close and or go take the money and I think I'm going to take the money. But for the young guys, I see a question. I question that, but it's also at the same time, it's hard to say, how do you turn down the money? It's just so much money. It's ridiculous that the tour can't really compete with that kind of money. I mean, the live tour could actually come back and say, okay, you got you got eight or 20 now, $20 million dollar purses. We'll come out with $14, $40 million persons. Now what are you going to do? So, I mean, you just can't really compete in the tour is trying to do that. But yet they're also varying, you know, the media sometimes it's very hypocritical,

I think, on some of the aspects of saying why you deal with the Saudis. We've already played in Saudi Arabia. We have contracts in Saudi Arabia. We have contracts and playing the regular tour in China. It's not like we haven't played there before. It's the same people. And to say, well, you're buying into whatever and or you're being bought by this. Well, yeah, I guess they are.

But at the same time, these guys are set for life, you know, for whatever. Now, it's sad. I wouldn't want to be playing exhibition golf for the rest of my life if I was a competitor like Roy McElroy and Shepler and all the studs. And the young guys coming out of college, it may even be in a situation. you're talking about that they may never play in a tournament like the Memorial or whatever, you know, the great term, the Colonials and those those that are on the regular tour. And, you know, that's kind of sad as well. So there's there's a lot to it.

And I think we're a long way from having this thing play out. It's got to be played out. It's going to be played out in court. It's going to be played out on the golf course. If Liv gets a TV contract, that's going to be, which I, why wouldn't they get it? somebody's going to take them, I would think. I mean, they're going to pay for it, but they got the money to pay for it.

So I think with Mariamma not going, that was probably a big deal, because I think that would have been a Japanese contract, TV contract right away, maybe. Yeah, Hadeki was big for the tour to keep. But just with that being said, back, you know, when you're playing on the PGA tour, could you ever imagine anything like this happening?

Oh, no, no, no, no. And, you know, the sad part to me is that I thought, But just prior to all this, the tour was, in my opinion, the strongest it's ever been and was rocking and rolling. We had all these great young guys that were carrying, I think, handling the pressure and the media and the fans and putting on great displays of golf. Yeah, I think one of the best examples was the one that they were playing London and we were playing Canada. That's probably one of the best Canadian opens in the history of Canadian Opens this year. and that's that's what it's all about and I just don't see the glamour or somebody thinking how important exhibition golf is it's like silly season used to be you know when when you're playing the skins game and all those other things in the wintertime it's uh it's it's not the same it's not that that competitive they're playing for a lot of money but it's it's almost like a little club and they're in there playing for a little bit of little deal. They're not playing for history. So I see both sides. I mean, it's hard to turn down

to money. I hate to see when they're blasting the guys that have taken it and just saying, hey, you know, you're blackballing these guys forever, but the tour is fighting for their life right now. And they're doing everything they can. I don't know why they couldn't have come to the table earlier. Maybe they didn't know this was going to get this far and negotiate. And so, say, hey, okay, all right, you've got this and how can we make, there's enough room in this world for both tours. If they do it right or if they did it right, I don't know whether, I don't know how it's all going to unfold. I'm just on the, I'm on the rumor mill on who's going, who's not going, and what's happening in court and all this other stuff. So, yeah, it's going to be,

it's going to be very interesting to see what all plays out. But we only got a few minutes left, right. Let's get to the emergency nine real quick. And we start this off with every. one, Fred. You can trade lives with anyone, dead or alive. You get to be them for a day. Who would it be? For one day. You'd be anyone in the history of life. You got to make it count, dude. For a day. Jeez, I'd have to keep it in the golf world. I would like to just be one of those guys that could hit it 320 yards in the air one day. Well, there's a lot of them. Yeah. A lot of them out days. Two hundred to pick from him. He can fly at 320.

one day. I like to be Taylor for one day on the golf course and see what that feels like. And then maybe I could relate to him a little better. Okay, perfect. All right. You could go back in time and be Sugar Ray Leonard and let yourself,

you could let the actual Fred Funk knock you out and then you have that story for the rest of your life. Now, had I thought of that, I would have said that. We'd say about the time I knocked out Sugar Ray, boys. I was only 10. If that happened, you would have never heard of Sugar Ray. Could you imagine? That's right.

That's right. All right. I'm going to stay on the boxing theme here because every boxer's got a nickname. You got Floyd, Money, Mayweather, you got Navander, the Real Deal, Holyfield. What would have been your nickname if you stuck with boxing? Wow. Certainly wouldn't have been the hunk of funk or anything. I've got one.

I actually like that. I don't know. You got so many with funk as the last name. There's Fast Freddy. Fast Freddy is good. I was going to say, because I've seen you do a little dance move here and there. Fred fancy feet funk would have been pretty good. And they're always moving.

Fancy feet. If you got knocked out all the time, you could have been fall down funk. Fall down funk. Take a die. That's if you're losing all the time. I don't need a name. He's got fall down funk tomorrow night and he's in trouble. All right.

You mentioned you want to experience driving it, you know, nine miles and straight. Well, there's one guy that does that pretty well. Better than us is Roy McRoy. So I want to go back to that Skins game. you played with Tiger and Onica where you had to wear the pink skirt. If I told you throughout your PJ tour career, you had to play in that pink skirt every single day, but you drove it like Roy McElroy,

would you take it? Mm-hmm. You damn right, you would. I would too. Wear it and go commando. You could even make it shorter if you wanted to. Play somewhere windy. I don't care.

I'm driving it like Rory. Just imagine you're like 70 yards closer to every green. How good does that sound? Oh, it'd be so easy. I mean, unbelievable. I walk with him in the fairways now, and I just look over when he drives at $3.50 down the middle. I'm like, you want to play a scramble sometime?

This would be really fun to play from up here. I mean, God, it's so easy. We could throw it on every green. He seems to be in a good place as far as his attitude and everything on the golf course. I don't know. I mean, you've seen him up close, so I'm just asking, I guess. I expect, I mean, he had a really, really good year this year. I know he didn't get a major, but 2023, I think is going to be.

monstrous for Roy McRoy. That's great. Awesome. You don't have to worry about money anymore. That's a nice load off his shoulders. After the Pax Cup. He finally set. I think he had it made before then, but that's okay. He's finally, finally made it. All right, I'll give you this one. A little Maryland question here. What do you expect to happen first? Maryland Terrapins win a national championship in football or Bernhard Longer quits playing golf? Bernie will have to quit before that happens with Maryland I think I don't like the big 10 got to do it in 20 years I don't like the big 10 yeah it could be 20 years

uh that's it with burnhard it could be 20 years um no I don't think Maryland's that's that's that's a tough league right there it's a long haul for both of them either one of those things that happen yeah yeah it is okay that was a good one all right all right thank you obviously the month money today on the PGA tour is extremely higher than it was when you were in your prime. But I want to take your best season, which was probably 2005. You're playing your best golf. You go out there and that game is out on today's PGA tour. Where do you finish on the money list?

The way I played in 05? Yeah. With how far everyone's into today, where would you finish? I think I would do serious damage on the courses that like the Hartford's and, Colonials and those, I would still be able to win those, I think. No question. But the majors now are, you know, they're jacking them back so far. And with the greens, when the greens get super firm and they're hitting a eight, nine iron

in the green and I'm hitting a four or five iron in the green, there's, there's, there's, there's no equalizer there. I can't overcome that. I can't get my proximity to the hole as close to those guys, percentage wise, for four days. So on a on a the long golf courses in really firm fast conditions, uh, I would have a difficult time. But, but, but you give me those other courses. Just skip those weeks. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't skip them, but I just see what I could do. Well, you make a lot of money. I can get on. I don't know what number would be on the list, but it would be a shitload given what they're

going to play for next year. Kisner gave the. Yeah. Great answer to that one. So why do you play these when you don't feel like you could on a scrot while they pay a lot of money for fifth or 10th or 20. Yeah, a lot of money for 20th, too. Yeah, exactly. And he ain't wrong. You got a boxing match for your life. You get to pick any current

PGA tour player to get in the ring with. You got to win. Which one would it be? I go with there was a guy on a senior tour, and I think I'd still take him. Tom Wargo. Tom Wargo? What if you went today's PGA tour?

You're in your prime of boxing. Today's PGA tour, yeah. Current young fellow out there. Who's asked you? whoop basically is the question. Wow. A lot of them. Yeah. You mean me

fighting them or them fighting for me? No, no. You're fighting them. Oh, I'm fighting them? Oh, I don't want to fight anybody. But I wouldn't back to somebody. It's fun, hypothetical. Yeah. Just for fun?

You'd be fall down Fred. Yeah. Yeah, I'd take the fall at that point. Oh, man. I'd like to get in a ring with a guy that thinks he's really tough and we'll put the gloves on and the headgear and the mouthpiece. and just see what he can do.

I mean, I've been hit before, so I know what that feels like. And maybe Kepka. Oh, boy. Yeah. Different weight classes. Yeah, different weight class. You got to get a lot.

Catch weight. Catch weight. You're going to have to cut. All right, perfect. All right, finish it up for us, Elise. All right, here we go. All right, you graduated with a degree in law enforcement. Do you think you could have been the first ever officer Funk?

There was actually a cop and not a male stripper. Yes. Officer Funk. Officer Funk's good. Officer Funk at your door, the ladies would go crazy. He's here. That's great.

Well, Fred, thank you so much. Man, congrats on beating your age for the first time in competition. Recently, that is awesome. But really enjoy you coming on with us. Yeah, thanks, guys. You guys were blessed. All right, well, that was Fred Funk,

joining us on Golf Subpar, the straight shooting, boxing man. I mean, dude, a boxer? How about that? How do you hit a 270 being boxer? I never thought about being a boxer. I was kind of what I wanted to ask him about the whole time. I was like, your golf career has been spectacular.

We've had a lot, but we all kind of know about that. Give me back to this boxing growing up as a kid. His story, by the way, like from starting golf to the BJ tour, was a lot different than I ever really realized. I don't know. I hadn't dug in on Fred Funk all a lot, but it's an interesting story, man. A guy that kind of did it himself, did it a different way. And yeah, the boxing, when you grow up down the road from Sugar Ray,

probably and you see that happen it's one of those moments where you're like probably not my sport but I can go somewhere else and he did and it ended up working out pretty nicely just had a hell of a run on the PJ tour and like you said like he plays like you do like he's the guy that guys at home like my dad

I remember loves what you know loves watching Fred Funk because like that's you know kind of this is like real life you know what I mean it's not oh 320 over the Bungie I'll just carry that and hit an 8 on the par 5 it's relatable golf so I like talking about that pink that pink skirt that they gave him at the

at the skins game when onica out drove him would he wear that the rest of his career if he could drive it like rory pretty easy answer yeah uh yeah i get you can have as many pink skirts as he want driving a lot right well but it's always fun having the champions tour guys on there great man well it's time to make some pick slees got some big college football games

once again and now we're on to the cj cup we're 15 of the top 20 in the world will be teeing it up at congaree in south carolina i've played there it is a fantastic venue other than there's no cell phone service, which could drive some of these young fellows crazy. Yeah, that's a tough look. A lot of dudes not going to know what to do at lunchtime having to talk to people. Brutal.

All right. Let's start off with some college football. I'm going to go with a team that's starting to roll a little bit, had a big win over Florida State this past weekend. Clemson is minus 13 and a half against Syracuse. Syracuse just can't be that good. I haven't watched them a whole lot, but Clemson's starting to roll, I feel like. I've seen zero snaps of Syracuse. All I know is that they absolutely boned me earlier in the season when I

bet against them and then they covered so i'm out on syracuse i hadn't seen them i was like oh they probably still stink bet against them uh yeah climson is rolling right now i'm gonna go by the way my perfect season ended last week sorry to everyone out there on the bay of course if anyone's going to ruin it it's freaking baylor goes up to morgan town we said weird shit happens in morgan town it continues to happen but i'm going to go to the team uh that was on the other end of one of our picks last week i'm going with penn state the nittany lions coming off a little l to michigan state. They're only minus four and a half at home against Minnesota. So I like these good teams coming off losses, pissed off, especially like them when they're at home, especially when that

place is Happy Valley at Penn State with that home field. So I'm going to go minus four and a half Penn State, try to get back on, try to get back on the wagon again. Minnesota also coming off a loss. So you got two pissed off teams. Two pissed off teams. I just think one's better than the other by more than four and a half points, hopefully. All right. Let's get to, let's get to some golf. And for my favorite this week, this golf course is interesting. Like, I don't know what the weather's like this time of year out there. But if this golf course is meant to play extremely firm and extremely fast. So you can play the ball on the ground a lot if you want.

I'm going with guys about as creative as anybody on the PGA tour. Jordan Spieth at 14 to 1. Yes, Jay Speath back in the house. Firm and Fast kid has got a nice little track record over at the Open Championship. I'm going to go both of my picks this week, Colt. I'm just running right hands, like guys that are playing good. Right now I'm going to throw out the golf course. just say these dudes are playing good.

Let's pick them. At the top, I think it's been a while since I picked him as a favor, but I'm going to go John Romp. Coming off his win at the Spanish Open, I think he's got a little, a little, you know, desire to get back to that number one spot. Last year wasn't exactly what we expected from John Rom after a period of time where he was at the top or near the top of the leaderboard for so long.

So I'm going to go with John Rom, starting to come back tour to number one. Never hate picking John Rom. I like him on every single golf course on the planet. All right, Dark Horse. these odds kind of surprised me a little bit because he had a breakout performance at the President's Cup.

You were obsessed with his game. He absolutely smashes it. And as I mentioned, this golf course, I feel like you can play it a lot on the ground, got some really cool bunkers, possibly maybe remind you a little bit of a Royal Melbourne over in Australia.

So let's go with an Aussie. Cam Davis, 60 to 1. Love it. I love it. It's just a matter of time before that kid gets thumping. Once he gets that little shot in the arm,

like I've seen with some guys, I think he's going to win. I think he's going to win in bunches. on mine. You can get some, with the depth of this field, you can get some good players down here that are like dark horse numbers. There's a lot of, one of my favorite guys sitting there at 45 to one, Corey Conner's to hit the gala. There's a lot of good players around that same number. We go a guy we just talked about earlier in the show though. I'm going to go, Ricky Fowler, 45 to 1. I think you start to believe for the first time. It wasn't just a one-off week like we

saw last year. You know, we saw him in Vegas play good last year and then it was a while before we saw it again. He's done it two or three times now. I think going back to Butch, I think the new clubs are I just feel like he feels like he can win maybe for the first time in a while. So I'll ride the hot hand while it's hot 45 to 1, Ricky Fowler. Things are good in the game of golf when Ricky Fowler is playing well. I mean, the amount of fans, after he lost this past week, too, you saw the video him signing for everyone. Like, he's still doing all the Ricky things. It's just it's way nicer to be doing it when you're coming out of the final group and contending and leading than it is when you're, you know, finishing 48.

So I hope he keeps going. not a win. I think he's a good bet for a top 20, top 15, top 10 type of play, whatever you like, just because he loves that ground game too. Be nice. All right. Well, get ready, ladies and gentlemen, because our guest next week, they ain't going to finish top 10 at a PJ Tour event ever. But God damn it, they are absolutely hilarious. We got Bob does sports and the one, the only, Fat Perez. Joining us in here in studio, you are not going to want to miss it. It is one hour of laughs. and that's going to do it for us this week. We'll talk to you on next week's golf subpar.