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Jaime Aron
Associated Press
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, México (AP) -- For about an hour earlier this week, Fred Funk was entered in both the Champions Tour event in Florida and the Mayakoba Golf Classic.
He ended up coming south of the border -- and sure is glad he did.
Funk birdied five of his first seven holes and finished with an 8-under 62, giving him the lead Thursday after the first round of the first PGA Tour event in México.
"I wasn't sure where I really wanted to go," Funk said. "I could go to the Champions Tour and have a guaranteed three rounds and work on my game. And I had already committed to this a long time ago, even before the season started, I think.
 | | Funk capped his bogey-free round with a 10-foot birdie and a leg-kick on No. 18. |
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"It turned out to be a really good decision, based on the first round."
Funk, an 11-stroke winner last month in the Champions Tour's Turtle Bay Championship, is trying to join Craig Stadler as the only players to win a PGA Tour event after winning on the 50-and-over tour. Stadler won the B.C. Open a week after winning the Ford Senior Players Championship in 2003.
Cameron Beckman had the day's best stretch with six birdies in seven holes, but couldn't manage any others and was two shots behind at 64 along with George McNeill, John Merrick and Boo Weekley. Five others were three shots back at 65, and México's Esteban Toledo was among those at 66.
Of the 142 starters, 73 shot par or better.
"It's a very playable golf course," Beckman said of the 6,923-yard El Camaleón, a course Greg Norman designed as a par-72 for tourists, but is playing at a par of 70 for the pros. "You pretty much hit everything in your bag. You have to pay attention off the tees, but if you do, you can bang this golf course up a little bit."
Or "un poco," as the locals would say.
Actually, there were no sombreros, pinatas or other cliched props to emphasize the PGA Tour's arrival in México. About the only giveaway were "Silencio Por Favor!" signs requesting quiet around the tees and greens -- a nice touch, even if most folks in the small galleries were English-speaking tourists.
Located along the Riviera Maya, the course meanders through the jungle, features two holes facing the Caribbean Sea and has the opening to a cave in the middle of the first fairway. The fairways are tight, with hardly any rough before going into hazards like dense mangrove trees.
Playing in one of the earliest tee times (7:10 a.m.), Funk avoided the brunt of the 86-degree day. He capped his bogey-free round with a 10-foot birdie putt and a fist pump.
His eight birdies were several more than he expected the course to yield after two practice rounds.
"You have to be precise with your irons," he said. "And, today, I was."
 | | Beckman had the day's best stretch with six birdies in seven holes. |
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Funk wasn't sure what to expect from himself, either, after posting consecutive 74s, his worst rounds of the year, and missing the cut at the Nissan Open last weekend. He also was fighting a muscle problem in his lower back.
The combination was why the no-cut, three-round Champions Tour event in Florida sounded like the kind of weekend he needed.
But even after filling out the paperwork, Funk wasn't sure he would go. He called the tournament director and told him so.
"I was confused," he said.
His next call was to the tournament director in México. He hung up realizing he had no choice.
"They had been using me in a lot of promotions and stuff," he said. "So I had to honor my first commitment."
Although Funk wasn't guaranteed of making the cut, he knew he would have easier competition at the Riviera Maya than he faced at the Riviera Country Club last week. After all, the PGA Tour's top 64 players are in Arizona for the Accenture Match Play Championship.
Other wrinkles were in Funk's favor, too -- greens made of paspalum grass, the same hybrid turf he won on at Turtle Bay; warm weather that he likes; and he already has a victory in the 1993 México Open on his resume.
"I know on certain golf courses where it's a prerequisite to be hitting the ball well and hitting straight and hitting good iron shots, I can compete with these guys," said Funk, who turned 50 last June. "I've got to pick and choose a little more and I want to really play as long as I can on the regular tour as long as I'm competitive."
He certainly was Thursday. Now he'll try keeping it up for tres dias mas.
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