No Funk in Fred’s game at Turtle Bay

Fred Funk had the most-lopsided victory ever in a 54-hole Champions Tour event, shooting his second straight 8-under 64 on Sunday for an 11-stroke win in the Turtle Bay Championship at Kahuku, Hawaii.

The 50-year-old Funk, still a regular on the PGA Tour, ended the suspense early with six birdies in a front-nine 30 and finished with a tournament record 23-under 193 total in the tour’s first full-field event of the year.

Funk earned $240,000 for his second Champions Tour victory in five career starts. He also went wire-to-wire to win the AT&T Championship, the last full-field event in the 2006 season.

Funk, who missed the cut in the PGA Tour’s Sony Open and tied for 28th last week in the Champions Tour’s 41-man MasterCard Championship, put on another show with his sweet putting using a new wider stance he picked up during the pro-am.

“Probably my best three days of putting I’ve ever had,” said Funk, the only player in the 78-player field without a bogey in three days.

Tom Kite, who tied for second last week in the MasterCard Championship, went double bogey-bogey on the last two holes to close with a 71, dropping him into a five-way tie at 12 under with 2006 winner Loren Roberts (66), Tom Purtzer (66), Denis Watson (68) and Kiyoshi Murota (72).

Tim Simpson (68), D.A. Weibring (68) and David Eger (69) were another stroke back at 11 under.

The legendary surf was up on Oahu’s North Shore, but the wind wasn’t. It was calm for a second day, setting up the layout for birdies.

Funk broke the previous 54-hole record of 195 set by Jim Colbert in 1991 when the event was played on Maui on a par-70 course.

European Tour

Retief Goosen eagled the final hole to win the Qatar Masters, beating Nick O’Hern by a stroke for his first title in more than a year in Doha, Qatar.

The South African birdied the 17th and closed with a 3-under-par 69 and finished at 15-under 273.

“It feels good to be the champion after such a long while,” said Goosen, who has won 32 tournaments. “This win sets me up nicely for the rest of the season.”

Goosen had been tied with O’Hern (70) and Richard Green (72) entering the final day.

“The birdie on 17 set me up nicely for the 18th,” Goosen said. “I told my caddie that an eagle can do it for me. And I did it.”

Ernie Els, the 2005 Qatar Masters winner, shot a 67 and finished two strokes behind Goosen.

O’Hern was leading by two shots before Goosen’s birdie-eagle finish.

“I didn’t hit the ball well today,” O’Hern said. “But I kept hitting because that’s what you’ve got to do when you are not playing well.”