Funk rallies late to win Washington Q-School

DUPONT, Washington—On a tight leaderboard late in the final round of the PGA TOUR Canada Qualifying Tournament at The Home Course, American Taylor Funk turned it on at the right time. Funk birdied two of his final three holes Friday to pull away at the end and defeat Canadian Lawren Rowe by two shots. Funk, who fired a closing, 3-under 69 and finished at 13-under, will be exempt for the entire 2022 PGA TOUR Canada season that begins in six weeks. Rowe, along with seven others—amateur Noah Woolsey, Scott Stevens, Blake Maum, Cameron John, Chris Crisologo, Christian Muscarello and Talon Supak are exempt into the first half of the season’s schedule. Four players played off for the final spot, with Matt Echelmeier and Jorge Villar dropping out first before Supak defeated Blake Hathcoat on the fourth extra hole to earn the final exempt position. 

On the 16th tee, Funk checked the pgatour.com scoreboard on his phone and saw he was trailing by a stroke. “I saw Rowe was 12-under, which was one ahead of me. I’m going into 16, which is a reachable par-5. I thought I needed to get it at least to 13(-under) to have a chance at a playoff. I expected him to go 1-under over the last three, at least,” Funk explained. Instead, Rowe played his final three holes in 1-over to finish at 11-under, while Funk had a tap-in birdie at the 16th, another tap-in at No. 17 and lipped out for birdie to close. 

“They were both stress-free, which was nice,” Funk said of his two late birdies. “I didn’t know where I stood at that point—maybe needed that (birdie on 18), maybe I didn’t. I came in and saw [Rowe] made a bogey. 

““It’s all been a blur. It just seems like we’ve been playing all day every day. Things got progressively better over the last couple of days. I started to strike the ball a bit better, which kept a little pressure off my putting,” said Rowe of his 70-70 start followed by his 68-69 finish.

Although Funk, son of PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions veteran Fred Funk, has held PGA TOUR-affiliated Tour status only once—in 2019, on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, he has also played tournaments on the PGA TOUR, Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR Canada. He was more than happy with his play, especially after a poor start. On Tuesday, in his first round, he was 2-over through seven holes when officials pulled players off the course due to unplayable conditions due to the rain. 

“I think that was a good thing for me. I played well from there on in,” said Funk, who immediately birdied No. 8, his first hole once he was back on the course. He put together a 1-under 71 and only shot rounds in the 60s after that. He was also pleased with his final-round, back-nine play. After he birdied the par-4 11th to move to 12-under, he bogeyed the par-3 14th that left him needing some late-round heroics, which he provided. 

“It is satisfying. It’s my first pro win, and I’m happy about it,” Funk explained, thinking about what’s in store this summer. “I’m just going to chase this Tour around, venture through Canada and hopefully see Banff again. That place is gorgeous. I have about a month to prepare, but I’m definitely going to take a few days off after this one.”

Key Information 

There were 100 players in this field when the tournament began, and 95 completed 72 holes. Below is a breakdown of the various PGA TOUR Canada membership statuses earned this week.   

There were nine amateurs playing at The Home Course this week. Leading the way was Noah Woolsey. The current University of Washington player finished third. This is how all the amateurs fared at PGA TOUR Canada’s sixth Qualifying Tournament, with those shaded earning 2022 membership. 

At No. 39 in the current PGA TOUR University Rankings, the University of Washington’s Noah Woolsey was consistent all week at The Home Course, shooting under-par scores in all four rounds on his way to a third-place finish. Woolsey’s big day was his third round, spread over two days, that resulted in a 6-under 66. That was the low 18-hole score of the week by any player in the field. He is the 102nd-ranked amateur in the world. 

Noah Woolsey’s third-place performance ties him for second-best by an amateur this Qualifying Tournament season. Pepperdine’s Joey Vrzich tied for third at the Arizona Q-School. Clemson’s Jacob Bridgeman was the medalist in Dothan, Alabama. 

The following 33 amateurs have qualified for the 2022 PGA TOUR Canada season via this year’s Qualifying Tournaments. The seven shaded in blue are exempt into the tournaments in the season’s first half. All the others are conditionally exempt. 

Taylor Funk has two times previously tried to qualify for PGA TOUR Canada via the Qualifying Tournament. He missed getting status in both 2017 and 2021. He has one career PGA TOUR Canada to his credit, a missed cut at the 2018 Bayview Place Open. 

A year ago, Lawren Rowe held PGA TOUR Canada membership and played the summer on the U.S.-based Forme Tour. Appearing in all eight tournaments, Rowe made two cuts, his best performance a tie for 31st at the Birck Boilermaker Classic. 

In 2020, Canadian Lawren Rowe played in all four of the Canada-based series of tournaments after the global pandemic forced the cancellation of the PGA TOUR Canada season. In those four 54-hole tournaments, Rowe made the cut in all four events and enjoyed two top-10s, both at Bear Mountain in Langford, British Columbia. At the tournament at the Mountain Course, he finished sixth. A week later, at the Valley Course, he was fifth. 

Clancy Waugh earned conditional status with his tie-for-29th finish, earning PGA TOUR Canada membership for the first time, thanks to a final-round, 4-under 68 that was 10 strokes better than his third-round score. Waugh opened his final round with a bogey and then over his next 17 holes he made five birdies and 12 pars. 

Canada’s Chris Crisologo picked up PGA TOUR Canada status at The Home Course for the second consecutive season, shooting four par-or-better rounds, capped by his 5-under 67 Friday. Crisologo made four consecutive birdies on his front nine, starting at No. 3 then overcame a 13th-hole bogey with two more birdies coming in, at Nos. 16 and 18 to tie for seventh. 

It was a disappointing final day for Christian Muscarello. After posting three consecutive sub-70 rounds to start the tournament and holding the 54-hole lead, he struggled Friday, shooting a 75 to tie for seventh. The silver lining is he still earned status for the first half of the season. 

Scott Newell was the hard-luck finisher this week. He ended the tournament alone in 33rd place, one shot outside the line to earn conditional status. Newell fired a final-round 71, late bogeys Friday, on Nos. 13 and 16, proving costly. 

Of the nine Canadians in the field, three earned 2022 PGA TOUR Canada status: Lawren Rowe (second), Chris Crisologo (tied for seventh) and Kevin Gordon (tied for 25th).  

Quotable

“I didn’t drive it that great, but I never missed in places where I got in trouble.” – Taylor Funk 

“I was hitting my irons great and hitting a lot of greens. I was taking really conservative lines and giving myself a lot of chances of birdie and eliminating bogeys. It worked out.” – Taylor Funk

I felt really calm all week. How we got it in with this weather I don’t know, but I’m glad we did.” – Taylor Funk

“With how the greens are—not great but not bad—you had to trust what your line was. I had trouble trusting my line on the putting greens, but I hit the ball extremely well, I hit 18 greens and I made some timely birdies.” – Chris Crisologo

“It was a good stretch of holes. My ball-striking kept me afloat, and I did make a long, opportunistic birdie putt on the par-3 fourth from the front edge of the green—probably a good 45 feet. I wasn’t expecting it to go in.” – Chris Crisologo on his four-hole birdie stretch, starting at No. 3

“I’m excited to be going back up to Canada and getting a full season on PGA TOUR Canada.” – Chris Crisologo

“I birdied 10 and 11. I had a scrappy bogey on nine, and I was sour making the turn. It was nice to come out with birdies there.” – Lawren Rowe

“It will be nice to be in Canada. Last summer I was on the Forme Tour, so I was back and forth to the States a lot. It will be a little less stressful traveling throughout Canada. I’m looking forward to it.” – Lawren Rowe

Final-Round Weather: Players teed off at 9:30 a.m. PDT and finished their third round while players simultaneously began their final rounds. Off-and-on rain fell for a good part of the day, clearing in the afternoon. High of 59. , with heavier rain hitting the course beginning at 7 p.m. High of 52. Wind W at 4-7 mph.