Golf

Skirt on Funk, joke on the rest

By wire services
Published November 27, 2005

LA QUINTA, Calif. - The skirt was decorated with pink and fuchsia flowers. The putt was 28 feet and came with $225,000.

Fred Funk was in the middle of both.

Funk, the butt of a joke when he had to wear a skirt for losing a bet with Annika Sorenstam, had the last laugh when he made an eagle putt on the ninth hole and collected six skins to take the lead after the first day of the Skins Game Saturday.

The defining moment of the day came well before that, though.

On the third hole, Annika Sorenstam hit a 278-yard drive - seven yards farther than Funk's - then pulled a pink floral print skirt out of her bag, held it up for the crowd to see and handed it to Funk, who promptly pulled it on and completed the hole.

One of the subplots leading into the Skins Game was whether Funk, among the shortest hitters on the PGA Tour, could outdrive Sorenstam, who is one of the LPGA's longest. The two made a friendly wager about it.

Funk outdrove Sorenstam on six of the seven holes in which both used driver, but the one on which he didn't made for several moments of hilarity, especially when Funk rolled up his pants to show his legs and also when he nearly tumbled while squatting to mark his ball on the green.

"That's not easy to do," Funk said. "I almost pulled a groin trying to get down there."

Moments later, Funk and Tiger Woods laughed uncontrollably when Funk again squatted to read his putt.

Woods was directly across from Funk reading his own putt and joked aloud that he could see up Funk's skirt.

Funk was laughing so hard he had to back off the seven-foot birdie attempt, then missed.

"I didn't really realize how hard it was to line up a putt with a skirt on," Funk said. "Especially when Tiger's looking from the other end."

Even without the 18th hole, Funk had gotten some measure of revenge on Sorenstam. On the par-three sixth, Sorenstam hit a 5-iron to within two feet of the hole, but Funk made an unlikely 20-foot putt to tie.

Sorenstam jokingly picked Funk's ball out of the hole and tossed it into a nearby lake.

MFS AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Robert Allenby increased his lead to five strokes despite a right hand injury that might force him to withdraw from the tournament in Fingal. Allenby, a four-time PGA Tour winner, said the hand really started to alter his game on the last three holes, when he needed treatment from a physiotherapist as he walked up the 17th fairway.

He parred No.17 and birdied the 18th for his second straight even-par 72 and 9-under 207 total.

CHINA OPEN: Ross Fisher shot 4-under 68 in Shenzhan to take a one-stroke lead over Oliver Wilson and Chawalit Plaphol after the third round. Fisher had an 11-under 205 total.

CASIO WORLD OPEN: Toru Taniguchi shot 4-under 68 to take a one-stroke lead after the third round. Taniguchi was 8-under 208 on Kochi Kuroshio Country Club course. Kim Jong Duck was second after a 68.

[Last modified November 27, 2005, 01:19:10]