	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 5, 2010

Fred Funk

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

CHRIS REIMER: We've got our 2005 Players Champion here joining us today in the media center, Fred Funk. Fred, maybe just some comments about coming back, and in your hometown, and where you live and being out here at TPC Sawgrass this week.
FRED FUNK: Well, it's always great to play home, obviously. Thanks. I know more about myself now than I really wanted to. Obviously, it's great to be home. This is my last year of my exemption, barring any other changes. It's just something I really look forward to playing here and playing -- being part of the history of this tournament now is really special to me. When I come in and practice and knowing that I've won here and seeing my placard up there and everything, it's pretty neat. So it's a very special place for me.
CHRIS REIMER: Questions for Fred.

Q. Can you just kind of take us through that Blue Angels flight?
FRED FUNK: Yeah, let's see. Yeah, that was cool. (Makes gagging noise.) How you feeling back there? (Makes gagging noise.) But it was really neat. I've done an F-16 ride probably about eight years ago. And I got a chance to go with the Blue Angels last week -- one Blue Angel. Went up in one plane. We pretty much did everything they do in their show. It's tough (laughing). Pulling the G's in an F-16, you have a G-suit, and the Blue Angels, they don't wear the G-suits, so that really helps keep the blood in your head so you don't pass out or not get as nauseous. But I got pretty nauseous. But it was fun. It was a great experience.
The biggest difference between the two flights, we did most of our stuff way up in the F-16, and we did a lot of our stuff with the Blue Angels down 300 to 500 feet above the water. Got a real sense of the speed and everything else. So it was prey neat.
Well, the first thing, obviously, you're bolting down the runway with afterburners, and then he gets to 300 knots and after he has the wheels you up and he's cruising, he says, okay, are you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. And he's counting off the miles per hour, 180, 240, 280, all right, 300; you ready? And he goes straight up for 10,000 feet. And that gets you a little bit. That's just a precursor to what's coming.
Then we go out over the water, and he puts the smoke out and we did an upside-down loop. He said, when we get to the top you'll see our smoke and we'll go right back through it. And we go up, and you know, I'm like, you can see the smoke and we go right back through it again.
It was really a great experience, but it gives you an appreciation for what they go through when pulling all those G's all the time. Just being at one with the airplane. If you think it, the plane's going to do it. They just are amazing what they do. I didn't get to experience the wing tip to wing tip stuff that they do because I was only up with one. But very special.
THE MODERATOR: I'd just like to see how the transcriber spells hurrrgggghhhh.
FRED FUNK: Just put hurl.

Q. I understand there might be some other good news. J.T. had a little bit of a breakthrough recently, J.T. Townsend?
FRED FUNK: Yeah, he's getting more movement. He still doesn't have the functional movement where he can really use his hands or his legs or anything. He is getting more movement. They actually said that the injury, instead of C1, C2, he said it was C3, 4 or 4-5. Which not knowing and not being a doctor or anything, didn't stay in the Holiday Inn Express last night or anything, but it sounds like the lower the place of injury on the spinal cord, the more chances you can move the upper extremities. And hopefully that will be the case.
But he's fighting hard. He's going to school. He's still got a great attitude, and he'll be out here tomorrow.

Q. Where is he going to school?
FRED FUNK: North Florida.

Q. Okay?
FRED FUNK: University of North Florida.

Q. And you guys are having the benefit for him?
FRED FUNK: The Bogey Grill, the Funk's Punks For the Wounded Warriors and J.T. Townsend. Last year we had 900, almost 1,000 people there. It's really grown at that party.

Q. We're coming up on a few years of 30 years of the TPC Sawgrass being open. Can you talk about how the TPC format has changed golf as far as how they built these courses?
FRED FUNK: You mean the stadium golf?

Q. Yeah.
FRED FUNK: Yeah, it's been great for the PGA TOUR the way it's all developed over the years and really has matured. The irony of all the TPC network to me is that the best one is the first one, this one. Some guys will argue that one. There are some really good ones out there, but he did a real gem here. A real unique tournament, with great finish, greatest amphitheater in golf, which is the whole concept of the stadium, so you get the fans to really see and enjoy the golf a little better instead of sitting down low.
So 16, 17 -- really the 16, 17, 18 tee shot are just really special for the fans and special for the players, too. It's just this creation of stadium golf right there. You're just surrounded by noise. It's great. And really exciting holes. You guys have been talking about 16 and 17 and 18, and it's just a great combination of finishing holes.
So I think as far as the network, it's been great economically for the TOUR. They've done well. It's been a great flagship for our TOUR. People want to come and play the TPC courses and be punished when they're out here and just go, wow, you know, this thing's a little much for a lot of golfers. But it's been a great success, I think.

Q. I want to go back to the Blue Angels thing, how that got set up, and without being too much of a jerk, how many times did you hurl and how many times did you pass out?
FRED FUNK: I almost passed out, but didn't quite do that. But in the middle of the flight, I filled up one bag. Then just before we landed, we did our last little 6 point something G hard turn. And it was a sustained turn, so you're in it for eight seconds or so. You've got to do this "hick" procedure thing where you've got to -- first of all, you've got to tighten everything up. You have to tighten your legs up, your quads and your abs. And here's how it sounds: You go, hick-a, like that, and you've got to keep doing it through the whole thing. So the minute you go "hick," it tightens up your abs, and then you go "ckk," and it lets your breath out.
But you tend to do it while you're pulling the G's, you go hick, hick, hick, hick, and that doesn't do you any good because you're doing a hyperventilation and you're looking for air coming up (laughing). But in the middle of the last turn, the tunnel was coming in, and they say you'll see this gray tunnel, and it was coming in about here, and I was still going with my hick thing, and I pulled my way out of it. As he pulled out of the turn, I was okay.
But it was closing in on me. Another second or two, and I would have been gone. And then he's explaining to me, because they land on carriers. So they have -- on the runway they have the lights that the carriers have, and they have to lineup with the ball and come in and pretend like they're landing on the carrier. They're coming in hard and fast.
So I've got the bag, and now I'm pretty much dry heaving into this bag, but he's explaining, well, now we're coming in, you see the ball? I go, yeah. He said, we're lined up with it, right? And I said, mm, yeah. And I'm just trying to communicate with him, but it was pretty funny.

Q. How did it get set up?
FRED FUNK: Stephen Kupcha that works here. He's a former Navy Seal. He works for the TOUR. It was kind of a payback. My wife and I do a lot -- our passion now is our Wounded Warriors and Challenge America and everything. We try to do everything we can for the support of our troops, and it was kind of a little payback for doing that.

Q. Was it a payback or a punishment?
FRED FUNK: Well, it ended up being a little bit of a punishment payback. He did apologize after we were done.

Q. I wanted to ask, how do you feel about being here for today's military appreciation day?
FRED FUNK: Oh, it's great. Everything we do around the TOUR, when we get to see our troops come out, all our veterans, it's fantastic what we do. And they really have a good time. We try to make sure they have a good time and that they're treated the way they should be treated.
I think the TOUR as a whole has been a great supporter of our military, and it means a lot to us. It will continue to mean a lot to us. I just have a love for our military, and a lot of us on the TOUR do. I just can't see the program ever -- it's just going to get better and better as we go and do more and more as we go forward. So it's a small, really small thing that we can do for everything that you do for us.
And if the military wasn't doing what they're doing, we couldn't be doing what we're doing. I think people need to be aware of that a little more often. Just don't ever forget all our military and how important you guys are to us.

Q. Could you talk about Mark Long? He's sort of become the de facto yardage guy for all the caddies on tour and how that's affected his caddying.
FRED FUNK: He's tired a lot. He works hard on those books. It's obviously very difficult to do anything. To design a golf course that the TOUR's going to play on is something that you're opening yourself up to a lot of criticism, and what were you thinking over that hole or something. Then when he's going in and doing yardage books, pretty much took over where George Lucas used to have all the books.
He just ended up doing a really good job. He just got better and better, and now all the caddies and all the players really rely on that book. It's what we rely on. He really takes pride in the work that he does. Now everybody wants to see -- if it's not a Mark Long book, it's not going to be up to the standard of what all the other ones are that are out there.

Q. You said it was a lot of fun. You did get a little bit sick. Would you do it again or you might think twice about going up?
FRED FUNK: No, I'd go up again. I've got to figure out what to do with the food intake prior to going up. I haven't quite figured it out (laughing). But I'd love to go up again. It's just so neat to experience what they experience.
It's obviously a lot -- he was trying to make me feel better about it -- but it's harder to be in the back seat. It's like being in the back seat of a car or something. You kind of get disoriented a lot easier or motion sickness a lot easier when you're not controlling the airplane. When he's turning it, he's looking to where he's going, and I have no idea where we're going. So you're just back there getting tossed all over the place. And he's asking whether you're ready or not.
Would I do it again? They suckered me into the French dip before (laughing). I tasted the French dip for three days (laughing).

Q. I think this is the last PLAYERS off of your 2005 victory. First of all, what is your schedule going to be next year and the rest of this year, and are you going to, you know, a hybrid schedule next year, almost all Champions Tour? And if you do, is there that realization that the only way you get back here is by winning the Senior Players?
FRED FUNK: Yeah, I still have that exemption that I can actually use through 2012 if I use career money because I have through 2011 because of Mayakoba. And then that was tacked on with THE PLAYERS. So I could stay out on the TOUR using career at least through 2012.
The irony of the whole thing or the bad thing is that I ended up having, right when I turned 50, my knee just went in the toilet. I've been fighting that ever since. And I had the knee replacement this year, and now I'm looking forward to where it's going to get better and better, and my game hopefully will get better and better as that gets healthier. Then that's going to change my thinking as far as whether I really want -- I'd love to make one more just-have-fun year, play the regular TOUR mostly, play the senior majors.
But the dynamics of the TOUR has changed a lot, too. When they went to the FedExCup and they condensed the schedule down, and some of the golf courses that they have now are not really conducive or advantageous for me to go play because they're just big, big long golf courses. And these guys are hitting it forever.
It's just I've got to be a little more of a cherry picker if I go out and play the regular TOUR. I still love the Hilton Heads and used to love old Westchester, that type of course, Colonials. But there are not as many golf courses that I really enjoy as much that are out there like I used to. I just played every week and kept on going and hoped my game picked up somewhere in that stretch, and it worked out pretty well.
So to answer, I really don't know. I'd love to give the TOUR one more big run, but I've got to see how the health goes and my game. And my focus more likely will be mostly on the Champions Tour. I really enjoy it out there. The Champions Tour is great. But it still doesn't have the overall feel of the big TOUR. No, this is the show, if you want to call it the show. This is the show.
CHRIS REIMER: We'll have Fred and our Blue Angels available on the patio. If you'd like to have some questions for them, there will be more talk about Fred's lunch.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297