Fred Funk battled through all 18 holes for a runner-up finish at the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship on Sunday.
But it was his first putt, on the first hole, when it first became apparently that it might not be his day.
"As I looked down, a leaf went in front of the hole, but I didn’t know it and I was already in my back swing and nobody backed me off and it hit the leaf and just stopped and it shook me for about five holes," Funk said. "It was dead center, hit the leaf, and deflected off. I was really pissed off."
Funk, who has won two Champions Tour events in Hawaii, fell one shot short of winner Paul Goydos in a tie for second with Scott Dunlap at 18 under after a final round 3-under 69.
The eight-time winner on the PGA Tour gave the patrons walking Kapolei Golf Course a treat on the par-3 16th, which played as the hardest hole of the tournament.
Funk, trailing by two at that point, hit a 4-hybrid that bounced 5 feet short of the hole and rolled right into the middle of the cup for his ninth career ace in a tournament.
It wasn’t enough to keep up with Goydos, who birdied four of the last five holes to separate himself from the pack.
"I was tied for the lead for about five minutes, I guess," Funk said. "Paul made the run there and did what he had to do and I missed a lot of chances early."
After shooting 63 on Saturday, Funk was even par through 13 holes in the final round before getting into red numbers.
That wasn’t the case for Dunlap, the other runner-up finisher, who tried to mount a Sunday charge after starting the day four strokes back.
In his third event since winning the Boeing Classic in Seattle, Dunlap rattled off six birdies in nine holes to briefly take the lead.
He added a two-putt birdie on the par-5 17th to get to 18 under and parred the last to post the low number in the clubhouse while waiting for the final group, which was four holes behind.
For a while, it looked like a playoff, if not the outright championship, was a possibility, but Dunlap wasn’t holding his breath.
Just two weeks ago, he held the clubhouse lead at the Quebec Championship in Canada when Wes Short Jr. finished birdie-birdie-eagle to beat him by one.
"Yeah, I had a two-stroke lead after birding the last and didn’t even make the playoff (two weeks ago), so I can fathom just about anything these days," Dunlap said. "It’s a tough school. I think it shows you how tough it is to hoist a trophy out here."
Dunlap made his debut on the tour this season and had only one top-10 finish in his first 10 events.
The second-place finish at Kapolei was his third top-two placing in the last four events and pocketed him another $176,000 to push him over $1 million in earnings for the season.
"I’m playing the best golf I’ve ever played — if not ever, certainly in a long time," Dunlap said. "That’s just a fact. It’s not just a week here and there. This is as good of a stretch of golf as I’ve played ever."
