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GREATER HICKORY CLASSIC AT ROCK BARN

June 12, 2011

Fred Funk

CONOVER, NORTH CAROLINA

THE MODERATOR: 62 today, a career low in the Champions Tour and a very nice round. Couple general thoughts about the day? go out and 30 on the front nine.
FRED FUNK: Yeah, it was good. It was a carryover from last night. I birdied five of the last six yesterday coming in to save my round and got off to a really nice start.
I gave myself a lot of chances. I made the one bomb on 3, the par-3. I hit a bad wedge and made it from across the green.
Let's see, I just hit it close a lot. Kept making those putts. Made a great up-and-down on 6 from the back of the back bunker. Yeah, the back of the back bunker, which was really nice. That was a 30. That was about as good as I could do on that side.
The back side I could have shot 30 or 29 on that side. I really played well. I parred the two par-5s from point blank range. I took a chance on 14 and hit driver off the tee and got my 3-wood right in front of the green. I actually miss-hit that one a little bit and just hit a bad chip.
Then 18, I wanted to go for it, but I wasn't quite long enough. I was afraid I was going to get in the very front of that bunker and leave me an awkward yardage. Instead I laid up to one of my worst yardages I could. My 4-iron went way too far. It went about 15 yards too far, and I laid up to 16 yards. It was one of my first yardages.
You know, you have shots where you've got to feel it in there on those awkward yardages and that's when we screw up, and I screwed up. I didn't commit to the shot, and I left it way short, and unfortunately I left my putt dead in short. I hit a really good putt, but just unfortunate on that wedge.
I think I'm going to come up a little short. I'll be lucky to get in a playoff. I'll take a playoff right now, but I don't know whether that will be good enough. But it was nice to finish that good and really come back at 8-under and way back in the pack, considering how many guys were in there and how low everybody was shooting, to get myself in this position was pretty good.
THE MODERATOR: Can you run through the details on the birdies for me starting with the first hole?
FRED FUNK: Yeah, I birdied 1 from about 6 feet, 3 from about 40 feet, 4 from about 5 feet. 5 from about 6 feet, 7 from 2 feet, two-putted, 8 from about two feet.
THE MODERATOR: Did you just hit wedge in there at 8?
FRED FUNK: No, 8 they had a drivable, so I had a 3-wood down there and left it just left of the green. They had the tees way up again like they did the first day. And on 11 I made a nice putt, probably made a 30-footer there. That was a really good hole because I got lucky on the tee shot and hit a good second shot and a really fortunate putt.
Then I hit it about 5 feet on 12 and missed it. I made a 6-footer on 13, didn't get up-and-down on 14 from the front of the green, and from about 8 yards off. What is 15? 15, the par-3, I hit it in there about 15 feet.
THE MODERATOR: 9-iron?
FRED FUNK: I hit a low 8, actually. And hit a wedge to about 5 feet on 16. 17, I hit a 5-iron in the back, left that dead end short, and 18 dead end short.

Q. You talked about you were back a bit at 8-under starting out. But with the problem in scoring conditions that they've had. Was the mindset just going out there and going low as quickly as you can?
FRED FUNK: Everybody in the field knew you had to go low. It was already playing easy with the soft greens. The maintenance staff has done a great job. Even though the greens are soft, they're a little slow to our standards. But they're rolling good, considering how they can get footprinted or spiked up a little bit.
But they really held up I think really good. Some guys might question that, but I think they did a great job. And after last night's downpour, it must be the greatest draining golf course in history. The fairways are just phenomenal. They were still running out after I don't know how much rain we got here last night.
THE MODERATOR: Seven-tenths, actually.
FRED FUNK: That's it? It seemed like more than that, actually. But anyway, the golf course was great. It's a really fun, great layout, fun layout. The only negative to it for the everyday guy is how many hills it has. As long as you have a golf cart, it's great.

Q. You talked about how coming into really within the past couple of weeks you hadn't been playing well and you were kind of struggling and qualifying for the U.S. Open, coming out here and shooting 62 --
FRED FUNK: I told you guys I decided to go back to what I know how to do and play the game the way I know how, and not do anything that somebody else wants me to do. My wife has helped me with my putting a lot and trying to get my posture right. So my putting is a lot better.
That's been the biggest struggle this year. I've been finishing way back in putting week in and week out. You're only as good as your flat stick. If you don't have that working, forget it. Doesn't matter what Tour you're on. Doesn't matter if you're playing in a club championship. If you're not putting good, you're not going to win, and I haven't been putting that well.
I've had some really good ball striking weeks and it doesn't show up on the score. That part's been really frustrating for me. I started turning it around. So it's a little combination of going back to my normal swing key for my long game, and trying to relax over my putter and just go out there.
I really just tried today to really focus on one shot at a time. All I could do is I tried to commit. I was writing something down. I have it on my tee sheet, my pin sheet after every shot how I felt. Did I commit 100%. Did I do a good job? Great. If I didn't, what did I need to do? Other than maybe that last wedge shot and maybe one other shot today, I didn't commit 100% to it.
You know, this game is huge mentally, as you know. Once you get to a certain level, the only way you can get over that edge is to play really solid mental game. I'm doing better with that. I'm going to really need it next week on that golf course.
It will be fun being there. No matter how I do, it will be great playing at home. It will be my last chance playing a regular U.S. Open at my hometown, so that is really exciting for me.

Q. What will you do now in the wait? Do you go hit balls or what do you do?
FRED FUNK: I'm going to go eat. I'm starving. I'll wait a little bit. I don't know, probably like an hour, 45 minutes. I'll get something to eat. I really think somebody's going to get to 19, but if they don't, I'll be really happy they don't. Actually, I hope nobody gets to 18 (laughing).

Q. Wiebe just got to 18?
FRED FUNK: With how many holes left? Oh, that's not good.

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