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AT&T NATIONALJuly 5, 2007Fred FunkBETHESDA, MARYLAND NELSON SILVERIO: Fred, second time we've seen you in 24 hours. 3-under, great start obviously. Just give us some general comments on a great round. FRED FUNK: Well, it was a great score. I'm real pleased with that. I hung in there with my attitude even though I really didn't feel like I was hitting on very many cylinders today. But the score turned out really good, and that's what I'm really proud of. I stayed in there with the mine, mental game, and just stayed -- I didn't stay positive, but I didn't get negative. And the way I was missing it -- I was hitting my irons okay but struggling off the tee. The baffling thing is that I've been playing so well off the tee for the last month or so, so it was a little upsetting that I was out there struggling so much out there off the tee. But the score was great. And I'm really pleased with that. Fortunately I've got all of this afternoon and tomorrow morning to figure this thing out and hopefully go out tomorrow and get a little more confident so I can just swing a little freer off the tee, which might be the secret anyway. I don't know, go out there and find out. Q. How was it at the White House last night? FRED FUNK: Everybody is back to the White House. It was great. It was a great experience. I think my wife and I and everybody that was there was made to feel so comfortable and felt -- I just felt so honored to even be asked to be a part of the birthday celebration for George W. and spend 4th of the July in the White House watching the fire working and having dinner and drinks and conversation. It was really laid back and a lot of fun. Very memorable. Q. Davis was there, Howell was there, Justin Leonard was there, right? FRED FUNK: Howell wasn't there. Charles Howell? Q. Yeah. FRED FUNK: No. Sharon, you're going to have to help me here. It was Fax, Justin Leonard, Davis, Mickelson, Azinger, and Maggert. Q. You have always said how much it would mean to you to win a tournament in your hometown obviously, and yet you've struggled most of the time, you had one close shot; how much would it mean to you and where do you think it has been such a struggle knowing the town, knowing the courses? FRED FUNK: Well, I don't know the courses that well. I know Avenal pretty good after all the years. I didn't really play this course very much. They'd check my ID and kick me out at the gate growing up here. It was, hey, I don't know, you put self-imposed pressure on you, you want it so bad. I know the year I had the big lead at Booz Allen -- was that Booz Allen or Kemper then? Q. Kemper. FRED FUNK: Yeah, I was feeling so nervous the first few holes, I just let it go in four holes and then just hung on. I was real proud of that 76 I shot that day, or whatever I shot, because I could have shot a million. I don't know, it just I didn't time it right. I guess I putt a little too much pressure on my game and wanted it. And to have a -- I'd just like to be in position now. I think I'm a lot more relaxed and a little more patient out there. If my game is on, and I know I can go, I'll go and play really aggressive. If it's not on, I'll try and do what I did today as best I could and just keep it in front me, and you know, hopefully I can post a decent number and not just blow out. Today not only did I not blow out, I ended up having a really good round. So probably score-wise it was one of my best scores days in a long time. So even though I think I only missed two greens, maybe three greens, and just had a few opportune moments. I seemed to take advantage of the opportunities I had. I maxed out my round. Q. What would it mean to you, and the third that I didn't ask, what did you use at 6? Did you go driver, driver? FRED FUNK: No, I hit driver, 4-iron on the green. We played it at 490 I think, so we didn't go all the way back today. But it was into the wind a little bit at the time. So that wasn't too bad. The guys I was playing with were hitting it -- they probably hit 7-irons in maybe. Maybe even an 8, I don't know. One guy hit it -- I don't know what he hit in the water and the other guy hit it wide left on the green. It's a tough hole. From 518, it's really a tough hole. Q. You had an eagle on 12; can you tell us about that? FRED FUNK: Yeah, I hit a 3-wood off the tee and I had 139 yards, and Mark, the way I was hitting, I was ready to pull 8-iron out because I was hit are for my misses but we didn't have much room long or behind the pin. So he said, "Just swing as hard as you can at the 9-iron and see where we end up, see if we can get it up on top of that little tier." I flushed it right at the flag and landed six inches short and one hop in. It was a perfect shot that ended up in a perfect place. So that was real satisfying. Now I wish could I say that sparked my round. I was still -- great, that happened, but now I have six more holes and I've got to figure out how to get this thing in. And I did, I just kept plugging forward and made a couple more birdies coming in. So it was a good day. Q. You said, "I didn't stay positive but I didn't get negative." Millions of golfers are all one or the other. FRED FUNK: Well, before I was against it. I've heard that before -- no, it wasn't where I had a lot of confidence in what I was -- I knew I was struggling off the tee, so it wasn't any confidence with me on the tee which is very unusual for me, because usually that's the strongest part of my game. But I didn't let it tear me into a negative mode where I was just not going to get real frustrated and just hang it up. I was just trying to do the best I could. Q. And did the eagle kind of allow you to do that; after the eagle did you say, "I'm supposed to get a good number today." FRED FUNK: No. At that point I'm saying, I've got a nice little opportunity. I'm back in the red and let's take advantage of this thing, but yet play smart, because I actually hit 3-wood a couple of times where I normally would not, and hit a rescue on 17 off the tee where I probably should have hit a 3-wood. So I was playing a little too conservative and a little too scared off the tee and I was mainly trying to stay out of that really thick rough that was out there. Because once you're in that stuff, you're done, you're chipping out. Q. Any thoughts on your part about why you've had as much staying power in your career, why you've done as well as you have in your late 40s and now into your 50s? FRED FUNK: Feisty. I don't know. I know when I play well enough that it's good enough to play real good out here, enough to win. My game is pretty strong when it's on. You know, fortunately I think I know how to play the game of golf. It's not just how far you hit it, thank goodness. It's managing yourself around the golf course. It's thinking around the golf course. It's taking advantage of some opportunities, and when you're playing well, that's what you do, and when I'm playing well, that's what I do and when I'm not playing well, you wonder why you're not doing that, but you don't do that as well. All of a sudden you start shooting in the mid 70s and you're blowing out a little bit. But it's real satisfying when you do what I did today, and you stay patient and believe in yourself. But you know, there's an intangible out here that I haven't figured out. There's some guys that you just think, why aren't they playing better or why can't they make it on the TOUR. Other guys, you say, why is he playing so well. And it's what's inside, but I don't know what that is that's inside that allows some guys to go on to be superstars and other guys that have the quality to be a superstar but don't ever get to that level. So to answer your question completely, I don't know. I don't know what really has allowed me to have the best part of my career this late in my career. And in a time when technology has really changed the game a lot, and it hasn't changed mine any. I'm kind of stuck still back in the dark ages. It's satisfying, and that's why I'm staying out here and I'm here this week and staying out on the regular TOUR because I feel like I'm still competitive out here and I want to see how long I can stay competitive. Q. You're popular here, but nationally you seem to have like a cult following. Maybe that PGA that one year, are you surprised that's happened in your career? FRED FUNK: Well, I do think that Hazeltine was where I stepped it up a notch, I guess, in popularity; where the fans adopted me like they did at Jason Gore at Pinehurst that year. But I think people can identify more with me. I don't hit it that far. They see some of these guys and say -- well, and I wonder, "How the heck did they do that?" I wish I could figure it out. But just all I hear is you play good for the old guys, play good for the little guys, play good for short hitters -- it's amazing all of the things I hear out there. It's fun to have that attention, and puts a little heat on you, though. I feel like I can't have a bad attitude out there in front of anybody. It's neat to be people's -- people can kind of live vicariously through me with their golf and follow me. I think they feel if I can do it; they see me doing it, they have a chance of doing it, especially the young guys. And I hope they feel that way, because it's not all about power and everything else. It's putting the whole package together and going out here and seeing how good you can be and allowing yourself to have that mind-set. And I think that's one thing I hope I portray out there. Q. You said you were technologically in the dark ages. What does that mean? What don't you use that people might think you use? FRED FUNK: Or what I don't have is the power. I've never been a power player. A lot of guys have picked up, in my opinion, like an exponential game with the new golf ball and the driver heads we are using, but more the golf ball. And if you have X amount of speed and the certain launch conditions and everything, you know, with those numbers you've heard, the ball doesn't come down. You get this 20-, 30-yard advantage, just because you swing X amount of speed. I can't take advantage of that because I don't have the horsepower to get the ball where I can maximize the aerodynamics designed into the ball. It starts to go up, but then it starts to go down a little quicker than everybody else's. And that's fine. The thing that surprises me is that I've had my best years with all that technology out there, and the young guys -- all the guys hit it a long, long way. But when they put the deep rough like they have this week, that's my equalizer. The harder the golf course, the better for me in my opinion. The harder the holes, the better for me. When I'll make well, I like to see 18 holes that are set up like the 6th hole here. I would win a lot of tournaments with that if I'm playing well. But, you know they don't do that every week. They don't do that every hole. Q. You said because you're a model of so many people, different groups of people, you really can't act bad on the course; usually are model behavior but you're stuck with always being -- is that a burden? FRED FUNK: No. Usually what happens when I'm not playing well, I'm clam up and not say anything and I'll just go in my own little shell and make sure I stay out of everyone's way in my group, and I'm not very animated anymore. But I do truly play my best when I'm having fun with the guys in my group and I'm having fun with the crowd and loose and like I was Sunday with John Daly last week. I was having a ball with John and having fun with the crowd. And the crowd was having fun with us and it was a fun day. Those are the kind of days, like when I was paired with Tiger at Hazeltine; I didn't want the round to end on the final day with Sunday and all the pressure. I distinctly remember saying to my caddie and Tiger's caddie, Steve, "I don't want this day to end, it's just so much fun, the atmosphere out there was magic out there." It was just so, exciting. NELSON SILVERIO: Thanks, Fred. End of FastScripts |
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