Aug. 17, 2004

Former University of Maryland Men's Golf Coach and 1980 graduate, Fred Funk, earned a spot on the 2004 Ryder Cup team. This will be Funk's first Ryder Cup in his veteran PGA career. Funk was in danger of being bumped out of the top ten after missing the cut in this weekend's PGA Championship. Funk had to sit and wait for the outcome of Sunday's playoff to see if he would make the team. "I wasn't rooting against anybody by any means," he said. You're sitting there watching TV or looking at the paper. It's no fun watching when you have no control." At 48, Funk is believed to be the second-oldest American player in history to have made the team. Raymond Floyd was 51 when he played on the 1993 Ryder Cup team. This is one of the crowning achievements of a PGA career that began when Funk was 33. The Takoma Park native coached the University of Maryland Golf team from 1982-1988 before joining the PGA Tour in 1989. Funk ranks 1st in driving accuracy percentage on the Tour and his best finish so far this season was at the U.S. Bank Championship, where he tied for second. Funk and his U.S. teammates will try to regain the cup from the Europeans in September at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield, Michigan.