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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 9, 2007Fred FunkPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Fred Funk to the interview room. Fred the winner of the 2005 PLAYERS Championship and the Mayakoba Golf Classic. Talk about the golf course right now, here, and then we'll open it up for some questions if you don't mind. FRED FUNK: I'm sure you've heard from everybody, the biggest change is obviously the grass, in my opinion we're going from soft overseed to Bermuda. I think the fairways are the finest Bermuda fairways I've ever seen, or as good as they can get. The ball sits up. It's in beautiful condition. The greens -- and I had seen the greens the last month or so and they have gone from unputtable, super-heavy top dress to what are you doing, Fred Klauk, to perfect. They're really good. Fred Klauk definitely obviously knows what he's doing. Everybody has always known that. He's got to be the best superintendent in the country. They did a remarkable job on the golf course. It's in great shape. The other change, setup-wise, if you haven't already seen it, are the chipping areas around the greens. There are a lot of little roll-offs, and the chipping areas are more extensive. And it gives you a lot of options around the greens to pump it into the hill, putt it, flop it up, whatever you want to do. So it will create a lot of creativity by the players and imagination on how they're going to handle their chipping around the greens. And I think that's really good instead of just having the real thick rough right off the greens and hacking it out and hoping you can get up and down. Whether that makes it easier or harder, I'm not sure. I guess we're going to have to find out. The one problem with the chipping areas like that is that the ball will roll further away from the green. And some of the pins, when you get them tucked in the corners on some of these greens, and they're all perched up a little bit, it makes it that much harder to get it close. We'll see how that plays out. I like the idea because I think it creates a lot of imagination from the players and you see a lot of different varieties of shots. And it's better for the spectators to watch that and it's better to see how the guys are going to get up and down around these greens, because you're going to have to get up and down because they're not that big of targets. And obviously I feel you have to mention the clubhouse. That's the best clubhouse I've ever seen, bar none. Not that I've seen that many of them. But, man, that's one hell of a clubhouse. Q. Last week you didn't play Wachovia and you played on the Champions Tour. FRED FUNK: Yeah. Q. I'm assuming that's because Wachovia doesn't fit what you want to do and you get three rounds in at the Champions Tour and maybe not get three rounds in at Wachovia? FRED FUNK: With my history at the Wachovia, that's a fair statement, that I probably wouldn't have been there Saturday and Sunday. I felt, first of all, The Hills at Lakeway where they played the Champions Tour was all Bermuda and it was more similar to this golf course, instead of the overseed or whatever they had -- and the bentgrass they had up at Wachovia. And I'm not a big fan of Quail Hollow, I just -- I wouldn't have played it if there wasn't a Champions Tour event, just because it doesn't fit my game. I just don't -- I think it's about five holes from being a good golf course. But those five holes upset me (laughter). The other 13 are okay. Q. Sometimes they talk about when you have chipping areas, special things like that you have to make, in your own mind when you're practicing, you have to decide when you get to those situations if you're going to use the putter more or the wedge or whatever you're going to use. Is that the situation when you're in these different areas where you primarily use a certain club in your mind? FRED FUNK: I think you have to read the lie. You're going to have a grain issue, whether the grain is with you. I'll use an example. On the back right pin on 2 -- and I was playing with Jeff Quinney, and even when we were walking off the tee, there's one pin you can't go over the green here. And we got up there and he hit his second shot right over where I was telling him, right over the green. We got back there and that's actually a much bigger chipping area. It used to run down and go right in the edge of the rough or just barely short of the rough. And now it's a more extensive area. But we tried everything, rescue putts, with the putter or chipping it up there. And it seems like if the pin is really close to the fringe, percentage-wise you want to putt it. But it gets bumpy. It doesn't run real true through this Bermuda. It's just enough grain that it's hopping all over the place. And it's very inconsistent until it gets up on to the green, obviously. And it's not a gimme to just hit the putt up there and get it -- especially with the steepness of these slopes. So, yeah, you have to figure it out. You'll see a lot of guys putting it when the pins are tight and probably chipping it when you have a little more green to work with because you'll get a good lie most of the time, and that's the good thing. Q. Not being an agronomist, but is there something about the grass that allows them to create this chipping area that they couldn't have done it earlier? FRED FUNK: No, I think it's more a philosophy of how they set up the golf course. Q. It isn't that they couldn't get a mower to those areas? FRED FUNK: No, they could get a mower. I was shocked yesterday, I never noticed the couple of weeks before -- before I left for Lakeway last week, that big chipping area on the back of 6, and you look around left of 10 and right of 10 and every hole there's extensive -- right of 7 and back left of 7, there's some big areas where the ball will get off the green and run down the hill and get into the flat. They could have done that before. But it looks like they actually reworked a lot of the mounding in ways that makes the ball carom different ways and do things. So I think they did -- when they redid the greens, they redid some of the mounding. I'm pretty sure they did, because it's more noticeable now. It's closely mown instead of the high rough. I never noticed all the mounds to the right of 7. It's like a little mogul field to the right. You go around and look at all these little spots around the greens. Every hole has them, and it's pretty neat. Q. Secondly, with the rain we have today, and who knows, we may have it a lot this week, and we always used to make fun of March because it rained all the time. Would that be the worst thing if it rained this week, because now you have drainage? FRED FUNK: I think it's unfortunate. You look at that thing and it looks like a hurricane sitting out there. The irony of the whole thing, coming to May, we're expecting hot weather and good weather, and now we have March weather, just a little more muggy, I guess. It is unfortunate, but it will be a great test to see how these -- the new subsurface of the fairways handle it and how the SubAir system, which I know works, because we already have it at Augusta, they can make those things pretty firm, no matter what. So it will be a good test for the golf course and with all the work that they did to see if it really works. And it should. They have this much sand underneath the fairways, and you saw all the -- probably the film of the renovation, and it's pretty extensive and remarkable. Hopefully we won't get the rain. We need the rain for the fires -- the other irony, too, we need it for the fires, but we sure would like to wait four days, five days (laughter). Q. Just talking about yourself, what's your plan the rest of the year and going forward after that? Are you trying to balance both of these things? How long do you think you can do that? FRED FUNK: No. That I don't know, I don't know how long I can do it. Right now I'm planning on playing -- I probably won't play another Champions Tour event until the fall. I'm skipping all the majors except for the Senior Players because they fall against really nice tournaments I like. Like Colonial I love to play, which is opposite their PGA. And I think Congressional, Tiger's tournament, is opposite the Senior U.S. Open, and I'm going to skip those and play the regular TOUR because my goal is still to make -- nobody's talked about it, I would like to do well on the FedExCup, but I want to make The Presidents Cup team. Nobody has talked about The Presidents Cup. I saw Jack last night, and I said, "Nobody is talking about it," and he said, "Neither am I" (laughter). So, okay. What's that mean? He said, "We'll deal with it when we deal with it." Q. Does he know when it is? FRED FUNK: Does he know when it is? I think he does. He said he's going to a press conference up there with Gary at Royal Montreal. And they did one down at the Honda together. But not much has been said about it. And all the focus is on the FedExCup, and obviously this week with this new -- the new changes here. That's my goal. I want to see, again, how long I can last out here. And as long as I feel like I have the game where I can contend and win on certain golf courses, because I know I can't win on certain golf courses, you take Wachovia, I beat my head up against a cinder block wall or something. But if it's set up right and the conditions are right and the way I know I can play, as long as I'm healthy, I'm going to stay out here right now. Q. Does it hurt -- I don't mean hurt -- how different is it in the kind of setups they have in the Champions Tour and here? Does it take some getting used to to come back to the regular TOUR? FRED FUNK: No, it's not. I didn't think the course would be set up as difficult as they are out there. They're not -- they're not the 7,500, 7,600s we have out here. Unless the golf course is a naturally short golf course like Prairie Dunes or Oak Hills, we're playing at 7,000 to 7,200. That's plenty of length, and the courses are set up good. The only thing recently, and a lot of it has to do with where the golf course is, and the state of the Bermuda; we haven't had much rough out there. But when they have an opportunity to grow the rough, they have it. They don't have the pins tucked quite as close, and the greens aren't quite as fast. It's subtle little differences here and there. The biggest difference is they're just not top-to-bottom a guy can win. I think they're 15, 20 players deep. Every now and then the guy back there will pop up. The top guys are still really good, really competitive and they can shoot some good numbers. They're getting an influx of guys out there. The atmosphere is a lot more relaxed -- a lot more relaxed. The fact that you're not having a cut is a big difference. You can leave Sunday night instead of Friday night. So that's a nice comfort level for you when you're out there. But it feels like a sprint, compared to four days. It's amazing, three days versus four, it feels like a sprint. If you have one bad -- one bad round, you feel like you're out of it. Q. International would have been against the Senior Open this year if they hadn't left and AT&T had come in. Would you have played the Senior Open if it had been at International? FRED FUNK: Definitely. I always had kind of a running joke that I'm the only guy that hits it shorter in altitude (laughter). My ball just goes (indicating), everybody else's takes off in another gear. No, I wouldn't have played it. I loved International for the milkshakes. That was about it. I didn't have much success at the golf course. And the beauty out there was great. I'm sorry they lost it. Vickers had his heart in it. It was a beautiful venue, but it wasn't for me. I saw Herb Kohler last night and he said, "Why aren't you coming to my event?" He's an intimidating guy when he gets right in your face and says why aren't you coming to my event. He understood. He wants me to come. He said, "What can I do?" I said, "Nothing. You can't do anything." Yeah, I would have changed. That's a long answer for that question. Q. How is the back? How is it right now with your back? FRED FUNK: It's 80, 85 percent, so it's pretty good. That's been frustrating. That's been the most frustrating thing. I have had a good start to the year, but it's been a frustrating start because I haven't been able to play consistently special on a normal schedule. My normal schedule is not a normal schedule. But for me I usually play a lot. I tried to play through the Florida Swing and had to withdraw after trying to start them. But it's been frustrating, but it's getting better. Q. Is 80, 85 percent still going to be good enough for you to contend out here? FRED FUNK: Yeah, when it's not -- yeah, when it's not real stiff. I'm already tight enough in my swing. When I feel really loose and free flowing, that's when I play my best golf. When I have those days, that's usually when I'm playing well. And I don't have those days every day anymore. I've just got to really work at it. But, yeah, I think I can. We'll see. It's been kind of up in the air. I'll wake up some mornings and I'll get out on the range and I can't even move. I'm hoping that won't happen. I think I'm over the worst of it. I think it's pretty good. Q. Is it a disk? FRED FUNK: No, it's the SI (sacroiliac) joint on the left side. It keeps getting fired up. I tried resting it. I tried playing through it, that didn't work. I tried resting, that didn't work. Q. What's the SI joint? FRED FUNK: It's right on the left hip where -- don't ask me. Everything kind of connects right there from the hip and the low back and the spine, everything -- all the muscles and tendons kind of connect right there and it gets fired up. And when the muscles start grabbing, it pulls it and it makes one leg shorter than the other and makes the other side hurt. It's not a good thing. But it's not a disk, either. It's better that it's not -- Q. So no chance of surgery or anything like that? FRED FUNK: No, it's not a surgical thing, it's a muscular thing. That's a good thing. I had an MRI done and my back is fine, as far as the disk and all of that stuff. Q. Adam Scott said yesterday that you can't fake it here. FRED FUNK: Huh-uh. Q. In your words, what does that mean? And secondly, have you ever faked it and won a tournament or almost won a tournament faking it? FRED FUNK: Well, the first part of it, I think the way these green complexes are, which I kind of hate that term, green complexes, but the way the area around the greens, if you're missing a lot of greens you're not going to get up and down. If you're hitting it out of the rough a lot, you're not going to be able to score. And I think that's what he means by faking it. If you're not hitting it well, it's usually going to show up on this golf course and you're not going to be contending, and that's why I always feel if you look at the -- for one, this golf course has across-the-board-type games that have won. But the other, if you look back at the winners of the event, they had a pretty good ball-striking week. The year I won, I didn't know it until Nick Price told me at the Masters in the locker room. It's about time the guy that won the greens in regulation won a tournament. We see tournaments where the guys are hitting in the rough and getting up and down. It gets a little frustrating where you have a guy like me and Nick Price and other guys that try to control your golf ball but don't get rewarded when we're at certain golf courses. But this golf course you have to control your golf ball, so you can't fake it there. As far as me probably getting away with -- your putter can make up for a lot. At Mayakoba I putted the eyes out of it all week, especially on Sunday. I saved my butt all day long with pretty long par putts. Faking it is not hitting it that good; you probably aren't -- probably a guy like José Coceres played better than me tee to green, but I ended up getting it on the green. So when you say faking it, it's not like WWF, but -- (laughter). Q. You're a guy that gives a lot back to the Jacksonville community. Talk about the program that you have happening out here this week. FRED FUNK: Funk's Punks? Yeah, JT [Townsend]. Tommy Zitello, who is my neighbor over here, everybody thinks it's my house, I used to live four houses down from him. He started something where if you buy the T-shirts, the money or the shirts -- I think they're golf shirts like these, and they say Funk's Punks on them, and -- I forget the slogan for JT, I should remember that -- but the money for the shirts goes to JT and for his future medical needs and costs. And then we're having a big function at Bogey Grill on Friday night, 500 people, $50 each, we're going to have some sort of auction. And the money for that goes for JT for ongoing costs. And he's supposed to come out today if the weather is good about 2:30, 3:00 for Commissioner Deane Beman's distinguished -- what is it -- Lifetime Achievement Award. And then he's going to hopefully come out tomorrow, weather permitting, and the rest of the week, and follow me around. The only holes he can't get around is 4 and 5, because they don't have a cart path. He'll meet me on 7 or 8, and be able to go around in his wheelchair with that. It's really neat because JT is a very special guy. He's impacted me a lot and the people that have met him, people around here have met him. And he just has an attitude about him that's, considering what's happened, is just uplifting. And he's starting to get out and he's done a couple of talks now at some churches and at schools, and I think he's starting to see he can impact and wants to go out there and impact other people's lives with the way he's handling himself. That was my goal when the whole thing started was for him to have an opportunity. I took him to a Suns game two weeks ago, and it was so neat, everybody coming up to him. It seemed like everybody in the stadium that walked by, we were pretty close to one of the concession stands, and everybody came up to JT, and knew anything about him, great to see you out, how are you doing? JT lit up. He had a bunch of pretty girls come up and hug him. That was fun to watch. I'm living my life through him. I hang around with him as much as I can for that. He's a great kid. So it's a great cause and the community -- Jacksonville community really rallied, when we were raising that money for his house, and the house turned out great. It's phenomenal. It's a great story. Q. Speaking of pains in the back, do you have any stories with The Open coming up? FRED FUNK: It's hard. If you hear it once, you hear it five hundred times that we slowed the greens down for you guys. Why would you want to be a member of a course that has greens this fast and undulating? It becomes goofy when the greens are that severe and have the speed on them and they're so proud of them. I wouldn't be that -- I wouldn't look forward to going out there and playing that thing on a steady diet. I have to qualify for it this year, and I'm hoping to get in it, but at the same time it won't break my heart. Q. Any particular memory from there? FRED FUNK: I remember putting it off the green. I remember putting it off the green from 2, from just above the hole. I can't remember that much about the golf course. I was only there a couple of practice rounds and two rounds, the last time I was there (laughter). It was hot. I remember it was the week of the OJ slow chase. I remember that. That was the biggest thing. There you go. Q. You've been around long enough to have played under -- been associated with two commissioners. With everything that's been done around here, what are your thoughts on what Deane Beman envisioned for this course and this tournament, and how close do you think what we have now is a realization of what Deane thought would happen? FRED FUNK: I think Deane just bringing the TOUR here to start with, with that vision. And then having a venue, a permanent venue for THE PLAYERS Championship, is a great dream that's become a reality, obviously. They've always wanted to step it up, step it up, step it up. It was funny last night at the -- or the irony of Nicklaus' talk last night was he said all the way back from the very beginning how it was Deane's dream to do it. During his victory speech, he said, we just want to grow this tournament to the highest standard that it can possibly be, back in 1974, was that the first year? And he said, well, we're well on our way. It's funny that -- you hear that and then see where we're going and where we've gotten. I feel now with what they've provided with everything, I mean just the entire -- the golf course improvements, the clubhouse improvements, the fan, spectator improvements, the video screens, just the total experience that everybody is going to have here, from a player to a spectator to a volunteer to the television, it's just -- it's going to step up to a level it's never had before. And plus the place where it is on the schedule. That was huge, I think. Having separated from Augusta was big, in my opinion, to allow it to get to the level that they keep dreaming of it to be. And that's a major, maybe a fifth major. But if it's never really becomes a fifth major, I think it will always be looked upon as the fifth best tournament on TOUR. Maybe the best tournament on TOUR that's not a major, that's the way you would have to look at it. Q. Do you think that with some of the other players that got to do The Masters first this year, The Masters before THE PLAYERS, do you think that helps them prepare better? Do you think they're better prepared for this week? FRED FUNK: Yeah, I think so. I think it's a little breather for them. They've had a little time to decompress from Augusta and regroup and get ready for this one. So, yeah, it allows a little more time span -- a little more space between tournaments for the guys to slow down a little bit and kick it back into gear, for the guys that do it that way, the way Phil and Tiger -- and Vijay plays every week, he doesn't slow down, so you can't say him. You get your top players that work their schedules that way, it gave them an opportunity to prepare better, I think. I think focus better is more of the -- more than practice, it's just their focus is, okay, I've got The Masters here, that's its own entity now, and you have THE PLAYERS here, it's its own, and all the other ones will be that way, too. It's a good thing to separate them the way they have. Q. You're No. 1 in driving, actually, on the TOUR, even though you've only played 22 rounds. And you're in the top 10 in scrambling. Does the way this course is set up now favor you more than the way the course was set up before? FRED FUNK: I would think it would be, but we'll have to wait and see. I think the game -- the only thing I'm concerned about with my game and guys that are a little shorter hitters are the firmness of the greens, because I think if they get really firm, you're going to have to bring the ball in a little higher or a little softer, some way to get the ball to stop. If we're coming in with a little longer clubs and these greens aren't big targets to start with, and on top of that with all the slopes and where they put the pins, it's hard to get that into that little area; we'll have to see. If it's really running hard and fast and I get down there with an 8- and 9-iron on some of those holes and other guys are hitting wedges, I can compete with that. But you have 8 and 9, and I'm back there with a 6 and 5, I can't stop that. I can't stop the ball. I really need to have my short game working, and that's where we'll see if that's going to be an issue of faking it or making it. I think the -- it would be interesting to look at all the stats and at the end of this week look at all the stats of the guys that are the top 15, 20, how they stood in ball-striking. You're always going to have a guy that has a great up-and-down week, that's always going to happen, or a couple of guys. But usually on a golf course that's really set up good and designed really well, it's going to reward a guy that's really hitting the ball supreme off the tee and into the greens, mainly your shots into the greens, your approaches. You're going to have to hit a lot of greens here to win the tournament, I think. I just can't see you getting up and down a lot out here as tight as the pins get. At least enough to win. End of FastScripts |
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