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MAYAKOBA GOLF CLASSIC AT RIVIERA MAYA - CANCUN

February 22, 2007

Fred Funk

RIVIERA MAYA, MEXICO

Q. Besides your excellent karaoke skills, you can obviously play a little golf, with an 8-under 62 today?
FRED FUNK: (Singing) No, it's actually because of my lack of karaoke skills, I chose to play golf.

Q. How about some general comments on your round today?
FRED FUNK: It was a really solid putting round. Kept the ball in play really well. Hit some really nice irons, and I actually played some of the difficult holes really well today, which was obviously one reason I went so low.
I really only let one opportunity, one really golden opportunity go and that was on 13, the par 5. I played some -- yesterday I played in the Pro-Am and the wind was blowing pretty hard, and we're looking around thinking, there's not that many birdie holes out here. The tough holes were really tough into the wind, and we thought you had to take advantage of the four, five or six true birdie holes that are out there. And today it was kind of the other way around. I took advantage of some of those and birdied some of the hard ones.
It was a really solid round, I was real pleased overall. Hard to be displeased with a 62. I actually kind of forgot all the way -- I didn't realize for some reason that it was a par 70. I forgot. I was thinking all day it was a par 72. I guess I'm kind of glad I didn't think of that, or I would be even more frustrated when I messed up 13 from where I did.
So no bogeys a lot of birdies, eight birdies and a good, solid putting day. And our group got off to a great start. I think I was 4-under through six and Slu was 4-under through six and Calc was 3-under through six. We were just playing great golf. You look up at the leaderboard and it was our group on top, all three of us, and that was pretty neat to ride that wave. I kept it going, so it was really nice.

Q. Can you talk about your decision to play this week here or the Champions Tour?
FRED FUNK: I don't know how it unfolded in Naples. I did something that I haven't done before because I didn't have the opportunity to do it before. I didn't play real well last week at Riviera. I wasn't sure where I really wanted to go, whether I was going to go to the Champions Tour and have a guaranteed three rounds and work on my game. And I had already committed to this a long time ago, even before the season started I think.
I was a minute here and I had 20 minutes, it was quarter to 2:00 at home or 20 minutes to 2:00 at L.A. and by 5:00 East Coast time you had to make a decision to commit or not. So I called the TOUR and I committed. I called the tournament director immediately and told him at Naples that I had committed, but, I still didn't know where I was going. I was leaning on -- I didn't know which way I was leaning; I was confused.
So what I ended up doing, I ended up calling the tournament director here and I talked to Larson (Segerdahl - Tournament Director) and told him what I did and then I realized that they had been using me in a lot of promotions and stuff with a lot of other guys because a lot of veterans were coming here like Calc and Slu and me and Jesper and guys that play the regular tour all the time. They had used me in a lot of print media guides and stuff, so I had to honor my first commitment so I decided come down here.
I've had a lot of success in México in the past. I played in the Mexican Open; in 1993 I won the Mexican Open. I've always enjoyed it when I come down here, and I assume it's going to be really hot which made the decision really easier. I like hot weather. And my caddie came down here early and did the books and he liked the golf course, just didn't know how it was going to play. He didn't know if it was good for me or not. It's hard to tell how good a golf course is without playing the golf course and under certain conditions.
And we played it on Monday in the practice round and it played a little easier, the wind came yesterday in the Pro-Am and I thought it played pretty difficult. The wind was probably blowing another ten miles an hour. Anyways, it turned out to be a really good decision based on the first round.
The other is I've had some success on this paspala grass recently. They had it at Turtle Bay and Hawaii, and I just rolled the tables on those greens and I putted very good out here today. So I'm real pleased with the look of the greens, and I think Norman did a great job on the golf course. It's very demanding green complexes on these. You've got to be careful, you have to be precise with your irons and today I was. It was good.

Q. How important is it to you to stay competitive on both Tours?
FRED FUNK: The whole goal is to see how long I can stay competitive, and I've had my best years have been the last five or six years on TOUR. So the older I've gotten, the better I've played. I just want to see how long it can last. I have the luxury of being able to do both with the exemption of winning THE PLAYERS. It's a little confusing because there's a part of me that wants to -- because of the enjoyment I have on the Champions Tour. It's fun out there with those guys. I love the camaraderie we have out there.
And the game out here has changed quite a bit but I know on certain golf courses where it's a prerequisite to be hitting the ball well and hitting straight and hitting good iron shots, I can compete with these guys on those. It's just the bomb's-away golf courses; I've got to stay away from those type of courses.
So I've got to pick and choose a little more and I want to really play as long as I can on the regular tour as long as I'm competitive. So my game is going to really dictate where I go in the future.
I'll still play Champions Tour events. My focus is out here, but it's difficult to be focused, nobody has done both very well. Because if you have high goals on the regular tour, if your goals are really high, you dilute those goals by going out and playing on the other tour. If your goals are really high on the Champions Tour, you can't really win the Schwab Cup by not playing a full schedule out there. So you have to decide where you're going to go.
What I'm really enjoying and my wife, Sharon, and I have talked about it, and my caddie is going out and playing -- having the option to go out there, and really with the relaxed atmosphere they have out there, it's still very competitive, but it's a different atmosphere. Three rounds, no cut, it's just a different, fun atmosphere to do.
So it's neat to go out there and have a little -- little difference between the regular tour and the Champions Tour. I've enjoyed that difference.

Q. (About the experience so far.)
FRED FUNK: Mayakoba Resort is nice and the people have been great and the golf course -- really, the big thing is that you want a challenging golf course that's going to reward good play. That's what I'm looking for. One that's a little off, it's going to get you; and if you're really on, it's going to reward you. And this golf course is one that does that because of the way the greens are, the way that they are pretty severe around the greens.
And off the tee, if you drive it a little crooked and the wind gets up -- you can drive, what do you call the trees out there, mango trees (ph). So if you hit it off the golf course, you're done, and that happened to Calc today. He hit it left and ended up making a double-bogey out of that. You've got to be careful. If you don't carry it off the tee, it's going to cost you probably two shots.

Q. What time did you wake up today?
FRED FUNK: 5:15. It was early. That was an early tee time. Usually they don't start until like 7:15 or so. 6:40 was the first time, so you had to really get up early. But they are trying to get the 144-man field in, so they have to use all the daylight they have. I don't know if they will finish today or not. It will be close.

Q. Was it windy this morning?
FRED FUNK: You know, it might have been a little windier than it is now actually. It seemed to drop a little bit on the back nine. But it was fine, because when it's warm -- I don't mind getting up early when it's warm. It's like when you get up early in L.A. and it's 45 degrees and you're on the range trying to get loose and the damp cold goes right through you. Here it's already 75 degrees at 6:00 in the morning, so it was nice.

Q. (About back problem.)
FRED FUNK: Yeah, I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago. I don't know what I did to my back. I've never had back problems but I hurt my lower left back. It was really bad on Monday afternoon, and I just -- inaudible -- and today it was irritated and loosened up after about 14 or 15 holes today. It felt better and I was swinging a little more in control, and I think it helped my irons. I was starting to get a little pop in my driver again but I didn't have it early.

Q. Being that you won in '93, the Mexican Open, what would it mean to you to win again in México?
FRED FUNK: I've love to win this thing. It would be more important. It would be great the fact that it's in México and the fact that I've had success here.
But just a win on the TOUR, I don't care where it is, what level, which week, it's always special to win on the PGA TOUR. And it's only the first round, but that's everybody's goal coming in is to try to win the thing. I know I'm a good enough player when I'm playing good that I can get it going and play well, and I've done it before and I can do it again. I've just got to allow myself to do it; and feeling good about my game right now. If you asked me that two days ago, I probably wouldn't have said that. And with the way I felt, if I felt as bad as I did Monday afternoon, I probably wouldn't be here right now today. But the stretching has been a godsend to me.

Q. What are the most difficult holes?
FRED FUNK: There's quite a few par 4s, I think No. 3, No. 8 -- No. 8 is a really good hole. On the back, you have 12 and 14. 16 is a really good driving hole. It downwind, you pull it a little bit, they are going to run through, especially the long hitters. Even I can run it through if you can get it a little far left.
So there's some premium driving holes out here. You've got to hit a good drive, and then the greens set up, the green complex on 14 and 12 are really good. And 8 is where -- 8 is really a tough, tough hole. They moved it up a little bit playing it as a par 4, and we can make some big numbers on that hole. Even little holes -- I think 10 is a good hole, that's a par 3. It's funny how short two of the par 3s are, or three of the four par 3s are really short, but they are really good holes.
No. 7 and I think 15 is a great hole, you get that crosswind on the beach. I think that is the only green I missed today -- actually I missed 13 from 66 feet.

Q. Can you go through the birdies?
FRED FUNK: I birdied 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, and then 10, 12, that was a great birdie, and 18.
I hit a sand wedge into 1 about probably 15 feet left of the hole.
Hit a 4-iron into 3, six feet. I hit a 5-iron into -- no, I hit a 5 into 3. I hit a 5 again into 4, probably about ten feet, 12 feet.
6, I hit a little 9-iron in about five feet.
Hit a wedge on 7 to about three feet.
I hit a 6-iron on 10 to about six feet.
And 12, I hit a 4-iron to about 18 feet, 20 feet.
And then 18, I hit a 7-iron in to ten feet.

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