NCGA Senior champion Robert Funk

The conversation focused on Funk’s lead, but also that the 57-year-old hadn’t tasted victory for over two years.

“I told her I’m coming home a winner, or I’m not coming home,” Funk said.

Funk, a member at SoCal-based Bear Creek Golf Club but also an NCGA member through AmateurGolf.com, will indeed be bringing home a title. This time, his first NCGA title. He’d defeat Jeff Wilson on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff, winning the first hole (par-4 10th) with a par after Wilson was unable to get up-and-down after his approach shot rolled down into the teeing area of the adjacent 11th hole.

“I’m very excited to win,” said Funk, who finished the championship with a three-day total of 1-under 212. “I haven’t had any major wins in the last two years. It’s validation for me.”

A multiple winner of SCGA events, Funk and Wilson, a member at Green Valley CC, had tangled on the course before. Both of the times Funk has won the SCGA Mid-Amateur, he has dueled with Wilson. The two have also seen each other shine in USGA events. In 2017, Funk was the low amateur at the U.S. Senior Open. A year later, Wilson won the U.S. Senior Amateur.

“Every time I see Jeff, I know I have a chance at competing,” said Funk, who is a third cousin of former PGA Tour star Fred Funk.

This time around, it looked like Wilson was going to turn the tables on Funk. With a clutch birdie on the par-3 11th, Wilson tied Funk. Not much later, following a Wilson birdie on the 14th, Funk, who had led each of the first two rounds, suddenly trailed.

“I knew I just had to keep making birdies. Jeff is such a great player,” Funk said.

Funk, a recovering alcoholic who once completely turned his life around, ended up making a move but by making par. Wilson would stumble with two crucial bogeys on both the 15th and 17th holes. On the 18th, the two were tied. Wilson had a chance to win it but he’d narrowly miss.

“I hung in there about as well as I could today,” said Wilson, who had made up a four-stroke deficit to start the day with a 71. “Robert deserved to win. He played better than I did. If I would’ve won today, it would’ve been a robbery.”

For Funk, the win was also a bit of a redemption in another way. In 2018, he’d lose to eventual winner Jim Knoll after Knoll made a birdie on the 18th.

“I was just trying to not blow up. I didn’t make a lot of putts today,” Funk said. ” Compared to the first two rounds, I wasn’t hitting the ball as well nor putting as well.”

Three players–Jeff Britton, John Pate and Mark Morgan—tied for third at 220.

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