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TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIPJune 23, 2007Fred FunkCROMWELL, CONNECTICUT JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Fred, great round today, you're 8 under par. It looks like you're in a good position going into the last day. FRED FUNK: The satisfying thing is that I was out of position after six holes and now I'm back in it after the -- or six holes today, and after the round I'm back in. I fought my way back with five birdies of the last 10 and played really well. I've been hitting the ball pretty good. The putter hasn't been all that great and then it started clicking there at the end. You're only as good as that putt stick. So when the putt stick is working, it's a lot better. So it rewarded me coming in, and it was a little bit of a struggle early with it, but I'm real pleased with the way it ended up today. Q. How do you decide which tour to play? FRED FUNK: I get that he every week. I am committed out here full time. I'll just pick and choose the ones out there. Early in the year I played Royal Hawaiian and Turtle Bay and then I threw one in win Ginn tournament in at Palm Coast, that was a new tournament near home, and I play one other one somewhere. I don't know where the other one was. Good memory. I'm going to play two or three more at the end of the year. But I have found it's difficult, and every has said it, no one has ever really played both tours well when you bounce back and forth. Because if you have certain goals you really can't achieve -- if you have high goals, you can't achieve those goals if you're splitting your time. So it's difficult. I do really enjoy the Champions Tour, but right now my mindset is to stay out here for who knows how long. I can play out here until 56 or 57 if I wanted. I don't know if I will or not. If physically I'm okay, I might stay out here that long. Q. (Question about Champions Tour)? FRED FUNK: I have an attitude I've played my whole life and fought my whole life to get on the PGA Tour, and when I finally made it I was late, a 32-year-old rookie at the time. I still love what I do out here. I love being with the competition that's out here and putting myself up against that. I just don't want to leave it until it tells me to leave it. If I'm not competitive, I'll walk away really quick, but right now I still feel like I'm competitive. And that's the bottom line. If I'm knocking my head against the wall and missing a ton of cuts and finishing way back on the money list, yes, I'll leave in a heartbeat. But until my game tells me to leave, I'm not going to go. Actually Jack Nicklaus told me at the Presidents Cup, the last time we were at a Manassas, he asked me what I was going to do and I didn't know. He said you'll know. I said, what do you mean you'll know. He said when you're not competitive, you're not reaching your goals. I said that's a good way to look at it. I have certain goals, and if I start falling way short of those goals I'll move on. Q. Is money secondary now at the this stage of your career? FRED FUNK: I think I could honestly make a lot of money out on the Champions Tour and probably make 1.5 or 2 million or somewhere around there, be one of the top players there. But I feel like I can do that out here, so money is not that big of a draw at this point, as long as I'm competitive. It will be if I'm not competitive. Like I said, if I'm just barely missing cuts or missing a lot of cuts, and all of a sudden I've got mega expenses and not making any money out here, then I'll move over. It's nice to have options. Funny how life is totally backwards. When I won THE PLAYERS Championship it screwed everything up. I was planning on just moving right on over. Q. Are you playing well and contending enough to achieve one of your goals or do you have to win out here? FRED FUNK: I want to put myself in position to win. And I did do that earlier this year. That's the biggest thing. I feel like if I'm still competitive enough to put myself in position to win, that's great. If I happen to blow through that door and it opens up for me and I end up winning one, because you can put yourself in position a ton and not win, but putting yourself in contention, if I can continue to do that, that would be great. Q. 18 has been a little rough? FRED FUNK: Yesterday I was really upset. I actually hit a good putt yesterday but I misread it entirely. And then I had a brutal putt just a while ago. I hit a bad second shot. It was actually a pretty good chip to put it that close but I was on the wrong side of the hole. It always feels better to make something on your last putt, that's for sure. So it was a more satisfying day. Q. When you made that putt on 17? FRED FUNK: There's no way that putt missed. The fact that it still didn't go in. I don't know how it didn't go in. It did everything but go in. It was impossible to miss the hole from the line it was on. It's the lumpy doughnut theory. It keeps breaking and breaking, but then it just stopped breaking right there. You've heard of the lumpy doughnut, no? A lot of people go and get a lumpy doughnut. Q. Do you think 11-under is going to win? FRED FUNK: I don't know if the forecast is still for the wind or not. If you get a calm day out here you're going to have to go low. If you get a day like today you can get really rewarded. 64 or 65 is out there. You have to play really well to do it, but if you're coming from behind to beat D.T. or Jay or whoever is up there at 11, you're going to need a low number. Q. People have the impression it is kind of a bombers tour. Talk about that a little bit, if you agree with that. If you really pick your spots there are places you can come and -- FRED FUNK: Absolutely. There are a mixture of golf courses. Thank goodness. Right now the guys who hit it long are really long, and it's unbelievable how far they hit it. I love being paired with them just to watch them. I can't do it. But the ball is in the air, and it just doesn't come down. But you get courses that are like this one, it's a position golf course. I guess it is a position golf course. It's a total mix on the leaderboard, and to me, that's a sign of a good golf course. I've said that before to a lot of guys, if you look at the Top 20 or 25 finishers at the end of the week and you have total diversity in the type of player, I think you have a really good golf course. I like to see that, and those are the courses you need to go to, or I need to go to. Q. Are you having as much fun out here as it looks like you're having? FRED FUNK: When I'm healthy, when I feel good, yes. I wasn't having any fun there in March, after Cancun -- during Cancun -- I won Cancun, but that's when my back went out, on Saturday in that tournament. I tried to play through it. I tried to play Honda, withdrew; Innisbrook withdrew, Bay Hill, I just couldn't hit a golf ball anymore. I was hitting it short and crooked. That's a really bad combination. It was not good. So I was having just no fun at all. Just in the last week, two weeks or so, my back has started feeling good. I got on this flexibility program, stretching program this guy at home put me on, and it's made all the difference. I'm turning the corner. It's not all the way back, but it's getting better. So now I feel I can go out there and get the club in position where it's just a little more efficient and easier for me to swing. I couldn't even put the club -- I was trying to generate speed and it was impossible. Now I can just swing smooth and I have enough speed to hit the ball solid. It was frustrating. So yes, I do have fun, to answer your question, when things are -- that's my whole goal out there, when my attitude is good that's when I play my best. At Hazeltine, the year I got adopted by the crowd at the PGA, that was an intentional totally flip my attitude. A total 180. Most golfers when they hit a good shot there is no reaction at all. It's like yes, it was perfect, leave me alone. And when they hit a bad shot they're throwing clubs and cussing and moaning. And I said I'm going to do the opposite. When I hit a bad shot, I'm not going to react. And when I hit a good shot I'm going to be positive and give myself accolades and pump myself up and react to the crowd and do what I needed to do, and it worked. I couldn't wait to get to the golf course every day. And that's the mode I like to be in. I'm just getting back in that mode again, where I can't wait to get back to the golf course and go play. If I play good, great; if I don't, move on. I look at every day and every hole and every shot as an opportunity. That's what I did with my putting the last two days, because you get to where you're not putting well and it becomes like you're just dreading being on the green, now what's going to happen. No matter what happens, it's an opportunity. When I three-putted 6, I walked off happy because I discovered something. I found something when I missed that second putt. I knew what I did and I knew what I needed to do and it completely flipped my -- it validated my attitude, because I said I'm going to learn something no matter what on every shot. Take it as a learning experience. That's what I'm trying to do. Q. What did you do? FRED FUNK: I relaxed. I was real worried about where my feet were. I was trying to get square, I was trying to get wide, I was trying to get my weight just right on my heels and toes. I'm trying to feel it. Instead I said, just worry about where the blade is and don't worry about anything else, and all of a sudden it just freedom me up. It's simple. It's always something simple. Q. How do you rate the 15th hole? FRED FUNK: That's a tough hole. So much can happen there. You can make six, you can make two. Q. Stewart Cink made a 10 today. FRED FUNK: Of all people. I could see Daly making a 10. It's a great short hole. The irony of a lot of stuff is that usually when people talk about the great holes that we play in golf course, they're usually short holes like 10 at Riviera or shorter Par 3s, or the risk-reward short par 4s. It's very seldom, that 500-yard par 4, that's an awesome hole, or that 300-yard par 3 that we had last week was a great hole. You don't talk about those. They're like gimmick holes. 14 at Muirfield, that's a great short hole. Anything can happen there. The 12th hole at Augusta, great short par 3. It's not long, but you can make anything on it. And the two par 5s at Augusta, 13 and 15, when they're risk-reward holes those are fun. They are fun to watch, fun to play, they'll piss you up, they'll reward you. They'll do everything. That's golf. You can't have all the holes like that, but it's neat when you have a hole -- 15 here, and 16, 17, 18, coming in, that's a great finishing stretch. Q. (No microphone.) FRED FUNK: I wouldn't say it's the best hole. It's a good short hole. I think this golf course is loaded with great golf holes. There's not a bad hole on the golf course. To me, it's the best re-do I've ever seen, and because I'm a huge fan of TPC Sawgrass, it's the second best TPC. I would probably rather play this one every day. I would definitely rather play this one every day than the TPC at Sawgrass every day. This one is a little more of fun. Q. Is the President Cup one of your goals? FRED FUNK: That was a big goal earlier in the year, and really my primary goal. I really want to make that team. And then I put myself way behind the eight ball so I need to do some big catching up. That was a big goal of mine. Nobody is even talking about it. I even saw Jack at TPC and I said nobody is talking about the President Cup. He said, I'm not either. Somebody has got to talk about it. Everyone is talking about the FedEx and everything else. That's a big goal of mine. It's just so fun to represent the country and be a part of the national team like that. It's more than anyone could ever -- my experience with those teams that I've been on was the highlight of my career. That was great. Even the beating we took at the Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills, it was still fun. End of FastScripts |
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