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THE SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

July 24, 2009

Fred Funk

SUNNINGDALE, ENGLAND

STEVE TODD: Well, Fred, here we are again.
FRED FUNK: Here we are. I like this place.
STEVE TODD: Another fantastic, flawless round for yourself. It's been a great start.
FRED FUNK: Yeah, I've been very fortunate to not make a bogey, that's for sure.
But like I said, the way I started yesterday, I really struggled fighting off bogeys on the front nine and then today kind of the same thing. Not quite as bad as yesterday but I made some good saves on 7 and hit a couple putts where I had to make some good par saves on front, on 2 out of the bunker.
I just birdied the two holes you are supposed to, 1 and 14, the two par 5s, and just kind of plodding along and then I birdied 16 and holed a shot on 18 and all of a sudden it looks like a great round that I played.
So it wasn't that it was that stellar of a round, but it was a great finish when you're 3-under the last three holes; it sure helps your score quickly.
STEVE TODD: It's the lowest 36-hole total in The Senior Open. Some way to finish, as well, that last hole. Would you talk us through that shot.
FRED FUNK: I hit a drive, it was blowing pretty good and it's kind of swirling a little bit and I just lost it just a foot into the first cut. It stayed in the fairway most of the time and I had a really good lie. I think I was 174 yards, which is a lot of yardage for me to hit an 8-iron, but with the pin all the way to the back, we didn't want to go all the way over. And the wind was howling downwind, and decided if I got a little flyer it would get maybe within ten or 15 short of the hole. It came out at the flag, hit it solid and landed. Apparently from where the ball mark was, it released pretty well.
When I hit it, I thought probably at best I was about ten feet, and then all of the sudden the crowd acknowledged that it went in. And I was pretty shocked there, because you never expect to hole something. And I couldn't see it. I was blocked by the bunker.
I haven't holed anything in a long time from the fairway, so that was pretty good timing.

Q. You said it was downwind?
FRED FUNK: Yeah, straight down, the storm is coming in I think. It's blowing in from the south I think.

Q. What normally your yardage be for an 8-iron?
FRED FUNK: 150, flying it 150. So we thought we could fly it 160 and let it roll back, which is about what it did.

Q. I think there's only four players to have broken par so far today, is it quite testing scoring conditions out there?
FRED FUNK: You know, the pins are a lot more difficult. I went through the round, you've got some tricky pins on 3 and 5, and then 7 is sitting right on the false front; 10 is behind the bunker; 9 is a tough little pin; 11 is behind the bunker.
And the back nine starts getting a little -- actually the whole back nine, whoever set up the back now that I think about it, 10, 11, 12 is behind the bunker. 13 is all the way in the corner over there, you can see that one when you walk out there. And 14 doesn't matter. 15 is a good pin and 16 is in the right corner and 17, 18 aren't bad.
. But a little harder to get close. But it's soft out there. The greens were real receptive and the key, again, with this golf course is just keeping the ball in play, keeping yourself in position where you can go after the flags. If you're doing that, you're going to have a lot of opportunities. So that's the key.

Q. The three or two par saves, you were in a bunker and you came out to how far on the second?
FRED FUNK: On 2 I hit it to about five feet.

Q. And on the 7th?
FRED FUNK: I landed on the front, on the false front. It would roll all the way down. I was ten yards short of the green when it stopped rolling and I putted up to about five feet and made it.

Q. From what distance?
FRED FUNK: Probably 50 feet.

Q. You're seven shots clear at the moment; this is yours to lose, really, isn't it, now?
FRED FUNK: There's a lot of golf to be played, but yeah, I'm playing well. If I keep playing -- if I keep doing what I'm doing and especially putt as well as I've been putting, it will be hard to catch.
But you know, I look at it, and I've said this before when I'm playing really well, you can never have enough deposits in the bank, which I count birdies and the eagle today. But there's always going to be some withdrawals and you want to have more deposits; it's like in life, than you do in golf. That's what I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to really fight off those bogeys and worse and make good on my opportunities when I get them.

Q. When was the last time that you felt you had it on a straight like this, when you were hitting those tee shots so straight?
FRED FUNK: It's funny, both days on the front nine, I've been real raggy, not so much off the tee today, but yesterday with the irons and off the tee yesterday.
And then today with the irons, just not hitting them that solid and struggling with them and then each day, the game got a little better and I got a little more solid as the day went, and I started letting it go a little bit. I'm just having trouble letting my swing go. I'm steering it a little bit and guiding it, and that's not the way to play, especially on a course like this. But I've been getting away with it. Yesterday I got away with it because my putter was so hot through 12 holes. I couldn't have putted any better through 12 holes yesterday. And today I just made good on some opportunities.
You know, I don't feel like I shot 65. It's just the way it all added up at the end. It just kind of added up, and when you do what I did at the finish and then all of a sudden you're 5-under par, you go, wow, where did that come from. So it wasn't like I walked off thinking I shot this great round; although it was a round I would have loved to have before I teed off, that's for sure.

Q. How do players feel when they go out in the afternoon and somebody in the morning has shot the lights out? How are Tom and Greg and these guys going to deal with this seeing that you're 11-under on the board; will it make it harder for them?
FRED FUNK: Well, I hope they try to force things and make mistakes and they won't narrow that gap. If they just plod along and try to climb the leaderboard the hard way, that's what they are going to need to do.
But if you try to force things out here, you're going to make some, more than likely, you're going to make some mistakes and get in some bad positions with some of the bunkers out there and some of the tall grass.

Q. You may have said this yesterday; how many putts did you have on those first 12 holes?
FRED FUNK: Yesterday, 4-under on the front 1-putts and I putted from the fringe on ten, I'm counting that as a 2-putt, and then -- so I was 6-under through 12 in putts. Seven if you count that as off the fringe on 10. So it was pretty good.
And then what I did the next hole, I had my easiest putt from inside three feet for birdie and I missed that one. Then that threw me for a little loop yesterday. Overall, it was great.

Q. You were talking just now about you never have enough money in the bank for withdrawal; is that the bank you have on your shirt, Mutual of Omaha; that a bank?
FRED FUNK: No, it's an insurance company. I didn't say my bank account. I was using the analogy of a bank account. (Laughter) With Obama, I don't have enough money in the bank -- never mind, that's a whole new solution. We won't get political here.
STEVE TODD: Thanks a lot.

End of FastScripts

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