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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP


July 14, 2012


Fred Funk


LAKE ORION, MICHIGAN

MODERATOR:  Ladies and gentlemen, Fred Funk shot a 67 today and is 5 under par for the Championship.

Q.  How are you doing today, Fred?
FRED FUNK:  Not many people.

Q.  Well, you're being beamed back to the media.
FRED FUNK:  All right.

Q.  Great start.
FRED FUNK:  Yeah.

Q.  That had to get you going.  What happened as the momentum went the direction‑‑ it's tough to bogey the last hole when you had some momentum going, I'm sure.
FRED FUNK:  Yeah, I don't know what happened with the second shot.  I had actually hit it pretty good out of that first cut, and it just‑‑ I knew it was short of the green.  I didn't know it was 30 yards short of the green.  It hit there and, we were trying to land it short and let it roll up.  But I was in an awkward spot there.  It was not that great a chip, and I didn't hit a very good putt.
Other than that, I played really good.  I hit the ball pretty solid all day, and it was hard to get close to a lot of holes for me today.  It wasn't like the first day when I was hitting it close a lot.  That was a real easy 67, and then today I had to work a little harder for my two‑putts.
I made a great save on 16.  So that felt really good too.

Q.  Even with the course setup changing day to day, do you still get some recon on the golf course every time you play it and maybe it's useful later on?
FRED FUNK:  Yeah, you get used to what the course design is.  You get used to what the slopes are, and you remember a little more each time with what the greens are doing and where not to be and try not to be above the hole too much, but sometimes it's difficult.
We had a lot of front pins today and it's hard not to be past the hole.  You really can't be too aggressive.
I always think, no matter what golf course, the front pins are usually the toughest pins because it's just hard to‑‑ especially on an old style golf course, where it's front to back or back to front slope.  Today it was just hard to get it close.

Q.  Regardless of the bogey to finish today, you feel an upswing in your game, getting ready for Sunday, where you have a chance to contend?
FRED FUNK:  Yeah, but Bernhard is kind of taking care of things.  He's running off and hiding.  I know he made the double on 13, but then he made a birdie somewhere.  So you're going to give that guy a five or six‑shot lead, that's pretty hard to beat on this golf course.
He'd have to‑‑ the way he plays, he can shoot even par, and you got to go out there and shoot a 64 or 3.  That's not easy to do.  It can be done.
He's human, he might shoot a couple more, but you got to really shoot low.  I'm sure the pins are going to be pretty good tomorrow, which will make it harder to shoot the low one, and then he can protect himself a little bit.
But you never know.  But Bernhard is such a solid player that, if you give him a big lead, it would be almost impossible to catch him.  I'll be focused on there's a heck of a battle for second at the moment.  I just want to do the best I can.  I did all my damage yesterday the last seven holes and blew my tournament really yesterday.
With Bernhard taking off, if I didn't screw up yesterday, but that was a real bad stretch of holes.  So I played pretty solid other than that seven‑hole stretch so far this week.  If I didn't have that and I had a normal stretch, I'd be right there with Bernhard, but I'm not.
I'm just going to do the best I can.  I changed drivers today.  I went last night and worked on it and changed shafts, same head.  It really tightened up my driver, and I drove the ball a lot better.  I wasn't losing the ball left like I was recently, I can say quite a bit here recently on recent rounds, tournaments.
So I've got a much stiffer shaft, and it seems to tighten up my dispersion a lot.  That was a relief that I got a driver I can get in play.

Q.  Given the fact that we might get some rain overnight, that might change the course setup a little bit.  That gives a straight driver like you maybe a better chance than others?
FRED FUNK:  Actually less of a chance, I think.  When the fairways are running hard and fast, if I can work my ball in the fairway‑‑ it's harder to keep it in the fairway when it's running hard and fast.  It's much bigger fairways when they're soft and plugging.
So I think it would be in favor of a guy like Couples if you got really soft fairways and you can hold the fairways like that.  Anybody that can air the ball a long way.  All right?

Q.  Thanks, appreciate it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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