Staying Quiet Pays Off for Funk

It seems more than fitting that Fred Funk would be the newly crowned winner of The Players Championship on Monday, if only because not once did he ever whine or complain about the endless stoppages and re-starts in play over the wettest, windiest event in its 25th anniversary at the TPC at Sawgrass.

The same clearly could not be said by many of his playing peers in a tournament that eventually had to be played over five very long days, mostly because of cloudbursts that never seemed to stop, starting on Thursday. Listening to some of these guys moan about so many hours spent waiting in the locker room killing time, you’d have thought they were being asked to operate sewing machines at 10 cents an hour in the sweatshops of old New York back during the Depression.

There’s no question, as their long-running theme slogan tells us, that these guys are good. But they are also outstanding at grousing and grumbling with the best of them, and I suspect most of them don’t even realize, or even care, what that looks like to the outside world.

I’ve been in their Sawgrass locker room, and it’s a very nice place. There are television sets and soft chairs all around, plush shower facilities, a place to get a massage and several men who will shine your shoes and put fresh towels out any time they are asked.

If you are hungry during a rain delay, there is a buffet with every food choice out there, all at no cost to you or your friends and family. All drinks are free and there are more television sets available in the clubhouse, tuned in frequently last weekend to NCAA basketball.

In short fellows, it’s just time to shut up about how bad the weather has been over the first quarter of the season, when seven of the first 13 events had some stoppage or another because of poor weather.

Last time I looked, these guys are rather well-paid and pampered for their troubles. Funk earned $1.44 million for a week’s work, and even the last place finisher, someone named Tag Ridings, earned $14,080 for his stay in Jacksonville, not including free food, day care for the kids, golf balls, apparel and equipment virtually every man on the tour receives just for showing up.

My favorite quote of the week came from Mark Russell, a long-time tour rules official who is now the tour’s tournament director for many events on the circuit. Tim Herron had just told the massed media during one delay that a lot of players were not happy with the way things were going, and not getting enough information from tournament officials as they waited out the rain in the clubhouse.

“You just have to look outside. It’s raining hard. If we went up there and made an announcement, do you think they’d say ‘what, do you think we’re stupid?’” Russell said, adding that the tour had an official in the locker room all day, “and he’s got a radio to me and everyone on the staff and he can answer any question that needs to be answered.” Good for Russell, not making nearly as much for his woes during the week as Tim Herron, who took home $278,000 for his troubles at Sawgrass.

Funk had absolutely no complaints about anything during the week. He knows better. He’s a guy who had a real job before he began playing golf at the highest levels of the game. He was a teaching pro, a coach at the University of Maryland, a man who also supplemented his income in his 20s working in the circulation department of the now defunct Washington Star newspaper.

He appreciates whatever he’s got, knows he’s one of the fortunate few with the opportunity to play a game he loves for millions almost every week. In his victory speech in front of several thousand fans, he made sure to pay particular thanks to all the people who worked so hard to allow the tournament to be completed—namely hundreds of volunteers and all those bone-weary course workers who had spent most of the previous 72 hours trying to make Sawgrass playable following the daily deluge of rain.

Funk will always be considered one of the most popular winners of The Players Championship for as long as it’s contested. He had never before won a tournament of such magnitude, a fifth major if you believe the PGA Tour’s hype over its marquee event, and he also became the oldest winner at age 48, surpassing previous winner Hal Sutton, who prevailed at the age of 41.

The Tour seems almost certain to move The Players into a May date when it finishes negotiating its next television package, in the hope that it eventually will take its place with the other four majors as the most coveted championships in the game. At the moment, the American public sees it more as a prestigious appetizer for the main course served up the road at The Masters in Augusta next week.

The American public also doesn’t want to hear any whining whatsoever from players about the hardships of waiting out rain delays. It’s part of the deal when you play a game in the out of doors. So just shut up, and use your mouth to help deplete the buffet line.

For free.

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at Badgerlen@hotmail.com