We’ve had the privilege this week at MoodyOnTheMarket.com to share with you several stories from PGA Pool Reporter Jeff Babineau, whose job it is to work behind the scenes at Harbor Shores, finding important, as well as interesting feature stories.
Babineau certainly ‘nailed it’ with this look at how veteran golfers Fred Funk and Bernhard Langer almost missed their Third Round Saturday at Harbor Shores– because they assumed their scores had ‘missed the cut’ after two rounds.
We enjoyed the story here in the MOTM newsroom, and we think you will too!
“Hey Mr. Funk, this is your 7:36 wakeup call…”
Fred Funk was determined to sleep in on Saturday. Bernhard Langer, staying in the same rental house this week in Benton Harbor along with Funk, Gene Sauers and Marco Dawson, was not only sleeping in, but unreachable. He had turned his phone off after staying up late watching television and heading to bed at 12:30 a.m. After all, they’d both missed the cut. Or so they thought.
At 7:36 a.m. on Saturday, Funk’s cell phone rang. It was Dawson, calling from the golf course at Harbor Shores. “Hey, where are you guys?” Dawson asked. “You’re playing. You made the cut.”
That was shocking news to both Funk and Langer, who got out of bed, got ready, and headed to the course for a third round neither thought he would be playing. They had stayed up late fairly certain that they had their weekend off after each player finished at 3-over 145. Funk and Langer had checked the PGA Tour app about 9:30 p.m. Friday night, and it showed them at T-74, with only two players left to finish the second round – and only one of the two, Billy Mayfair, in position to move the cut.
“We went to bed saying, there’s no way,” Funk said. “That was weird. I didn’t expect there to be a chance.”
Langer being Langer, he went out and shot 65, the low round of the day, and moved him to 3-under 210 through 54 holes. Funk, a year older than Langer at 67, got his round to 4 under through 11 holes. He started about shooting his age, then hit a rough patch early on his second nine and made a couple of bogeys, eventually shooting 70, still his best round of the week.
“That never happened to me in my career before,” Langer said of the morning mix-up. He was pleased to finish off a round after being 2 under with five holes to play in Thursday’s 74, and 3 under with four to play in Friday’s 71.
“I just threw up both times, tired. I could be right up there… I had expectations, but then after yesterday, I thought I missed the cut. I was watching a bunch of movies with some guys at the house, and we were up until 12:30.”
A little more than nine hours later, Funk was on the 10th tee for Round 3, with Langer in the group right behind him. Langer’s 65 lifted him from T-70 all the way to T-20. It also kept his record at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship perfect. In 14 starts, he never has missed a cut. Oh, and did we mention that in early February, he tore his left Achilles tendon?
Playing golf on Saturday was an extra bonus.
“Obviously,” Langer said, “it’s much more fun to be playing golf than packing.”
Funk was grateful to play two more rounds as well. His best finish in 2024 has been a T-57, so on Sunday, he can improve on that. He is tied for 49th.
“I was glad I had the opportunity to play today, and I had it going for a while,” Funk said. “I was putting it lights out. I’m hitting the ball not very good and not hitting it anywhere, so this course is playing really long for me. I get it to 4 under (through 11 holes), and I thought, ‘Wow, this is awesome.’
“Two things: If somebody had told me that I would be playing (on Saturday), no. And if I was going to shoot 1 under, well, maybe; or I was going to be 4 under? No. I was never going to do that.
“It was a day of bonuses.”
By PGA Pool Reporter Jeff BAbineau, story provided by PGA of America
Information on the event at www.srpga.com
