Funk Is Dressed for Success

The skirt was decorated with pink and fuchsia flowers. The putt was 28 feet and came with $225,000.

Fred Funk was in the middle of both.

Funk, the butt end of a joke when he had to wear a skirt for losing a bet with Annika Sorenstam, had the last laugh when he made an eagle putt on the ninth hole and collected six skins to take the lead after the first day of the Skins Game on Saturday at Trilogy Golf Club in La Quinta.

The defining moment of the day came well before that, though.

On the third hole, Sorenstam hit a 278-yard drive -- seven yards farther than Funk’s -- then pulled a pink floral print skirt out of her bag, showed it to the crowd and handed it to Funk, who pulled it on and completed the hole while wearing it.

One of the subplots leading into the Skins Game was whether Sorenstam, one of the longest drivers on the LPGA Tour, would outdrive Funk, among the shortest hitters on the PGA Tour. The two made a friendly wager about it.

Funk outdrove Sorenstam on six of the seven holes on which both used driver, but the one on which Sorenstam outdrove him will be remembered most. It made for several moments of hilarity, especially when Funk rolled up his pants to show his legs and also when he nearly tumbled while squatting to mark his ball on the green.

“That’s not easy to do,� Funk said. “I almost pulled a groin trying to get down there.�

Moments later, Funk and Tiger Woods laughed uncontrollably when Funk again squatted to read his putt.

Woods was directly across from Funk reading his own putt and joked aloud that he could see up Funk’s skirt.

Funk was laughing so hard he had to back off the seven-foot birdie attempt, then missed it to the left.

“I didn’t really realize how hard it was to line up a putt with a skirt on,� Funk said. “Especially when Tiger’s looking from the other end.�

Woods said his view wasn’t all that good.

“I know he had a skirt on, but I don’t know if he had a thong underneath it or not,� he said.

Lost in the humor of the third hole was Woods’ birdie that won the first three skins and $75,000. He hit the green in two on the par-five hole and two-putted from 50 feet -- albeit while fighting laughter -- while Funk, Sorenstam and Fred Couples each missed birdie putts of about seven feet.

Even without the ninth hole, Funk had gotten some measure of revenge on Sorenstam. On the par-three sixth, Sorenstam hit a five-iron to within two feet of the hole, but Funk made an unlikely 20-foot putt to tie.

Sorenstam jokingly picked Funk’s ball out of the hole and tossed it into a nearby lake.

The skins carried over to the par-five ninth, where Funk hit a 286-yard drive -- 32 yards past Sorenstam -- then hit a three-iron into the fringe left of the hole and made the putt. Couples, the defending champion, hit the green in two and had a chance to tie, but his 18-foot eagle try missed just right.

Funk’s $225,000 is a Skins Game record for money earned on the first day. Couples and Sorenstam were shut out Saturday, but there will be $700,000 available on the back nine today, including at least $200,000 on the par-five 18th hole.