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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP


June 27, 2015


Fred Funk


SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: We're going to bring up Fred Funk, who shot 68 today and is 4 under par for the Championship.

FRED FUNK: Hello.

Q. Tell me about how the day went.
FRED FUNK: I got off to a really good start. I birdied four of the first five and made some beautiful putts. But in between there, on 3 and 7 and 8, I just hit some terrible putts. On 10, I did as well. I just felt like I just gave them away because they were simple up and downs, simple putts. I three-putted a couple of them. They were literally like, I hate to say it, but they were like choke strokes. And yet I made all these great. I made five birdies on the front. I made my three bogeys and then bogeyed 10. Then I kind of righted the ship a little bit as far as my putting. I made some really nice three, four, five-footers for pars on the back nine that kept the round going. Then I actually hit one of my worst second shots or approach shots into 18, but I pulled it, and it rode that bank curve and went down there by the hole and I had about a six, seven-footer, and I made that. It was a great way to finish. When I look back, making all those and finishing that way, making some par saves, I guess it kind of balanced out. But I really could have had a low one on the front. I played extremely good on the front nine and made three bogeys that were just horrible. That's kind of what I was focusing on. When I missed a little one on 10, I was furious on 11, and I -- caddie was working on trying to settle me down. I wasn't settling down. Then finally, I settled down. It was just really frustrating, because it was like the woulda, coulda, shoulda, but you got to keep going. The hard part of the golf course, 13 on in, ended up playing those 1 under. That was a big bonus right there.

Q. Round 3 at Del Paso, what do you think of the course?
FRED FUNK: The course is fantastic. It's the best greens you'll ever putt on. You can't get better greens than these. I don't care where you are, I never putted better greens than these. I putted some that might be a tie, but you can't improve on these things. Very demanding golf course, I think. You've got to drive it good. If you're driving good, you get rewarded. If you don't, I've never seemed to have played rough like this that is so gluey. I don't know what other guys are saying, but the club just stops dead. The ball doesn't come out. It just embarrasses you sometimes with some of the shots you hit. But overall, I love the golf course. It's really, really good.

Q. What is it about the course that doesn't enable somebody to separate himself?
FRED FUNK: I think it seems like it's hard to shoot really low on it, although Kenny had a heck of a round today, 6 under. If you're playing pretty good, you can keep in that 2 and 3 under range. If you're a little off, you can maybe make enough birdies to scramble 1 or 2 over out of it. So it keeps kind of everybody bunched up. Looks like it's really bunched up for tomorrow. So that will be really fun. I think you'll have a lot of -- probably some teeter-tottering going back and forth on the front nine and everybody holding on on the back, trying to figure out -- if somebody plays those last six holes really well tomorrow, it will be -- that will probably be your champion. I don't see how you cannot -- unless you have somebody that breaks out on the front nine. But I think it's going to be interesting coming down 18 and 17 and 16. Those three holes are really tough. And right now, the greens are so firm. It's hard to hold 17 downwind. That's very difficult. If you get it close, it's by accident. If you keep it on, you hit a really good shot. There are certain holes out here that it's very difficult to -- you're really trying to keep it on the green. Number 14, the par 3, is also like that. It's funny how the par 3s seem to be the ones that are hard to hold. It's really setting up for an exciting day tomorrow, I think.

Q. How hard is it to keep concentrating, but you also want to see how your son's doing?
FRED FUNK: I did. I had the phone out on the front nine, checking on him. He played really good except for yesterday's round. That was unfortunate. But he's learning, and it was exciting to watch him. He's really progressing, becoming a really good player.

Q. For the packed nature of the leaderboard, does that kind of fire the competitive juices even more?
FRED FUNK: No. No, the U.S. Open fires the juices. That's all I needed. I don't care if it's one guy right there or just two of us taking off. It's whoever. Or if you're all by yourself out there, you still got a whole, full 18 in there. I'd love to have a chance to win coming down 18 tomorrow, but there's a lot of golf ahead of that. So I just want to -- and that's what everybody is striving for, just trying to get comfort, and I know everybody would love to have a two-shot lead at least going into 18 so you can play it a little safer. But that's a hard hole.

Q. What about the weather? Was it much more enjoyable today?
FRED FUNK: Yeah, it was like night and day, felt like air conditioning. It got a little warmer on the back nine. Early on, compared to what we've been in, that was a relief, big time.

Q. When things are that jammed up, are you a leaderboard watcher?
FRED FUNK: Yeah, I am. Usually I am. There are some times I'll just sit there and just grind out and not worry about what everybody else is doing and not want to know, and just concentrate on what I'm doing. Most of the time, I'll watch and see what's going on. You hear a roar, and you want to know who's doing it. We have great crowds. Considering the heat, we've had really good crowds. That's exciting too.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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