|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
AT&T NATIONALJuly 4, 2007Fred FunkBETHESDA, MARYLAND NELSON SILVERIO: Good to be back in the hometown area as usual. Have you had a chance to play Congressional today? FRED FUNK: I haven't. I kind of stayed away. I went up and played a practice round at Five Farms on Monday and yesterday I had a clinic for the USO at Woodmont and I just went TO Avenal and practiced a little bit to get away from the circus a little bit. Today is my Pro-Am day. I came here for U.S. Open qualifying at Woodmont a few weeks ago and played here on Saturday. That's such a great golf course and I heard the rough is really up since I was here. It will be interesting to see how it's set up and how the greens are receiving shots right now and the speed, but that's the purpose of today for me. I usually use the Wednesday Pro-Am as my practice round and make sure my amateur partners have a good time. That's my two goals. So we'll do that. Q. What is it that makes this place so special in terms of the golf course? Why is it so unique? FRED FUNK: Because it's good. It's just a really good, traditional golf course and carries a lot of respect from all of the players that have ever been here. And then word gets around how good it is to the guys that haven't been here. You know, my opinion, if you through Congressional in the schedule and probably any date where the weather is going to be decent -- and you can't throw it in January, February. But you throw it in our schedule when the weather is going to be good, the guys are going to show up. But to actually have it on July 4 weekend, the nation's capitol and all of the things together and throw in Tiger as the host, that's pretty big. It did come back with a bang. I was really upset like everybody was when D.C. lost their tournament, and they couldn't work it out with Booz Allen. To me, we've had such a great support of the town in golf, the tournament has always been well supported, a lot of fans have come out, and then we lose it. That just didn't make sense that we were not in the capitol. But we came back. Finchem said we would be back, and he made his promise good. Obviously it took some different scenarios to make that happen but it all worked out. Q. Can I follow-up and just ask, Avenal has gotten dreadful reviews over the years. Tell me what the players don't like about the place, and could this thing go back there? FRED FUNK: Yeah, I think it could. First of all let me answer the first part. We were playing Congressional at the old Kemper Open, and no matter where we went, it was stuck behind the 8-ball. This was no way any golf course in this area was going to at that time compete with the tradition that Congressional has, and just the quality of this golf course and what everybody loves. Then we went over there and played a little too early when we first opened it, really was not ready and Norman blasted Avenal, and it got behind even worse in respect with the players because he blasted. And then, you know we leave a great golf course and we go to a TPC; that was a little different. It had the same grounds, it had the same rolling hills and everything and the trees, but it had nothing that even made a similarity to Congressional. So guys didn't like it. It got better as the years went on. And now I think in part B of that question, I've been somewhat involved with the re-do of Avenel, and I think if they do a really good job, as far as making it look like it's a finished product, and I said the biggest thing, the routing, the new holes they are going to have are going to be really good. I think it will be well received but it has to be done at the top level. When you go down to Muirfield Village and you go see the streams that are through the golf course, it looks like it's real well man cured and not over grown. That's a lot of attention to detail, and Avenel never had quite that look. You go through those holes on the back nine, and it just looked like it was never manicured or taken care of, and it was just overgrown and every now and then you would hit it with a weed whacker. I said: You have to make it look good and really present the best product. Even the off areas of where you don't play, where you hope the ball doesn't go, but the areas outside the playing part of the golf course make that look good. I think it could be a really good golf course, but it still is not ever going to be a Congressional. So I don't know what's going to happen in the future if the members don't want this tournament year-in and year-out, and where they are going to go. So we'll see what happens. But it's great to be back and focusing on the positive right now with what we've got. Q. Have you told Tiger that about Avenal? Have you mentioned to him that it could be good? FRED FUNK: No, I haven't. I haven't had a chance to really talk to Tiger. Yesterday I just congratulated him on the baby and being a daddy and all that. No, I didn't. Very seldom do I have an in-depth conversations with Tiger. (Laughter) Q. Can you talk about playing the best golf of your life at 51? FRED FUNK: Well, I don't know about -- the last -- since I turned 45 or 46, I've been playing the best. And I look back and I just really wonder why because I really think that's -- when I really started playing well or moving up on the Money List, is with the game changed, is when the technology, the ball started going a little further, the drivers got bigger and guys started hitting it miles. And I didn't get any benefit or very little benefit from the technology and yet I've been playing a lot better. So I had not quite figured that out. I'm not going to try to figure it out. I'll just go out and keep playing. I always to this day still feel that I have a lot of room for improvement in different parts of my game and in my mental game, and I think that's probably the difference has matured to where I really feel like a belong out here, and I know that I'm playing well and I'm playing good enough to win at certain venues. There are certain venues that I sit there and I go around and I say, "Why the heck am I here? This doesn't make sense." But it's good. And my goal is still to see how long I can stay competitive on the regular TOUR and that's why my focus is to stay out here because I know that question is going to be coming I think. Q. To follow up with that, most of your peers on the Champions Tour say there's very little doubt that when you do that full-time, your game is set to dominate and win a lot of championships on that tour. FRED FUNK: Well, I feel like I could win a lot out there. The difference out there is it's just not as deep. The guys at the top are really good players. The golf courses are set up a little different. They are not a big difference believe it or not. Every now and then, we were playing 7,000- and 7,200-yard golf courses, and a lot of people think we are playing 6,400- and 6,500-yard courses that's not the case. I look at the fields we are playing out here, whether it's 144 or 156, or this week, 120 in the field; the guy 120th in the field can win the tournament. And you can't say that on the Champions Tour that the 82nd guy is going to win. They are 12, 15 guys deep at most. You know, that really compete week-in and week-out. Every now and then another guy will pop up. But the true stars of the Tour, and it's getting better and better. Obviously we've got an influx of new talent coming out there. I'm just going to stay out here as long as I can and I have pretty big goals, lofty goals out here that I still want to achieve and see how long I can do it. Q. Here comes that question. Last year when you were here, you said you were struggling about where you really belong. When you won earlier this year, did that confuse you more or when you're playing not as well, does that make you wonder where you belong? FRED FUNK: Earlier this year when I won at Mayakoba, which is opposite the Match Play; "What are you going to do now" type deal. "Well, I'm just going to stay out here. That's my goal." I asked Jack Nicklaus -- actually he asked me what I was going to do when we were are the RTJ for the Presidents Cup. And I was taken aback by that a little bit because I didn't know exactly what he meant at first and I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "What are you going to do as far as playing? Where are you going to play"? I said, "What do you think?" He said, "You'll know." I said, "What do you mean, 'you'll know'"? He says, "You'll know. Whatever goals you set for yourself, you're going to know when you're not able to reach those goals; it will be time to move on." I said, "That's a good way to look at it." So from that point on, it really clarified where I needed to be. "The Champions Tour will be there; stay on the regular TOUR as long as you can." And for me, I've worked so hard my whole life to get -- I got out on the TOUR late. I was 32 when I was a rookie and I've worked so hard to be on the PGA TOUR that I don't want to leave it until I have to. I have the luxury now at this stage of my career, which is something I would never have dreamed of even four years ago to have the ability and the -- the ability that I have, and No. 2, is to have the options that I have to go back and forth. So it's a nice luxury to have. I can play until 56, 57 out here if I want to. I don't think I'll last quite that long, but we'll see. Q. Just to follow up, I don't know if anybody told you about comments that Nick Faldo made on the broadcast a couple of weeks ago where he said he was envious of you. FRED FUNK: No, I haven't heard that. Q. That you're at 51 still really competitive, and here is a guy who is one of the great players of his generation talking about that. FRED FUNK: Well, it's a mind-set. To me if you're healthy, and that's a big issue that I've found out this year with my back issues earlier in the year, that was a real struggle. To me, if you're healthy and you're focused and you're motivated, there's no stopping you. Age is not that big of a factor. If you've had success in the past, at some point you're going to have diminishing returns obviously with age catching up. But I can still play. I look at Bernhard Langer is playing phenomenal golf right now. Jay Haas played great golf when he got rededicated to the game. He kind of dropped off there in the mid to late 40s, and when Billy Haas was eligible to play on the TOUR and he was getting ready for the Champions Tour, with the opportunity to play with his son, he re-upped his motivation and he started playing great again. Nick saying that, he doesn't want to work at it as hard anymore. He's been there, done that. For me, I'm still hungry to do it. That's the biggest difference I think. Q. What are the goals? FRED FUNK: Well, I want to make the Presidents Cup team, and the FedExCup is just something that as it unfolds we'll see where I am. I think everybody's kind of feeling that way with that. Wait and see where they are when they get positioned for the playoff system and see what happens. But for me I really want to make the teams. The thrill of my career was being a part of the U.S. squad and representing the country. It's so different and so much of an honor to be a part of the team. Whether we got slaughtered or not in the Ryder Cup, still being a part of that team was the thrill of my life and the two Presidents Cups experiences were great. Q. Are you surprised by how got field is here? And also, how much -- you talk about some of the various factors that go into getting people here, how much do you think is it because it's Tiger's tournament? FRED FUNK: I think it's more Congressional than it is Tiger. Yeah, Tiger he has the pull -- he'll probably get mad at me for saying that; "What do you mean, it's all me!" I think it's Congressional and the date, but more Congressional. I don't even think the date -- it's a good time. It's giving players like he and Phil a chance to have a week off before the major or play into the major, whichever they want to decide. It's worked out perfect. Everything just fell right into place like dominos. I think it would have been a ridiculously strong field even if, you know, anyone was a host or no host and you just had AT&T. It's the golf course that did it. Q. So is this kind of what you expected when this tournament was announced? FRED FUNK: Oh, absolutely. Just because we're coming back to the nation's capitol and we're coming back to Congressional is phenomenal. In a way I hate saying that because the thing is, it's true. But I don't want to ever want to make a slam towards Avenal because I think Avenel can be a really good golf course and hopefully gain some respect from the players when it turns around; and if we do go back there and we turn around and we have to go back there every now and then. I'm hope that it will still hold its respect or gain some respect from the players and hold the field to a quality that it needs to be or would like to be. Q. Do you have a favorite hole here at Congressional? FRED FUNK: Boy, 19th. (Laughter). All the holes are great. It's just a really good golf course. I think 17 -- 18 now, the old 17th, that's just a great-looking hole. It's just so pretty. It looked like to me it always have been the 18th hole, the finishing hole. I really like that. I think the whole back nine is really special. The ninth hole is a brutal par 5. I think it's a really good one. You have to hit two really good shots to just get in position to hit the third shot on to the green. It's tough and then you've got -- and No. 10 is a brutal par 4, playing it at a par 4,6 playing it as a par 4, especially with Tiger's suggestion of backing it to 518; he knows I can't reach it. He told me that in the locker room. He said, "You're going to need more ammo than that this week." I was holding my driver in my hand. (Laughter). Q. What do you think of 10? FRED FUNK: The problem I have with 10 is that the green is really not designed for the length of shot that most guys have got to hit into it. It's just a tough, tough hole. You've got a lot of undulations on that green and it's important to be -- there's nowhere to miss it. You mitts it left and you can't get up-and-down; you miss it right, you're dropping. So the only place to really miss that green is short. For me that's probably where I miss it because I probably can't reach it anyway. Q. Short in the water? The par 3 -- FRED FUNK: Oh, I'm sorry. The new hole is unbelievable. And to have that to start your round one day, you're going to be starting that hole; that's a heck of a hole. They did a good job. I think they did a great job on that. We'll see how it plays. I've only played it once, so we'll see. Q. When it was announced that Washington was not going to have a TOUR stop, did you have any conversations with the Commissioner about it? And when he said that they were going to come back; did you believe it? FRED FUNK: The second part, I really didn't -- I was like: "When? When are you going to come back." It was just this open-ended, who knows. I talked to him, I said we need to be -- and Tim felt that way. He knew we needed to be in the nation's capitol. Just the way things worked out with Booz Allen and the dates and the new structure of the FedExCup and where they threw it, and threw it into the fall schedule and that wasn't well received obviously. It just became a huge issue that they couldn't resolve. I'm just glad that they did. They worked it out, how long is the commitment, five, six? Four years. How many years -- two here, with an open-ended where we're going and we have no idea in the third year, okay. So I'm learning as we go, too. But it's just great that we're here. You know, if Tiger stays involved as a host, no matter where we go, that will help at that point I think, to answer your question earlier. I think if Tiger stays on board and we move over to the new redone Avenal and Tiger shows up at Avenal, I mean, that's never happened. (Laughter). Q. Did you play Carnoustie the last time around? FRED FUNK: Yeah, I did. Q. What do you recall? FRED FUNK: I recall -- Q. Give us vivid detail if you can. FRED FUNK: I recall tied for the lead after five holes at 1-under, finishing at 82, was entirely frustrated and I said, I'm withdrawing, which I'll never do again, but I withdrew. The Gods penalized me by taking me 68 hours to get home with two flight cancellations. I watched tee times go by on Friday while I was in the Delta Crown Room, and I started drinking heavily. Then the second day, I was still in the Crown Room and watching the tee times go by. (Laughter) This is ridiculous. It did. It took me 68 hours to get home from the time I left my hotel. Q. You withdrew just because it was ridiculous. FRED FUNK: It was ridiculous last time. I didn't go over there -- I was just so upset with -- going over there hearing it was a great golf course but a hard golf course. To me, from what I remember, you can't see a lot of your landing areas and the guy had this rough that was this high right off the edge (indicating five feet) there's nowhere to miss it. And you didn't have to miss it by much to be dead. I said, "I didn't come over here for this." I just said, "I'm out." And the average score that day was 80 or 81. I wasn't that far out of it. Q. You were 1-over. FRED FUNK: Exactly. I think it brought Sergio to tears one day, that first day. I just remember it not being much fun. So I decided to go. One year I skipped the British to go to Milwaukee and I finished second and that got me in the Presidents Cup, and that's my goal this year. I'm going to go to Milwaukee and I play well there, and good golf course for me. So instead of making the long journey over there I'm going to stay over here and support the Milwaukee Open and try to make it another way, a roundabout way. Q. Curious as to when you got back home that year whether you watched at Sunday and were yelling at Van de Velde on your TV like the rest of us were. FRED FUNK: That was sad. He did everything that -- everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. But you talk to some guys, and he tried to get that second shot into the bleachers, and he would get a free drop. He happened to hit the bracket that's sitting out and you know what happened from there. If he hits anywhere else, he's fine and he's going to win the tournament. It was very unfortunate and very unlucky, and it's pretty much ruined his career I guess, and that's the sad thing. He really has never rebounded from that too well, and he's such a good guy and a good player. He handled himself great in all of the interviews and is always willing to talk about it. I remember Rocco Mediate on Friday knew he had to make bogey to make the cut and he drove his ball -- hit an iron off the tee was just in the first cut. He had 200 yards to the burn or whatever that thing is, the water thing -- the burn, okay. And he hit sand wedge to make sure it was short so he could just flip it onto a green. The sand wedge over 200 yards into the burn. It just rolled and rolled and rolled and he ended up making double and he missed the cut. It was brutal conditions. He was playing to play as safe as could you and still made double. NELSON SILVERIO: Thanks, Fred. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|