FanHouse Fred Funk

It's golf's offseason, which doesn't really mean much for fans and players alike except there aren't any majors, and the competition dwindles. It also gives media and players a chance to reflect on the bigger picture. Players evaluate their years and see what could be improved, promising to work on that before next year rolls out. Media has the opportunity to hand out awards, evaluate certain tours and find flaws in those tours.

That is where this concept came up, about the LPGA and their struggle to gain identity. You could argue that women's golf is the second most important female sport, behind tennis, but it still seems that women's golf has struggled this decade to resonate with sports fans, even some golf fans. Annika Sorenstam had moments where she became a story bigger than golf, but most of that dealt with a missed cut and a skirt, the latter being more of a Fred Funk prank than anything.

TIMONIUM, Md. (AP) -- Tom Watson is feeling good and likes his golf game these days.

The 60-year-old Watson celebrated his one-year anniversary from successful left hip surgery by shooting a 6-under 64 and building a four-stroke lead Saturday at the Senior Players Championship.

Watson, bidding to become the oldest major winner on the Champions Tour, attacked the Baltimore Country Club course and put together a bogey-free round- he's made only one during the tournament-with six birdies to finish at 12-under 198 and four shots clear of Loren Roberts (65), John Cook (65) and Mark Wiebe (66).

Watson nearly won the British Open back in July, but a balky putter on the 72nd hole cost him the Claret jug. Now, Watson said he's more confident on the greens and, three months removed from his dramatic performance at Turnberry, happy about his play.

Each Wednesday during the golf season, FanHouse will list the top five names in golf and why they're important. Did Barack play 18 with Tiger? Did a certain player do something controversial off the course? Or was just playing golf enough to get the pot stirring? Join us for a weekly feature we call Making the Cut.

5. Fred Funk -- It was one of the better final rounds in the history of the Senior U.S. Open, but nobody watched because of a certain someone in the accompanying photo (thanks, Woods). It was his second major championship on the Champions Tour and fifth senior win since turning 50 three years ago. Funk is the type of player that could still make the occasional wave on the PGA Tour (made the cut in both the U.S. Open and Players this year), but it seems his focus is going to be with the Champions Tour, which is probably for the best. Maybe more impressive than his final-round 65 that help vault him to a six-shot lead? The fact that he made four bogeys all week at Crooked Stick.

CARMEL, Ind. (AP) -- Fred Funk took a back-nine victory lap in the U.S. Senior Open.

Funk won by six strokes and broke the tournament record with a 20-under total. He shot a 7-under 65 on Sunday at Crooked Stick.

"It's something I really didn't fathom happening, but the biggest thing is just getting my name on that trophy,'' the 53-year-old Funk said.

Around this time a year ago, Greg Norman was the golf story. A ripe 53 years old, Norman plotted around the links at Royal Birkdale for three days in the lead of an Open Championship, trying to capture his third major championship victory.

You all know the story. Norman faltered in the final round, shooting a 7-over 77 to lose to Padraig Harrington by six shots. A year later, the Shark is at it again, leading the Senior British at Sunningdale Golf Club after a third-round 64 allowed him to jump Fred Funk. Norman is a shot ahead of Funk at 10-under with 18 holes to go for his first ever Champions Tour win.

On Monday, hours after losing the British Open in a playoff to Stewart Cink, Tom Watson (don't know if you heard, but he's 59 years old) hopped a flight to make the short trip from Turnberry, Scotland to Sunningdale, England to prepare for the Senior British Open.

Last year, then 53-year-old Greg Norman logged a third-place finish at the British before tying for fifth at the Senior British. And through the first round, Watson is on a similar path. He's currently tied for sixth, three shots behind leader Fred Funk, after signing for a 67. (Interestingly, Norman also shot 67.)

Every Monday during the PGA Tour season, Monday Pin Placement will run as a wrap-up of the weekend's action. Basically, we'll focus on what you missed while you were out grinding on the putting green.

Tiger Does It Again -- The year was 1999. A young kid named Tiger Woods had burst on the golf scene two years prior at the Masters, when he obliterated the field by 12 shots.

The problem was, people wanted results right now, and Tiger wasn't producing them. He was going through a swing change. He had people wondering if that early Masters win was a bit of a fluke. He was struggling to find that magic he'd had at all the U.S. Amateur events.

Then came the PGA Championship at Medinah, where he took down Sergio Garcia in one of the more exciting final rounds of a major championship in the last 10 years.

This week marks what some consider the fifth major of the year, The Players Championship. Just like the Masters, the Players is held at the same wonderful venue each year, and the drama at TPC Sawgrass is something you can't miss (their Amen Corner is the last three holes). With so many big names in the field, it's hard to break down the five you should watch, but we tried our hardest.

Sports Bog's Dan Steinberg is covering the AT & T National this week and the Washington Post "nominated" (his word, not mine) him to interview Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who was at the tournament Saturday.

After easing into the Q & A (Do you have a policy about mulligans at all?), Steinberg asked some tough questions. Namely, Rice's take on the PGA Tour's news drug-testing program ("... I don't have time to follow such things, but I do think it's important that these sports find a way to be clean..."), her thoughts on Augusta National being a male-only club ("I'm not going to comment on that. It's a private club. I'm not going to comment on it..."), and the President's promise to not play golf as long as the United States is at war, and if Cabinet secretaries have their own policies (Paraphrasing Rice, "to each their own").

But perhaps the most revealing part of the interview was Rice's answer to the question, "Do you have a favorite golfer?"

Fred Funk is known as one of the best drivers of the golf ball on any tour (he's two years into his Champions Tour stint, but before reaching the half-century mark, that distinction held on the PGA Tour as well), but he's not particularly long off the tee (think Corey Pavin sans frullet and mustache*).

Which is why Funk wasn't all that jazzed with the sixth hole at Congressional Country Club, host of the Tiger-less AT & T National. You see, No. 6 is usually a par 5, but was converted to a par 4 this week. Even though it still measures 518 yards.

"I don't like their mentality with that hole," said Funk, who double-bogeyed the hole to mar his even-par round of 70. "I think it's downright stupid, actually."

Double-bogeys tend to bring out the worst in people, but I take his point. The problem, as Rich Beem noted, is that the green is designed for wedge shots, not long irons or woods. And the results can sometimes lead to high scores.

But that wasn't the worst part of Funk's afternoon. On the 18th, a 466-yard par 4, he hit his drive about 60 yards shorter than average and, more surprisingly, missed the fairway. But there's a perfectly logical explanation: "I had a dragonfly hit my shaft on the way down," Funk said. "And I just totally flinched and hit 150 yards off the tee dead right in the trees."That must've been a humongous dragonfly.

* I know, I know; Pavin hasn't sported that look since the 1990s, but the image is burned into my brain.