True champion

Fred Funk provided a signature moment at this year’s Pacific Links Hawaii Championship.

Paul Goydos had the pleasure of swiping his name across the winning scorecard.

Goydos was at Kapolei Golf Club’s 16th tee box when Funk drilled a hybrid for a lightning bolt hole-in-one to forge a three-way tie atop the leaderboard.

After a beaming Funk danced up the fairway, fixed his ball mark and picked his ball out of the cup, Goydos –safely on the green about 20 feet away from the hole — calmly dropped his birdie putt to reclaim the solo lead.

No one would catch him from there.

Goydos opened up a two-stroke cushion on No. 17 with his fourth consecutive birdie and survived a rocky finishing hole to emerge from a three-day shootout with his first Champions Tour victory at a tournament-record 19 under par.

"I’m just happy I played well and I held it together under the most difficult situation. That’s the test I like," Goydos said. "Did I play flawless golf coming in? Absolutely not. But I hung in there and I was happy with how I ground it out and handled some adversity pretty well."

Goydos arrived at the first tee tied for the lead after firing a 63 on Saturday and his 4-under 68 was enough to finish one shot ahead of Funk and Scott Dunlap and secure his first win since the 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii.

After the round, Goydos rightfully patted himself on the back for maintaining his focus amid Funk’s electric moment on the 205-yard par-3 16th.

"Fred does things like that. Something always happens with Fred," Goydos said.

"When I look back at the round, take away winning what are you most proud of? The fact that I stayed in the moment, stayed in the present.

"That’s one of those learning moments. You can’t control Fred or Scott or anyone else in the group. I hit a good shot and I hit a good putt and I’m very happy."

Goydos weathered a switching wind late Sunday and a scramble atop the leaderboard to pick up the $330,000 winner’s check and a two-year exemption into the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in January.

Funk got a two-year lease on a BMW for his hole-in-one but fell one shot short of the prize he wanted most out of the weekend.

"It was good and bad," Funk said. "I played really good today overall. … I had a lot of chances."

After seemingly putting the trophy in his bag with his birdie on 17, Goydos’ composure was tested one last time after flying the green on his approach shot on No. 18.

His 7-iron from the rough split the gap between the grandstand and television tower, threatening photographers in the vicinity.

"When I hit it I went, ‘Nope, read that one wrong,’ " Goydos said. "It ends up going right between the grandstand and TV tower. I mean, c’mon, no one’s that good."

Goydos was granted relief, and after two drops, chipped over the landscaping behind the green to leave himself with a two-putt to win. He lagged his putt inches away from the cup and tapped in the bogey to finish off the victory.

Goydos’ march actually began with a bogey on Friday and contributed 20 birdies to the 1,056 carded by the 81 players in the field, the fourth-highest total in Champions Tour history.

Goydos eagled from the fairway on No. 11 on Saturday and nearly duplicated the feat on No. 15 on Sunday. He pulled out an 8 iron from 141 yards away and the ball came to rest one roll away from falling into the cup. His tap-in moved him to 18 under.

"I was thinking 20 minutes earlier that probably would have been a 6-iron," Goydos said. "I didn’t believe it, that the wind had laid down. …It took me a second to kind of buy into it."

Funk caught him with the ace on No. 16, but Goydos reclaimed the lead moments later, extended it on the next hole but opened the door on 18. Funk couldn’t quite take advantage as his approach landed below the ridge cutting across the green about 30 feet from the hole and settled for a two-putt par.

"I thought I hit a really good 7-iron in there," Funk said. "I thought I hit it solid enough to get it to the top and it was going right at it. I thought it was going to be close and it was really disappointing it came up short."