WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 25, 2002

Fred Funk

GORDON SIMPSON: Congratulations, it's been a great fortnight for you. And you said the putter could be very crucial at the end of the year.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, looked like it was a $150,000 putt. I don't know. It was great, especially after Robert made that great chip, which was unbelievable he hit that close from where he was. That was a great shot.

GORDON SIMPSON: Craig Parry played exceptionally well this last couple of days.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, I played with him the last few days, and he literally put on a clinic. I've never seen him hit it this solid. And he just made all the crucial putts he had to make. And he had a couple of par saves on the front that were big, and then he hit some great shots and made the birdies there.

And then the back nine, he just played really solid. I think everybody's thought was -- well, I think at least for me, was he obviously had to get by 17, and that was the one disaster hole you could have, that a guy could make a big number coming in. And he made a great sand save there. Although he already had a big lead at that point. I thought if I could narrow the gap, if we could get to 17 and make him think about it a little more.

But at the same time, I was kind of thinking about what I needed to do and just finish real strong. I made some great par saves coming in, and a great birdie putt on 15, and 18, a good 2-putt on 17. I'm real pleased overall. I played really good. If you asked me to shoot 68 before I started or four 68's before I started on this golf course, I would have taken that in a heartbeat and not complained. I'm real pleased overall.

Q. Is it any less frustrating, two weeks in a row you're chasing a guy that's basically uncatchable on Sunday?

FRED FUNK: That's the nature of the game, and it does take a little bit of luck to win. I might have played good enough to win at quite a few tournaments in the past, and possibly did play good enough to win this tournament, I think I did, but Craig definitely played good enough to win this golf tournament. He took it. He deserves to win. And there was no doubting anything of his will to win this thing this week. It was fabulous to watch, it really was.

Q. Were you going at the pin on No. 2 early, trying to be aggressive or did it get away from you?

FRED FUNK: No, I was not going at the pin, but I felt like I was lined up a little right, and I didn't back off. And then I came out of it a little more, and I couldn't fly it. It was a 4-wood, and I knew it was in the water when I saw the line that it was on. So, yeah, that was a little disappointing. That was a two-shot swing there, or potential two-shot swing. But that's the way it goes. I hit a good drive and was trying to stay aggressive. It was the play. I just hit the wrong shot. No question. I should have hit it over where Craig was.

Actually, I didn't think it was -- I thought it was a worse mounding over there. Craig actually had a pretty easy up-and-down from pin-high left on the fringe. And I thought it was more of a big slope. Because a lot of times you get on pin-high, and you get on the wrong side of the slope, and you have a 30-foot putt with a 50-foot break. It gets to be a lot, almost impossible to get close.

Q. Three seconds in the last month and a half plus the PGA, what's been the key during this run?

FRED FUNK: I've just scored really well. And in fact, this week -- today was the first day I hit it a little bit better. I hate to say that I wasn't hitting the ball very good this week, but I really struggled with my game until today. I hit some quality shots today. I was really searching for quality shots the middle two days. Friday and Saturday's round was a real struggle. Yesterday it felt like I had to fight over every shot I had. Nothing was coming easy.

I worked on a setup that I got from my teacher on the phone last night, before I went to the range, and was just trying to find my -- what feels like an athletic setup. I got away from being athletic over the ball and being in a position where you could hit the golf ball and make a swing at it. I got real tentative, and kind of real upright and I didn't have any motion or fluidity to my swing.

Q. You mentioned that last putt. Were you talking about for the future Tour championship or what? What were you thinking?

FRED FUNK: Well, yeah. That pretty much locked me in for that, I'm sure. Now I can go for the other goal of -- I had a realistic goal, always my goal realistically is to finish top-30. I don't expect to finish top 10 very often or ever. I did finish top 15 one year. If I can get top 20, that exempts you for all the Majors. It gets you in the British. You have to be top 20 for that. And I wanted to get to that two million and one year milestone, and I'm not quite there yet, but within reach now. And it feels good.

It's been a nice run, and it gets me some world ranking points, which I desperately needed. They're putting so much emphasis being top 50 in the world. I'm banging my head against the wall playing so many tournaments. It's hard to move up. So I'm not going to back down on how many tournaments I played. So I've got to fight the system a little bit.

Q. What's next for you?

FRED FUNK: I'm playing in Vancouver next week. I promised the guys I would go up there, and hopefully they can find a sponsor and save that tournament. I told them I'd do anything I can to -- what little power I have over anything, but meet with them and try to sell the British Columbia area as a great venue. But I'm going up there and take two weeks off and go over to Ireland, which is -- everything has been kind of a great little run here. I got in this by 200ths of a point, I turned it into second place. And I get a boat load of points for that, and money. And then I get into the Ireland thing.

So I've got two World Golf Championship events, where I didn't think I was going to get any. And it kind of made up for missing the three majors I missed early in the year.

Q. The North View Course, where the Air Canada is being played, is a little more open than this, being a very tight course. Do you think of yourself playing now as going in as one of the favorites?

FRED FUNK: I think I could be one of the favorites, for sure. I finished second there, a missed cut and a third. So it's been feast or famine there in the three years I've played. But it's a good golf course, and it's more of a big-hitters course, but you have to stay out of the rough. They have a really serious rough up there. And you've got a ball-control type of golf course. If I keep playing like this, it would be great.

I've just got to get a couple of days rest in, and I'm finding that it takes a lot more out of you by being in the hunt every week. I don't know how Tiger -- I know how Tiger does it. He does it on pure talent. But it's tough on your nerves, because every shot means something. And there's a big dollar amount there with each putt. And you make a little boo-boo and you kind of put that on the back burner and say, "Go out there and play and add it up." And if you can do that, it's great. But definitely more stress.

Q. Is there a trend now, first Rich Beem last week, and Craig Parry this week gets a driver on 18, where all he has to do is play it safe, playing more aggressive on the Tour?

FRED FUNK: I was surprised Craig did that, being he's a left-to-right player, and you've got that big tree sitting there left of the green. And my caddy said, "I don't like this play," and I said, "He can, he hasn't made a boo-boo. He hasn't made any mistakes." He was hitting so solid, and he striped it right up there. He didn't need to do it, obviously. But it turned out to be a wonderful play for him and the tournament was pretty much over anyway. But it was definitely over on that shot.

Q. What did you tell him after he made that sand save? You were walking off together. You shook his hand.

FRED FUNK: He made the sand out of the bunker. I said great putt. I was just kind of rooting him on. I always like -- I'm always like that. A guy hits a great shot or makes a great putt, I'm going to tell him "Great shot," "Great putt." And Craig and I are pretty good buddies. We go back a long way. And he treated me like a regular native of Australia when I went over to the match play. He was just a great guy, a real true friend of mine.

So it was great to see him win this thing. It meant a lot to him, big time. It meant a lot to anybody to win this thing, but that was huge for Craig.

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