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BETHESDA -- Fred Funk came back this week to the first course he ever played in a PGA Tour event as a local favorite and, at age 51, a sentimental choice to win the inaugural AT&T National. Yesterday, Funk took on another role at Congressional Country Club - that of legitimate contender. With an opening round of 3-under-par 67, the former University of Maryland golf coach who has become the Peter Pan of the PGA Tour is one stroke behind five players: Vijay Singh, former U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk, Stuart Appleby of Australia, Joe Ogilvie and K.J. Choi of South Korea.

It was a putter-perfect ending for Mike Grimm.The St. Paul's senior ended his final year by draining a six-foot eagle on the 18th hole at Woodholme Country Club in Reisterstown to capture the 1999 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association Individual Tournament yesterday.Grimm, who had started three strokes behind leader and fellow teammate Ben Phelps, finished with a 4-over-par 77 and had a three-round total of 231. Senior Mike Bosica of Loyola and sophomore Chris Baloga of Calvert Hall tied for second, two strokes back at 233.Phelps, a sophomore, and senior Clark Adams of Mount St. Joseph finished with a fourth-best 235.Grimm said he hopes to use the title as a springboard to playing for Elon College in North Carolina this fall.

PGA TourSprint InternationalSite: Castle Rock, Colo.Schedule: Today-Sunday.Course: Castle Pines Golf Club (7,559 yards, par 72).Purse: $2.6 million.Winner's share: $468,000.TV: USA (today-tomorrow, 4-6 p.m.) and CBS (Saturday, 4-6 p.m.; Sunday, 3-6 p.m.)Last year: Vijay Singh won, finishing with 47 points under the modified Stableford system.Last week: Tiger Woods won his second major, the PGA Championship in Medinah, Ill. Woods held on for a one-stroke victory over Sergio Garcia. Mike Weir, who started the final round tied with Woods, shot an 80 and finished eight strokes back.

POTOMAC -- The most significant logo on Rich Beem's golf bag is "Odyssey." It is for the putter he uses and, perhaps, for the road this 28-year-old rookie has traveled from obscurity to the spotlight here in the $2.5 million Kemper Open. It could also describe what happened to him in yesterday's third round at Avenel.Beem recovered from a shaky start that saw his lead cut to one shot after two bogeys on the first three holes. He made three straight birdies and a fourth on the par-4 10th to build his lead back to three and his score to 11-under.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- By the look of things yesterday in the 63rd Masters, the new look of Augusta National did little to deter some familiar faces from occupying some familiar places on the leader board.Consider this: Of the top eight players, seven have combined for 11 major championships. Two have won the Masters and two others have finished second. This is clearly not the Milwaukee Open."Experience is a great factor here," said Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain. "The more you have played here, the more you know what you have to do on each hole and what shots you have to hit. But at the end of the day, you still have to play well."

Connie Pifer broke away from defending champion Andrea Kraus early in the round and went on to a six-shot triumph in the 55th annual Women's Golf Association championship yesterday at Hillendale Country Club.Pifer, the 1997 titlist from Sparrows Point Country Club, added a 1-over-par 74 to an opening 75, and her 149 easily bettered two-time winner Kraus's 78-77155.Kraus, from Woodholme Country Club, had moved into a share of the lead after three holes, but putting woes hindered her play thereafter.

PGA TourMemorial TournamentSite: Dublin, Ohio.Schedule: Today-Sunday.Course: Muirfield Village GC (7,163 yards, par 72).Purse: $2.55 million (winner receives $459,000).TV: USA (Today, 3-6 p.m.; tomorrow, 4-6 p.m.) and CBS (Saturday, 3-6 p.m.; Sunday, 2-6 p.m.).Last year: Fred Couples finished with a 17-under 271 total for a four-stroke victory over Andrew Magee.Last week: Rich Beem beat Bradley Hughes and Bill Glasson by one stroke to win the Kemper Open in Potomac, his first PGA Tour victory.

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland -- It ended in the gloom and rain, with the lilt of bagpipes wafting over the 18th green, with the crowd singing "The Flower Scotland" and with an unlikely champion finally holding aloft a silver claret jug and shouting, "I'm a local boy! Let's hear it!' "Scotland's Paul Lawrie won a three-way playoff and claimed the British Open at Carnoustie yesterday, capping a moment of golfing drama that nearly defied belief.This was the storybook finish that nobody expected, a Scot winning on home turf.

AKRON, Ohio -- There was little of the drama of the recent PGA Championship, when Tiger Woods frittered away all but a stroke of a five-shot lead to hold off Sergio Garcia. And there was none of the back-nine gamesmanship that occurred between Woods and Garcia at Medinah, since Woods and Phil Mickelson were four holes apart.Though the similarities were few -- none if you asked Woods -- in yesterday's final round of the $5 million NEC Invitational at Firestone Country Club, the result was the same.

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland -- The winds blew across the links of the Carnoustie Golf Club in yesterday's opening round of the 128th British Open, and the glowering skies early in the day were a telling sign."

On a shocking and stirring day at the 138th British Open, two of the least-frequently asked questions in the English language loomed over Turnberry and competed for primacy. Would Tiger Woods really miss the cut? And: Could a 59-year-old actually win this thing? After the overwhelming favorite thrashed through a six-hole thud so profound he looked like some other and far more deeply flawed human, the first question found an even rarer answer. Yes. And as Tom Watson righted a foundering round with four birdies in the last 10 holes, a 60-foot monster putt on No. 16 and a 60-footer from the fringe on No. 18 that loosed a proper roar, the second question found a curious answer.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- For a few hours Thursday, the weather forecast went from bleak to awful, the greens went from soggy to unplayable and Bethpage Black went from long to lawwwwwwwwwng. "It's a U.S. Open," 2006 champ Geoff Ogilvy said. "It's meant to be a long test. And it's going to be." In more ways than one. After suspending play at 10:15 a.m. Thursday and calling off the round at 1:55 p.m., USGA officials already are bracing for a Monday finish. Or Tuesday. USGA championship committee chair Jim Hyler said today's forecast is decent but Saturday looks "more problematic ... sort of like [Thursday]

AUGUSTA, Ga. -Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods stole the show for most of Sunday. But they exited stage right before the green jacket ceremony. Mickelson birdied six of the first eight holes, becoming just the fourth player in Masters history to record a front-nine 30. The others: Johnny Miller in the third round in 1975, Greg Norman in the fourth round in 1988 and K.J. Choi in the second round in 2004. "The front nine was awesome," Mickelson said. "It was really fun, and it gave me a chance on the back.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -They will meet at the first tee Sunday morning, shake hands and perhaps pretend to wish each other good luck. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, together at last, side by side as they stroll down the fairways for the final round at Augusta National. One problem: They are not in the final group. Or the second-to-last. Or the ... They will go off a full 60 minutes before co-leaders Angel Cabrera and Kenny Perry. That should tell you just how unlikely it is that either will need to supply his jacket size to Masters officials.

1. Atlantic Golf at Potomac Ridge 15800 Sharpville Road, Waldorf 20601 Phone: 800-791-9078 Holes: 27 (three 9-hole courses): The Meadows, par 35; The Hollow, par 36; The Ridge, par 37. Cost per round: Until April: Monday-Thursday $45/$40 (twilight, after 2 p.m.); weekends $52/$43. In season, Monday-Thursday $49/$45; weekends $57/$48. Rates subject to change. Check www.mdgolf.com/potomac 2. Atlantic Golf at Queenstown Harbor 310 Links Lane, Queenstown 21658 Phone: 800-827-5257 and 410-827-6611 Holes: 36; par 71 on Lakes course, par 72 on River course Cost per round: River course: Monday-Thursday: $89 before 2 p.m.; $79 after 2 p.m. Weekends: open-11 a.m. $119; 11 a.m.-2 p.m. $89; 2 p.m.-close $75; 36 holes $165 before 2 p.m./$135 after.

Just like old times: Woods wins in return golf Eight months later, Tiger Woods looked as if he had never been away. Woods made a triumphant return to golf yesterday in the Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana, Ariz., with a start that showed golf what it had been missing in the 253 days since he limped his way to an epic U.S. Open title. Just past high noon in the desert, Woods fired an 8-iron 5 feet from the pin for birdie. Then came a gentle fist pump when his approach to the par-5 second settled 4 feet from the cup for eagle.

Schilling: Make '03 list of failed drug tests public baseball A day after Alex Rodriguez was linked to steroids, another All-Star offered this suggestion: Make public the entire list of players who failed drug tests. "I'd be all for the 104 positives being named, and the game moving on if that is at all possible," former Boston Red Sox ace Curt Schilling wrote on his blog yesterday. Rodriguez joined Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens on an ever-growing list of stars tainted by the Steroid Era scandal.

Connors arrested outside basketball game tennis Tennis great Jimmy Connors was arrested outside the campus arena where UC Santa Barbara and top-ranked North Carolina were playing a men's basketball game. The eight-time Grand Slam champion was taken into custody Friday night after refusing to comply with an order to leave an area near the entrance of the Thunderdome after a confrontation, police Sgt. Dan Massey said in a statement. A police dispatcher said Connors was arrested at the beginning of the game.

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - The PGA Championship looked a lot like the U.S. Open, with only seven players under par when darkness finally covered Oakland Hills yesterday and put "The Monster" to sleep. It sounded like a U.S. Open, too. "There's only one guy who's going to like this place by the end of the week," Ben Curtis said. Jeev Milkha Singh and Robert Karlsson found it agreeable enough after each shot 2-under-par 68 in the pleasant morning conditions, before thunderstorms stopped play for 90 minutes in the afternoon.

The comparisons between journeyman pro golfer Rocco Mediate and film myth Rocky Balboa are inescapable after yesterday's epic battle in the U.S. Open between the likable 45-year-old and Tiger Woods coming down to a sudden-death finish on the 91st hole. Ever since Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Gary Player exited the competitive stage, golf has largely been bereft of great showdowns that have captured the public imagination. Yesterday changed all that. Even though Woods - playing with a sore left knee that was operated on in April - prevailed on the first sudden-death hole with a par on a 461-yard par-4 after an 18-hole playoff, Mediate played his way into golf lore with a heroic effort.