Some players to have home-course advantage
Even when Fred Funk isn’t on the road playing the PGA Tour or teeing it up against the senior set on the Champions Tour, he has a hard time staying away from his golfing peers.
He sees Vijay Singh all the time, and Jim Furyk, too. Bumps into Len Mattiace a lot. Says hello to Frank Lickliter II quite a bit and runs into Mark McCumber, Graham Marsh, Leonard Thompson and Rick Rhoden, too. PGA Tour rookie Steve Wheatcroft is around, as is the Nationwide Tour’s Charles Raulerson.
No matter what he does or where he goes, Funk can’t escape golf pros when he’s home with his family at their year-round residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, a quiet seaside community in northeast Florida and home of the PGA Tour.
The Oak Tree Golf Club in Edmond, Okla., has long had the appropriately named Oak Tree Gang that features tour pros who are club members and either live in the neighborhood surrounding the course or in the state.
That bunch has nothing on the Ponte Vedra Beach Gang.
“I know this is a great place to live and a great place for golf, but there’s a lot of talent around here in this small city,” said Funk, who’ll have about a two-minute commute this week during The Players Championship, which he won at age 48 in 2005. “Actually, I’m surprised more pros don’t live here.
“Seasons change, there are no high-rises, the beaches are close and private. The fishing is great. The water skiing is great. And the golf doesn’t get much better than this place. This is the home of the Tour, the Stadium Course is the best of all the tour’s TPC courses and this is where our flagship tournament is. This is a special place.”
So much so that when Funk and his wife, Sharon, considered moving six years ago, searching all over Florida for a new residence, they found the perfect home – the one they were already living in at the Marsh Landing Country Club right next to the Stadium Course.
Furyk hasn’t moved in years. Growing up in eastern Pennsylvania, he always wanted to live somewhere warm and found the perfect spot hard against the Atlantic Ocean, a couple of miles from the Stadium Course. He notes the tall pine trees in the area give off a south Georgia feel, adding to the area’s environmental diversity.
“I needed somewhere on the tour to base myself, and I fell in love with the place,” Furyk said.
He’s fond of the practice facilities at Sawgrass. The front side of the range is about 175 yards wide, the back about 100 yards – allowing players to practice shots with the wind at their backs or into their face. Numerous greens offer targets. To keep the short game sharp, three chipping greens and a putting green border the range.
“The back side offers a relatively private area to work,” Furyk said. “It’s quiet and gives you peace of mind. I see Vijay on the range all the time. (Lickliter) is there a lot, too.”
Like Singh, Lickliter is a practice junkie. When he returns from the road, he immediately takes his clubs out of the travel bag and plops them on his golf cart in the garage. Sometimes it’s the only vehicle he drives.
“I love to practice, and literally there are times when I won’t get in my truck for five days,” said Lickliter, who lives 250 yards from the Stadium Course’s third hole.
With the tour’s biggest tournament in their backyards this week, it can be a hectic seven days for the local players with all of the ticket demands. Most will host friends and fellow pros for a barbecue or two.
“But my friends know I’m working,” Furyk said.