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SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda — Ryan Armour and Wyndham Clark survived ferocious wind Friday in the Bermuda Championship to share the lead going into a weekend that includes 64-year-old Fred Funk. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Funk’s chip-in seals made cut | Armour stays true to game Armour could only guess where the 30 mph gusts would blow his golf ball across Port Royal. The 44-year-old from Ohio still managed three early birdies and another on the par-5 17th for a 1-under 70. Clark played in the afternoon and reached 10 under par until a pair of late bogeys for a 68. They were at 8-under 134, one shot ahead of Kramer Hickok (68). The big surprise was the former PLAYERS champ Funk, who only played because he had a chance to be paired with his son, Taylor, who played collegiately at the University of Texas. Funk, whose last PGA TOUR victory was in 2007 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, chipped in for birdie from the behind the ninth green for a 72, and his son was so excited he about knocked him to the ground in celebration. "This guy is pretty damn good for an old guy," said Taylor, who shot an 81, one of nine players who shot in the 80s on the windswept day in Bermuda. "He fought back and he made the cut, and not many 64-year-olds can do that in the world," he said. "It was fun to watch him play." Funk is the oldest player to make the cut on the PGA TOUR since 65-year-old Tom Watson five years ago in the RBC Heritage at Hilton. The only other players 64 or older to make the cut since 1970 were Jack Nicklaus and Sam Snead. "And then Funk. You throw that in there, it doesn’t sound right, does it?" Fred Funk said. "I don’t know whether I compete, but making the cut was big." It wasn’t easy on a day like this, where the wind was so strong it was difficult to stand up, especially on some of the holes along the ocean. "Today was really hard," Armour said. "We didn't know whether to say get up, get down, what to tell it. We couldn't judge the distance very well and we had some balls going sideways out there and my ball doesn't usually go sideways. And it would just get up in the wind and it would go 20 yards further left or right than you wanted it to." That made the performance by Clark even more remarkable, although the wind finally caught up with him when he took bogeys on the par-5 seventh and the par-3 eighth to fall back into a tie with Armour. Clark wasn’t caught up in the late bogeys, especially the last one. "We all were hitting 6- and 5-irons into a par 3 from 160, and I missed about a 5-footer," Clark said. “It’s bound to happen. If I didn’t bogey those, it would be one of the best rounds of my career. But it’s pretty hard to play a round with 30 mph wind and not make any bogeys. "I’m not looking at those last two bogeys," he said. "I’m up there in contention, and that’s all that matters." The best round of the day belonged to Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who not only shot 66, he played bogey-free. He was three shots behind, while Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington used all his Irish experience in the wind for a 71 — two birdies, two bogeys, 14 pars — and was four shots behind.
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SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda - Earlier this week, Padraig Harrington got on a plane for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hiatus. His destination: the Bermuda Championship, his first PGA TOUR start since the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard in March. The 2021 Ryder Cup European Captain (originally scheduled for last month) drove to the first four European Tour events in which he competed post-hiatus. Harrington will play next week's Vivint Houston Open on a sponsor's exemption, and he gained Bermuda Championship entry on a minor medical extension. Timing aligned for the six-time TOUR winner (including three majors) to make his TOUR return, at a course on which he won the 2013 Grand Slam of Golf. Harrington stands 4 under through two rounds at Port Royal GC, including an even-par 71 on a windswept Friday at Port Royal GC, a day which featured a scoring average north of 73. The 49-year-old stands four back of co-leaders Ryan Armour and Wyndham Clark, positioned to chase his first TOUR win since the 2015 Honda Classic. "I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight," said Harrington after Friday's second round at the sub-7,000-yard Port Royal layout. "At the end of the day, firm greens, fast greens and wind all defend a golf course. It can't always be predictable.” "It was tough out there. They set the golf course up particularly easy today. The tees were up, pins were up ... they couldn't have made the course any easier." Harrington described his current form off the tee "the best I've ever hit it," a combination of length and accuracy that fosters confidence. The 15-time European Tour winner turns 50 next August and admitted that he sometimes checks the scores on PGA TOUR Champions before those of any other Tour - "I don't know what that tells you." His plan is to play wherever he thinks he can win. This week on the shores of the Atlantic, he believes he can do just that. "If I don't think I can win out here, I won't play here," Harrington said. "I'm not here to turn out; I'm here to try and win. Wherever I'm playing, in my head I think I can win." Improved driving has gone a long way toward his current mentality. "I've always worked on my driving, and always try to get more speed, more speed," Harrington said. "With the work I've done on my driving, in training I get lots more speed, so I can play well within myself on the course. It's not like I can get 196 (mph) ball speed at home; I'm not getting anywhere near that. At the speeds I'm getting, I'm getting it with a very controlled, shorter swing. "So it means that on a nice distance, now I hit it straight, which I haven't hit it straight. The last tournament I played in Europe (Scottish Championship), I led strokes gained: off-the-tee, which, that's never happened." Harrington said that Ryder Cup captaincy duties won't kick into high gear until January - "it's all about me at the moment." When that changes, though, he believes his process at this stage of his career will allow him to simultaneously compete and fulfill captaincy duties at a high level. Earlier in his career, he'd get up three-and-a-half hours before his tee time for physio, training and the like. Now, "a few stretches and off. I can go on a much quicker time frame." "How do I balance it? Basically I'm older, and I know I can't do as much," Harrington said. "I just have to take it a little easier and not do my old schedule, and that kind of suits the Ryder Cup, because I'm busy with that." And if current form is any indication, he just might position himself to play his way onto his own team. "I spent the past couple years struggling on cut lines," Harrington said. "Now I feel like I can be patient and still be in contention on Sunday."
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SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda - Fred Funk earned his first PGA TOUR card at age 32, after seven years as the University of Maryland golf coach and time as a newspaper circulation supervisor. That was in 1989. This week, Funk played the first two rounds of the Bermuda Championship with his son Taylor, who turned 25 on Friday. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Fred Funk, son Taylor paired together in Bermuda And Funk, 64, delivered a moment that will endure in the family archive. Arriving at his final hole Friday at even par at Port Royal GC, he needed to make birdie to cement a place inside the cut line, and become one of just four players to make a TOUR cut at age 64 or older since 1970. The other three: Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson. From the left fringe, 20 feet away, Funk chipped in for birdie. Taylor made an immediate beeline toward his dad, and the two shared a celebration not unlike that between an NFL quarterback and wide receiver after a touchdown. With a two-day total of 1-under 141, Funk assured a spot on the weekend in his 650th TOUR start. It marks his 452nd cut made - and first with Taylor cheering from inside the ropes. "He almost killed me," laughed Funk of the post-birdie celebration on the par-4 ninth green at Port Royal. "He horse-collared me, and I wasn't ready for it." "I went the other way, and I was like, ‘I didn't hurt you, did I?'" replied Taylor. "He's very fragile nowadays. No, it was a cool moment to hug him after that. Looked like he was about to cry, making the cut again. It was cool. "This guy is pretty damn good for an old guy. (To make the cut), not many 64-year-olds can do that in the world. It was fun to be out there and compete in a PGA TOUR event, and to do it next to my dad was awesome." Earlier in the week, Funk said that he planned to be Taylor's cheerleader over two days at Port Royal. This week marked Taylor's second TOUR start - the University of Texas alum plays various mini-tours and Monday qualifiers in chase of his TOUR dreams - and Funk knew the potential magnitude of the week as Taylor aims to climb the professional golf ladder. As the second round wound down, though, the tables turned. "On the sixth hole, our 15th, I was like, ‘I'm your cheerleader now,'" said Taylor. "I'm 6 over, I was rooting him on and tried to keep him upbeat, and keep his mind off the body aches. It was a great time." "Yeah, it really was," Funk added. "It was an incredibly hard day out there, a lot of guessing. Tough to even putt with this kind of wind ... you get behind the eight-ball, and it's hard to come back from. "I was in good position, then I made a double bogey on No. 5, and all of a sudden I'm not in good position, and tough holes coming in. Somehow I made a birdie on 7, and then I made a great up-and-down on 8, and then a chip-in on 9. It was really sweet." Taylor and his sister Perri were home-schooled on the road by their mom Sharon, allowing the family to travel together "95 percent of the time" as the kids grew up. This arrangement also allowed the father-son duo to play countless rounds. "Instead of me hitting balls, we would go to another golf course and play, and we'd probably do that two to three times per week if I made the cut, and if I didn't make the cut, we were playing on the weekend somewhere else," Funk recalled. We learned to play really fast because Taylor would get there, we'd have two-and-a-half or three hours ‘til dark. He'd say, ‘C'mon Dad, we've got to get 18, can we get 18?' "I said, ‘I don't think.' "He said, ‘No, we're going to get 18.' "So many times, we got 18 holes in when it looked like we had no chance." This week, the Funks played 36 holes of PGA TOUR competition. And Dad joined three Hall of Famers as the oldest to finish in the money. "Say that again?" asked Funk when informed of the longevity statistic. "Watson, Nicklaus and Snead? That's really good. "And then Funk. You throw that in there, it doesn't sound right, does it?" It sounds exactly right.
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