FanHouse FredFunk

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.)

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.