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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 31, 2009

Fred Funk

CARMEL, INDIANA

THE MODERATOR: 9-under par for the Championship, Fred Funk.

Q. Since you reached the par fives in two, do they need to funkify the course?
FRED FUNK: No, I like it very well. And how are you?

Q. I'm great.
FRED FUNK: Haven't seen you in a while. No, the fairways, they don't look as firm as they are, because they're lush, but you're getting bounces and rolls, and I love the way it's playing. It rewards you for hitting your driver on line and keeping it in play there.
Give yourself a lot of opportunities, especially the par 5s. Some of them are right there where I can get 'em, and although I laid up on the first two today and made birdies -- actually I birdied them all and got to, 9 so that was big.
In fact, I told my caddy on the 9th tee I said "The pressure is on," and he said "What do you mean?" And I said, "I got all 3s and 4s, I got to keep that 5 off the cart," and I managed to do it.

Q. (No microphone.)
FRED FUNK: Used my forward rescue, and I don't know what I was to the front. I don't have my book. I had 217 front, I think. Had a downhill lie and made it tough to hit it solid, and I was pleased with how solid I hit it, and I got a good bounce off the -- short off the green, and I was working an eagle but made a par putt coming back.

Q. How does it feel after the British Open?
FRED FUNK: It feels good. All of us were tired -- I know I was tired on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I was glad I had an afternoon tee time yesterday so I could regroup and get a good night's sleep. I had my first good night's sleep Wednesday night and I was able to catch up.
Didn't really feel prepared for this tournament, for this golf course. Normal preparation for a major with greens like this. I felt like I needed more time, that extra day would have been nice. Maybe when we get our schedule figured out and they give us a week in between.

Q. (No microphone.)
FRED FUNK: No, I've been not playing as well, and I'm just pleased that I'm playing at the level I'm playing at right now with everything I've been through. So it's kinda fun. I feel like I want to keep knocking at the door and seconds don't feel too good, but they're better than thirds, so I'll keep going.

Q. What about the wind today? Do you feel it affected your play at all today?
FRED FUNK: Yeah, it was blustery, and a little different direction there in the beginning, made some holes tougher and other holes play shorter, but it wasn't extreme. With this low humidity, everything was better, No. 6, par 3 had some shine to it, so with the low humidity and the sun cookin' them right now I think we won't see the scores like we saw yesterday.

Q. Fred, you've had success since you turned 50 but to do it here in a Major, how much more does that mean here?
FRED FUNK: Well, that was disappointing last week, and even last year. I had a good shot at winning it, going down the stretch with Eduardo, and one bad swing cost me the Championship, on 13 last year. It was fun to be in that position.
Last week I was scoring really well and had a good position. I'm going to try to keep the pedal to the metal and not look back, look forward. I'm trying to swing -- I'm not trying to steer anything right now, just trying to swing at it as hard as I can and hit quality shots instead of trying not to hit a bad shot.

Q. (No microphone.)
FRED FUNK: I had a knee issue, staph infection the beginning of the year, so my knee was weak, and that created a swing compensation early in the year. And now I've got a torn labrum in my shoulder, so I'm just dealing with those a little bit, but the knee has gotten better than it was and the shoulder I'm just dealing with right now.

Q. Which shoulder?
FRED FUNK: Left.

Q. Are you going to need work done on that? Is it going to recover naturally?
FRED FUNK: It won't recover, you can play with them until he says -- play with them until it shuts your game down, so that's what I'm going to do.

Q. Talk about the pairing today, the interesting group --
FRED FUNK: Eduardo, I love playing with him. I played with him last year; we're good buddies. And Marucci is a fellow Terrapin, and as long as our history goes back to Maryland, we never played together that I know of, and that was a lot of fun to play with him, too. I enjoyed the pairing.

Q. Looked like you were having fun out there. Off of No. 8 -- (No microphone.)
FRED FUNK: Well, that was Jennifer Mills, I hadn't seen her in a long time so I had to take my opportunity when I had it. I was trying to have fun, yeah.

End of FastScripts

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