The best golfer from every U.S. state

Maryland: Fred Funk

Though he now resides in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, the Maryland ties for Fred Funk are exceptionally strong. The 61-year old was born in Takoma Park in 1956 and stayed in the state throughout his youth and high school years. His collegiate career saw him stay in the state as well, attending the University of Maryland — though he was cut from the golf team upon his first arrival and returned after a community college stint to lead the Terps.

Funk officially turned professional in 1981 after leaving college, but continued to stay in Maryland and serve as a coach on the Terrapins golf team while playing PGA Tour events. He finally left the program in 1988, however, and began focusing primarily on his professional career, officially becoming a card-carrying member of the PGA Tour in 1989.

His long stint belaying a full-time professional schedule didn’t result in immediate success for Funk as he got onto the tour. There were issues with inconsistency early in his career as he seemed to not even be able to string together runs of made cuts. He finally broke through, however, in 1992 when he was able to top the field at the Shell Houston Open to earn his first win on the PGA Tour.

Funk would win seven more times throughout his PGA Tour career, most notably being The Players Championship in 2005 as he topped Luke Donald, Tom Lehman and Scott Verplank to win. In recent years, he’s found great success on the Champions Tour, having won nine times there.