Fred Funk has no desire to be the best golfer in the world.
"I'm just trying to be as good as I can be," the former golf coach from Maryland said Sunday after winning the $1 million Buick Challenge, his second tournament victory of the year. "I'm not aspiring to be number one in the world. I wouldn't want to deal with that kind of pressure. I've got kind of a blue-collar game."Funk, 39, closed with a 5-foot birdie putt for a one-stroke margin over Loren Roberts and John Morse. He had a 5-under-par 67 for a 16-under 272 total on Callaway Gardens' Mountain View Course.
He hit his 6-iron approach from 156 yards past the pin on the 18th and watched as Morse missed a 16-foot birdie bid.
"This makes all the hard work worthwhile," Funk said. "I expected John to make his putt, and when he missed, it was up to me. It was the easiest putt you can have to win a tournament, but I wondered how I was going to make it."
He did, and earned $180,000 to move to 22nd on the money list with $663,468 and apparently secure a spot in the season-ending Tour Championship. He also won the Ideon Classic in July.
Roberts and Morse also closed with 67s. Kirk Triplett, Jeff Sluman and Guy Boros finished two back at 274. Boros, who tied a tournament record with a 6-under 30 on the front nine, shot a 65 and Sluman and Triplett had 68s.
At Cornelius, N.C., Gail Graham thought about it the night before: cut the cut the corner on the par-5 closing hole.
She did just that Sunday, and that bit of daring helped the 29-year-old Canadian win for the first time in her six-year career on the LPGA tour.
Graham, who took a one-stroke lead over Tammie Green into the 18th hole, hit her drive within 160 yards of the pin, knocked her 5-iron approach off the back of the green and made a 10-foot birdie putt for a two-stroke victory in the Fieldcrest Cannon Classic.
Graham shot her second straight 3-under-par 69 on Sunday to tie the LPGA's best 72-hole score of the year with a 15-under 273 total on The Peninsula Club course. Laura Davies also was 15-under in the Chick-Fil-A Charity Championship in April.
At Clemmons, N.C., the first thing Hale Irwin requested following his Vantage Championship victory was water. It's a wonder his fellow Senior PGA Tour competitors didn't douse him with a hose.
Irwin is the hottest thing around on the 50-and-over circuit, rolling to a 17-under-par victory at Tanglewood. With a closing round 7-under-par 65, he pocketed the $225,000 first-place prize.
Since joining the Senior Tour as a part-timer in June, Irwin has finished in the top 10 in all nine events he has entered, including winning twice. He has jumped to seventh on the money list with earnings of $714,009 - an average of $79,300 per tournament.
"It was a fantastic day of golf for me. I played very much the kind of game I had hoped to play, but sometimes those hopes and what you get in reality are not quite the same," said Irwin, whose three-round total of 199 was one shot off the tourney record and four better than runner-up Dave Stockton.
Irwin's final round included five consecutive birdies on the front side. He also took advantage of the course's shorter par-5s over the weekend, playing those holes in 9-under.