WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 19, 2003

K.J. Choi

Tim Clark

Fred Funk

Jay Haas

JAMES CRAMER: I'd like to thank everybody for your patience and for coming out. Obviously right here we have the four captain's picks for this year's upcoming President's Cup. To my far right Fred Funk, and Jay Haas, who is from the United States team chosen by Jack Nicklaus yesterday. And then we have Tim Clark from South Africa and K. J. Choi from South Korea, who was chosen by Gary Player yesterday.

I'd like to give each player a chance to make a comment about their thoughts about being selected and then we'll open it up to questions from the media. Fred, let's start with you.

FRED FUNK: It's pretty easy that I'm really excited about being a pick for the team and being a member of the team. It's been a focus of mine since really the end of last year when I finished real well and got in position to make the team. My entire goal this year was to try and play good enough to get on it. When I moved past Bob, I still wasn't sure whether I was going to get picked or not, but I got a call from Jack on Sunday night sitting at a restaurant, and he said, "Well, Fred, you didn't do what I needed you to do." I said, "Yeah, I know, Jack, I didn't get top ten." He said, "But I picked you," and I just was ecstatic. I said, "Atta boy, Jack." I got really excited on the phone and just yelled back to him. I just felt really good about that. I was really excited. People may not understand that. It's very unusual for me to get excited out there.

I'm really pleased to be a member of the team. First time playing for an international team representing the country other than the Warburg Cup last year, but this has just stepped it up a notch or quite a few notches, I guess, and I'm really looking forward to it. I said in a press conference Sunday, or some of the interviews Sunday, after the round that some of the guys asked who I thought would be a great pick, and I said I don't know whether I was going to be picked or Bob or who they were going to pick, but nobody could argue at all if Jay was picked. Jay has been playing so well. I thought that was a no-brainer to have Jay on our team. I'm really looking forward to having a great time and a great competition.

JAY HAAS: Well, just like Fred said, Jack called Sunday night and I almost couldn't believe it. I knew that my name had been tossed around, that I may have had a chance to be a pick, but I felt like I had to win the tournament last week to jump into the top ten and really be a sure thing. But when I got the call, like Fred said, I was ecstatic. I know what it means to play for your country. It's outstanding. It's been a long time since I've been to South Africa, I'm looking forward to going back. I know there were some disappointed people that didn't get picked, didn't get chosen ahead of me, but I think that's a good thing, that there's a passion for this event, that players would be disappointed to not get picked. There's many players who are deserving and I'm just thrilled to death that Jack chose me.

TIM CLARK: Obviously I guess I'd better start by thanking Gary Player for choosing me for this side. A few weeks ago I really had fallen away from the standings. It had been a goal of mine from the beginning of the year to try and make the team. Obviously my finish last week helped me a lot, and obviously I'm just extremely honored to be chosen by Gary for the team. Obviously playing in South Africa is going to be very special and I obviously have a lot of friends and family there and it's going to be a great week just to be coupled with probably 24 of the best players in the world. I'm very excited.

K. J. CHOI: First of all, I'd like to thank the Lord for having an opportunity and also Mr. Gary Player for picking me for the team. I also want to thank all the players who have given a lot of support for me to be selected for this team, and really this is the first time I've had a chance to go to South Africa, and I'm quite nervous about it and I'm really not sure -- I have to start thinking about what I need to prepare myself to play well, and I really want to contribute to our team's success when I get a chance to play there.

JAMES CRAMER: Now if we have any questions, the players are available.

Q. Jay, how does it feel to be setting all these age records?

JAY HAAS: Well, a lot of people have said through the course of the year my new first name is 49-year-old, and it doesn't bother me one bit. Just the fact that they are -- they didn't call me 48-year-old last year or the year before in 2000, when I played pretty poorly, but it's just been fun to be in the mix, so to speak, and to feel like I'm a part of this major league out here again.

Q. The kind of year you've had so far, is it altering your thinking toward next year?

FRED FUNK: It has. I guess my tentative plan early in the year was to play a little bit of both early on next year and see how things were going. One of my goals this year was to play in the Master's one more time and I did that by playing well early in the season and got into the top ten on the money list, I guess, qualified me, and I wanted to play in the British Open one more time, play in one more Tour Championship and maybe a President's Cup and things like that, so as I've progressed this year, yes. I'm getting in more and more regular Tour events, qualifying for them for next year, so it's kind of hard to turn my back on it. I know that I have not won in a long time out here, but to contend and to have a chance to win out here is the ultimate to me to be able to compete with the best players in the world is something that I want to try to hang onto as long as I can.

Q. Fred, what do you attribute your good play to? You talked about at the end of last year and now, do you feel like you're playing some of your best golf?

FRED FUNK: Well, the end of last year was a change of a little bit of attitude I think, the chicken and the egg theory, whether you have a good attitude because you're playing good or do you have a good attitude and then you start playing good, but I went into the PGA last year, and a couple weeks prior to that, trying to enjoy my good shots and consciously trying to enjoy my good shots and forget the bad shots. It's hard to do because the game beats you up. I managed to do that, and then at Hazeltine last year was by far the most fun golf tournament I ever had in my life, with the relationship I had with the fans and the way they adopted me and I stayed in contention all week and getting paired with Tiger and the atmosphere he brings to a pairing anyway and to a tournament, it just catapulted from there and I followed up with a second at Sahalee.

I really played solid golf all the end of last year and then started off pretty solid the beginning of this year, not as solid as Jay, but playing pretty good, and then as it got closer to the President's Cup and I went over to Royal St. George's and I didn't have any comfort level at all with that golf course, and I really struggled the last four weeks until last week. The heat was on. I had to do something last week to even have a chance.

I think any of us that were on the bubble, we were all -- that was the foremost thing in our minds. We all wanted this so bad and sometimes you want something so bad you can't perform and I wanted it so bad and was able to perform well and I was pleased with that. Obviously I was putting really well at the end of last year and that's the number one thing you've got to do. I was hitting the ball solid, but once the putter came around it rewards you really well and makes up for some bad shots. That's the number one thing I think you've got to do out here to go from finishing 30th to having a chance at winning the golf tournament.

Q. Tim, I just wanted to ask, last week you were unsure of your status really for the rest of the year, and this obviously changes it. Can you tell us how you were approaching last week in terms of the health issues and how this has changed your thinking for the rest of the year?

TIM CLARK: Well, going into last week my plans were to play the best of the season or at least until I had my card secured, and then I was thinking of going in for some surgery on my wrist. Obviously now some doors have opened up and I've got quite a few things to play in coming up. I guess what's going to happen now is I'm going to play probably through the President's Cup and probably go and have it looked at after that. I'll take some time off obviously to recover, but I'm extremely excited to have all these opportunities. Like I said, I have been able to play and I should be healthy through December, so everything looks good with that.

Q. Can you give us the time line of what's gone on with your wrist going back to your youth and all the way through the injury you suffered?

TIM CLARK: In Hawaii, in 2000, at the Sony Open, I hit a shot and tore cartilage in my wrist, and that was the diagnosis. I had arthroscopic surgery and pretty much sat the whole of 2000 out. When I did come back to play I started, and really since then, I've always had pain in my wrist. It keeps coming back and coming back. A few weeks ago we pretty much found that I have a damaged tendon in there that keeps flaring up. I can go stretches of 12 weeks with it feeling fine. What I really want to do is kind of get rid of that altogether so I can play sort of pain-free and without having to take anti-inflammatories and all that stuff.

JAY HAAS: Which one is it so if we get paired I can bump up against it?

FRED FUNK: He didn't tell you.

Q. Jay, what were you planning to do that week?

JAY HAAS: I had no plans as of this time.

FRED FUNK: What, President's Cup week? Warburg Cup is the same week, isn't it? I think it's the same week and I guarantee he would have been picked.

Q. Jay, your expectations going into last year's event, Ryder Cup, and this year's event, President's Cup, what were they and what are they now? Did you talk with Jack at all about obviously there's been some speculation why you may have been picked, outside of the fact you're playing great, but the age factor and the experience. Could you talk about that?

JAY HAAS: There was really no conversation. I didn't speak to Jack prior to Sunday night about being picked or anything like that. He just stated he thought with Fred not having international experience and then there were three, I guess, Charles and Chris DiMarco and Jerry Kelly didn't have any, so now he thought there would be -- if he picked a fifth guy with no international experience -- that was his thinking anyway, and I've said a couple times, I don't know if that's overrated or not. I mean, experience is great if you perform, but that was one of his thoughts for picking me. He also told me I earned it and that made me feel really great.

One of my goals, again, was to -- I had different steps of goals this year, and one was to win a tournament. I haven't done that. Like I said, I wanted to get in the Master's, get in the top-30, things like that, things I hadn't done in a long time, but I figured why not shoot for those, and to be considered, like I said, for a pick, or to get into the President's Cup, was almost beyond my expectations.

As I've played this year, I've played fairly consistently and played some good rounds. I was disappointed with -- like Fred said, he didn't play well at the British Open, neither did I. I didn't have some good tournaments in different places, but overall it's been a really good year for me. In 2000 I finished 146th or something like that on the money list, and at age 43 -- so age 46 or 47, or whatever I was there, I was wondering is this it. I didn't feel like I was done but things were starting to go downward, and to come back to this point is pretty special for me.

Q. Have you talked to Bill at all?

JAY HAAS: My son, Bill, yes. I talked to him last night about his round yesterday, and he congratulated me and was real excited about it. When we play at home and he sees the way I play, and he still feels like I'm a decent player, yeah, he's thrilled for me. We're each our biggest fans.

Q. Tim, just one more thing about your wrist. When you're playing as well as you did last week, does it hurt less?

TIM CLARK: I can tell you it didn't hurt one bit last week. You know, when you're sort of under those conditions with that sort of pressure and adrenaline going, you don't feel a thing really. Like I said, it's been fine for quite a few weeks now.

Q. When you go into a tournament with the rough that heavy, is there a little anxiety there at the beginning?

TIM CLARK: A little bit. I am a bit careful. Like last week when I did miss fairways, I didn't try anything -- I didn't feel I could. I pitched out and took my medicine. That was possibly a good thing for me.

Q. I wanted to ask the international players, K. J. and Tim especially, you must have had at least a chance to look at the names on each team, how competitive you think these matches will be and how you feel about the strength of each side.

K. J. CHOI: Well, if you look at all the names on the other team, they're great players, and all parts of their game are just absolutely tremendous. Any of those players can win at any time. Rather than concern about how they're going to do, I'd like to focus more on how well I can do and how I can be able to perform at the President's Cup, and the remaining time that I have up until the President's Cup I'm going to do my very best to continue to work on the parts that I need to work on to bring it up to the level that I can perform at the top.

TIM CLARK: Obviously we're pretty much all golf fans ourselves, and growing up we'd watch Ryder Cups, and obviously the President's Cup has come back the last ten years or so, and just the names over the years that have been on these teams are so great, and you obviously realize that the U.S. team is filled with some of the best players in the world, but I think the international team, too, if you look at what the guys have done. There's quite a few major championships on both teams, I think the matches -- I think it's going to be a great match, and really regardless of who plays. The Ryder Cup, people said the standard of golf isn't going to be that high because the guys have been sort of waiting for this for a year, but it's always exciting when you get to match play. Obviously when you're representing countries, it means a lot, and guys put their hearts into it.

Q. It would seem last year or three years ago the President's Cup weren't very competitive two years before that, obviously the international side won. It seems that the team this year, three of the top six players in the world, is probably going to be the strongest side that the international side has ever presented. I'm just wondering, recently being named to the team haven't participated in conversations like this, but have you heard other members of the international team express the desire to make amends for this poor showing last time?

TIM CLARK: At the end of the day it's just another golf event, and if you lose -- well, I don't think it stays with you for the rest of your life. I think you brush it off. Obviously every time you show up you're going to try and perform your best and win your matches and play well for the whole event, but I don't think anyone goes home and sulks about it for three years. I don't think that's on their minds.

Q. On the other hand, Ernie has been very vocal about the importance of this to him. As a native South African, can you maybe comment on that?

TIM CLARK: I think it's important for us. We're a small country but I think the people are very proud of our sports and our achievements. Obviously golf is a big sport down there, particularly with having Gary Player and the golfing history and Ernie Els, everything he's doing, obviously Retief has played well the last few years, so there's a golfing history there and people do follow us and give us a lot of support. It's a great opportunity for people to come out and see the likes of the American players. We don't have the opportunity to see them play as much as we'd like to, and I think it's just going to be a great event with a lot of support. I think the rest of the world will be very surprised and pleased with how things go down there.

Q. A two-parter for Jay. Your first international competition was with Jack, and your latest. Talk about that. Also, for you and Fred, being a captain's choice, does that change your outlook for the event versus making a team? Do you feel you're brought in for your abilities but also the way you conduct yourselves and your positive attitude will rub off on your teammates and the followers of the competition?

JAY HAAS: I think Jack weighed that into his decision-making, also. I think that would be part of my job, to keep people up and maybe use some of my experience in past team matches to -- if I can or not, I think sometimes that's a little bit overrated, but I think everybody loves being around Fred. He's always up, and I think that's very important in a situation like this, and to have some camaraderie in there and to mold together as a team, you're only together for a short time, and it's unnatural for us to play team golf because we're out here for ourselves all the time, so I think for us that's very important for us to become a team in a short time.

As far as the first part with Jack being the captain in '83, as Tim said, at that stage I was 29 years old and grew up watching Jack Nicklaus, and for him to be coaching me and on pairings and things like that, that was just the thrill of a lifetime to be in that room. I don't know, a few weeks ago I was looking at a scrapbook or a photo album of that match, and we were dumping champagne on Jack Nicklaus' head after the matches, and who would have ever thought I could have been dumping champagne on Jack's head ever in my life. Just things like that -- maybe what I will tell -- I've told my son Bill when he got picked for the Walker Cup match and he played on a couple Palmer Cup teams, you don't forget those things. You might forget certain shots that you hit. You remember if you won or lost or things like that, but the things that have stuck with me over the years are things like that, certain things that somebody said or just the -- I don't know, like I said, the camaraderie of these matches, and also with the other team, too. We pour our guts out going around the golf course, and to win or lose is a pretty emotional experience. I'm kind of rambling there, but for Jack to be now the captain in 2003 and in 1983 was pretty unique. I wouldn't have thought that would happen 20 years ago.

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