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U.S. BANK CHAMPIONSHIP IN MILWAUKEE

July 16, 2008

Fred Funk

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

DAN BLACKMAN: Fred Funk, thanks for coming in and spending some time with us here Wednesday at the U. S. Bank Championship. This is one of those golf courses that historically you've played pretty solid here. This certainly seems to be one that would suit your game. Your thoughts coming into this week?
FRED FUNK: It is. It's a position golf course. You gotta keep it out of the rough, and length is not as big an issue here as some of the courses we play on Tour. So yeah, comfortable level here that I like, and when I'm playing well, I can play really well on this course.
DAN BLACKMAN: We had Kenny Perry in here earlier today, and obviously the hottest player in the world right now. He mentioned seeing how well you played into your late 40s and early 50s as well as Jay Haas, kind of an inspiration to him. What's your take on this resurgence into the late 40s? Guys like Kenny is absolutely dominating, whereas 20 years ago you wouldn't have seen that much.
FRED FUNK: One thing different with Kenny is the length he has off the tee; incredibly long. He's always been considered one of the best drivers on Tour for length and accuracy, so he's got an advantage that even Jay and I don't have.
Jay's a little longer than me, but Kenny's a lot longer than both of us. And in today's game that really helps, and that's something where he can still take big advantage with the modern-day golf ball and the modern set-ups that length is not an issue.
And he's just got a level of confidence out of nowhere really. He was feeling kind of down-and-out there for a little bit. He actually went to our Bible study that I had at my house at the TPC and went in my trophy room and walked out and said he got inspired by seeing the trophy. And since then he's been on a tear. So I guess he did get a little bit of inspiration by the type of play that Jay did late before he turned 50 and since he turned 50.
And to me it's just a motivation thing. If you're healthy and you can stay motivated, then age is really not a factor.

Q. Fred, can you talk a little bit more just about what happens at the Bible study, how long it is? And what trophy did he see?
FRED FUNK: TPC Trophy.

Q. Okay. The Players?
FRED FUNK: Yeah. The Players. And he saw that, and it was TPC week, obviously, and it inspired him.

Q. Was that this year?
FRED FUNK: Yeah. This year. And we have a study on Tour. It's usually on Wednesday nights, and it's an hour long. And whoever wants to come can come, but we had a pretty big one at our house where there was probably about 50, 60, 70 people total, not all players obviously, but quite a few. And we just had a little get-together, and then real laid-back little dinner, buffet thing, and a gathering, so it was fun.

Q. So this is something that happens on Tour quite a bit?
FRED FUNK: Every other week.

Q. Just rotate from different players' houses?
FRED FUNK: Well, either houses or hotels, depending on where we are and who's living nearby. So yeah, Tom Lehman hosted one at his house, and Stewart Cink hosted at his. Different players have it when they're close enough to the tournament site.

Q. How could you tell that Kenny was kind of down-and-out?
FRED FUNK: I didn't know he was down-and-out. He wasn't down-and-out. He just wasn't that confident at the time.
And his wife was talking to my wife and said that he was not playing well and he was not knowing what was wrong and he can't compete any more out here, he was thinking.
And then all of a sudden he just flipped a switch and said, yeah, I can, and went on and has been playing great ever since.

Q. That was this year?
FRED FUNK: Yeah. That was the week of The Players, the Wednesday night before it all started.

Q. Fred, this course seems to favor a certain kind of player, like you said before, with accuracy off the tee, and great short game. Guys like Loren Roberts, Scott Hoch, Corey Pavin have historically done well. And the type of game you have or you're known for, do you think this course owes you one or does that maybe motivate you to come back this year?
FRED FUNK: That's why I'm here. It's a really good tournament for me. I've played well here in the past, and it is a golf course that I know I can play well on. And I really enjoy coming to Milwaukee, so that's why I'm here, versus going to the senior event.
My heart is still out here on the regular Tour, and I want to see how long I can compete. So I'm kind of on a little mission to try to finish off my year pretty good, see what I can do, and then make a decision on what I'm going to do next year.

Q. Did you talk to Loren at all? Did you guys discuss him coming back at all, by any chance?
FRED FUNK: Coming here?

Q. Yeah.
FRED FUNK: No, because I haven't been on the Senior Tour for a while, Champions Tour for the last couple months. I haven't seen him, so he's --
You know, the problem is when you do come out here, if you have a high goal out there on the Champions Tour, the Schwab Cup that they have, you know, if you're going to a site here and taking away from getting some points for the Schwab Cup, then that's where your goal is, and it's not worth coming out.
It just depends on where your motivation is and where your goal is. Loren's been playing pretty good here recently, and I'm not sure what place he's in, but I'm sure he's up there pretty high. And I assume he's playing at the 3M, so he's trying to get his points and finish as high as he can, if not win the Schwab Cup.

Q. Does the course seem to be playing a little easier this year? They say the rough is not quite where it has been the past years.
FRED FUNK: Any time you get soft conditions like this, the greens are holding, which they tend to do here anyway, and then the rough is still plenty thick, but it's just not that chop-out rough like they had most years.
You can still get bad lies, but you can get lucky now and then and actually advance it. So yeah, I think the scores will be really low, mainly because the greens are so soft.
And they're actually slow right now. I was surprised how slow they were today. They feel kind of gluey. Could be the humidity and everything, the climate we've got going on right now that is making these greens a little slower.

Q. Do you think we'll see a 59 out there tomorrow?
FRED FUNK: Par-7? Yeah. Could be on Corey. What did he do that year he won? Shot 28 or -- 7 on the front? 27 on the front? Yeah. He shot 27 on the front. That's pretty good.
Yeah, you're well on the way to breaking 60 if you do that. Nothing surprises me out here. The guys are really good, and you get fire in your eyes at the flag, and the key here is you can hit it close, but you still gotta be below the hole or the proper side of the hole to really make good putts, but the greens aren't that fast where they can really get away from you right now. So you can see super-low scores.

Q. Going back to the Kenny Perry situation, do you think that he's been a little overly criticized perhaps on making this decision or do you think that criticism is a little bit warranted?
FRED FUNK: No. I think it's something that you give the media a little ammo that they can run with and the media is going to run with it. It's a story, and there are going to be different opinions out there. And some guys, not only the writers, but some players may think Kenny should have played the Open and should be at the British Open, but Kenny made the decision long before the Open. He had his schedule planned out, and he's just sticking to his plan, and it's working really well.
And I can't -- I won't criticize him. I've done the same thing. But I think we have a right to play where we want to play, and he's had great success here. He's had great success where -- I mean this little run he's on, it's just unfolded perfectly, just storybook for a guy. I mean you would never imagine you could play that good week in and week out, but he's doing it. It makes it a story. If he wasn't playing so great, nobody would really be noticing him.

Q. Did you do the same thing in 2004? You played the RBC Open was it?
FRED FUNK: And I played here and finished second and got the Ryder Cup. So instead of going to the British, I played here and I finished, I think, second to Carlos.

Q. Do you remember that much?
FRED FUNK: Oh, I got criticized for it, yeah. Sure. And I did something at the RBC where I played there instead, too, and got points. You know, you set yourself up for it and expect to have it. I don't put anything past -- you know, it's your jobs to report. You're going to report positive. You're going to report negative things, opinions or opinionated things. So you know, that's fine. It goes with the territory.
DAN BLACKMAN: Okay. Thank you, Fred.

End of FastScripts

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