home

jobs

	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

March 28, 2005

Fred Funk

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Fred Funk, congratulations on winning THE PLAYERS Championship. You don't have a long way to take your trophy home with you. Congratulations, and start with some opening comments.

FRED FUNK: Well, it's obviously unbelievable that I'm sitting here with this trophy. Obviously it's the biggest win by far that I've ever had.

And this is the strongest field that we play all year long. It's a really hard golf course that was playing extremely hard, especially today. And to come out on top is just I knew I was playing good, but I didn't know I was going to be in position to do this until the back nine. And I hung on there, barely.

But it's a great feeling. It's a feeling I'm really not sure I'm aware of yet. It hasn't sunk in. But it's an awful good feeling. To come at this stage in my career and against this strong a field, and all these power guys, I actually told Doug yesterday that it was I felt kind of like Herbie the Volkswagen, The Love Bug, because I'm just out there just hitting my little pea shooters, and the bombers are going 40 by me, everybody I was playing with.

I hit a lot of greens this week, from where I was hitting it, but especially the pairing I had the last two rounds with Vaughn and Adam. Adam can bomb and it Vaughn can take it right with him. I tried not to let that bother me, because I knew it was more important to be in the fairway.

I stayed with my game plan. You obviously have to hit the ball well in these windy conditions. But overall it feels really good.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Put a couple of things in perspective for us, one being you get a five year exemption through 2010.

FRED FUNK: Wham I going to do with that?

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You're also the oldest winner by almost seven years of this tournament.

FRED FUNK: We had the youngest last year with Adam. That's pretty neat, bookends, oldest, youngest.

Again, it's just it's something that playing against as strong as the Tour is now from top to bottom, and it's just I can't comprehend how big this really is for me. But they can't take it away from me. I won this thing today and I always will cherish this win here.

Q. I know you've lived here. The 17th hole, have you ever seen it like it was today?

FRED FUNK: Actually I remember practicing one winter, it was about two years ago, three years ago, and it was really cold and windy out on the back of the range, I was just out here messing around. It was blowing actually harder than this from the same direction. I went out to 17, it was late in the day, I went out to 17 and tried to hit some shots. I hit about ten balls, where it was blowing where I was hitting 5 irons into that hole, not 7 irons. And so in competition, no, but I have seen it play harder than what it did today. It would never feel the same like it does in this tournament.

Q. How did you feel when you got there today, having to play 17?

FRED FUNK: Well, it's such a hard hole. You can hit a good shot and end up in the water. You can bail out left, you think, or you just don't know what the ball is going to do, because the wind was blowing so hard. I was trying to put as good a swing as I could put on it. I aimed it at the camera tower behind the green, which is dead center of the green, I hit a really solid 7 iron, it went higher than I wanted but started cutting to the right.

I thought it was going to be close. I didn't think it was going to fly near that far. And it ended up flying to the back of the green, which shocked me where it landed. It left me a really tough putt. And I misjudged the speed on it. I hit it way too hard. All I had to do was get the putt started, and I gave it a little extra and off it went.

And then I hit a bad second putt, so obviously that set up 18 with no cushion. I did hear that Scott Verplank made bogey there, so I knew I had one shot at that point, and I just had to hold on.

Q. You said earlier at the start that this was the biggest win by far. What had been the biggest win of your career?

FRED FUNK: I think my first one at Houston was in '92 was really big. The other ones have been they usually, if I win a tournament they move the venue or get rid of the tournament (laughter). I don't think they'll do that here. They might move the date to this one.

Q. In terms of really I mean, a win is a win out here, everyone knows that. But in terms of really a marquee win, that's been missing. How much does this validate you as the player you always thought you were?

FRED FUNK: I never felt like I had to validate anything. I never claimed that I was a great top player out here or anything. I just knew I was a good player, real solid. I knew that when I was playing well that under the right conditions on the golf course that I can compete with any of the guys out here.

So I never felt like I had to prove anything or I had to validate anything. Obviously if you look at a resume of a guy and you go on tournament wins and you see a guy like I'll take Kenny Perry's example, of winning The Memorial and The Colonial and then the Bay Hill, that looks pretty strong. And Lee Janzen winning THE PLAYERS and two U.S. Opens. Those are the ones you remember. They have a little prestige to them. Obviously any major would fall into that category, but there are certain tournaments that hold higher value out here, and I didn't have any of those. So now I've got one.

Q. In light of your putting problems coming down the stretch, what were you thinking on 18? Sort of take us through that putt.

FRED FUNK: It was a dead straight putt. It had no movement at all to it, and all I really wanted to do was just get over it and trust the fact that I was going to trust that I could put a good stroke on it. Just try to put a good stroke on it. If it didn't go in, it didn't go in. At least I could live with myself if I knew I put a good stroke on it.

I didn't put a good stroke on it on 17. But I did on the second two putts on 14 and 15. I actually thought I made both of those holes, 14 and 15. But I left myself some long ones out there. Basically it was trying to go back to just trusting the fact that I have done this an awful lot of times and try to minimize the importance of that putt. But obviously I couldn't do that. But I looked up and saw it was I pulled it just a hair, but it was left center and stayed there.

Q. You talk about your little pea shooter and Herbie and the Big Guns. What's the lesson in today's victory, both for the Big Guns and for guys like you on the Tour?

FRED FUNK: Well, there's certain you can't be short and crooked, I've always said that, you can't be short and crooked (laughter). You can be long and crooked, but you can't be short and crooked. But with the rough as thick as it was here this week and even last year and the year before that, it's always been thick, where it's been a premium on hitting it in the fairway here. That's what you needed to do to score. I could still score on this golf course. It's a golf course that actually is pleasing to my eye when I stand on the hole, and there's a couple of holes I'm a little uncomfortable out here with, but most of them I feel comfortable hitting the shot, and that means a lot.

When you get on a golf course and get on a tee shot or even a second shot and it doesn't cause any anxiety as far as hitting that shot, it makes it a lot easier. So this golf course I've had a good history on. When I've played well, I've played well here and have finished well, top 20. I finished 10th last year, but a couple of top 15's or 20s. So I just felt like I knew I could do it.

Today was just a matter of huge patience. Actually I felt like I had a chance of winning this golf tournament when I made the turn, for the first time. I made the putt on 7 and 8 and got me from 1 over to 1 under at the turn. I actually felt like I could win this thing now, if I could just keep it going. And then when I birdied 12 and 13 I thought for sure I could definitely win this thing. I didn't know what the leaderboard was doing or what I was doing on the leaderboard.

But then I get on 14 and I mistakenly looked at the board, and it was right there, I had a two shot lead, I didn't see that. I didn't want to look at the board until I got to 16 or 17. Not that that caused the 3 putts, I left myself some really tough putts and I was a little upset of the fact that I let those two shots I just got on 12 and 13 right back to the field. It's hard to get a cushion out here. I wanted to get I wanted to keep whatever cushion I had to get to 17 and 18, but obviously that didn't happen.

Q. Can you describe the feeling, the surge that went through your body, mind, when you saw the ball disappear on 18? Secondly, could you describe the spike mark in the grass?

FRED FUNK: I think that was a culmination of all the emotions I had pent up inside me. I knew the tournament wasn't over. In fact, Mark, my caddie, reminded me right afterwards, he said, "it's not over." I said, "I know it's not over, but finally I did something I needed to do." And it just felt really good to make that putt. I knew I hadn't had the tournament in my hand at that point yet because someone behind me could catch me, and I knew that. But it was just pent up emotions, I think. I really felt good, the fact that I put a good stroke on that putt and I made it.

Q. Can you explain your emotions the rest of the time, then?

FRED FUNK: Before or after?

Q. Could you retrace this Saturday? How close did you cut it getting back here?

FRED FUNK: I'm only five minutes away. I had enough time to hit about 15 balls and then go. It wasn't that big a deal.

Q. When you were standing in the fairway at the 18th, just wondering what sort of pep talk you might have given yourself about you've got one big swing left. And then from where we were standing, the ball looked like it was curving toward the water; what was going through your mind then?

FRED FUNK: I thought it was, too. I was trying to aim at the left fringe and just hit it solid and let the wind take it up to the right. And I had the right distance, if I hit it solid, to stay on that top level so I could either have a birdie putt or easy two putt. But I hit it on the toe, and it just slung it out to the left. I thought I didn't know whether I hit it solid enough to carry that bulkhead right there, just short of that bunker. I saw I didn't see it splash. I wasn't sure it was in the bunker, but I didn't see it splash in the water. I was happy about that.

Then I go up I don't know if you saw it on TV or could see the lie, but it just rolled out of its buried mark. It actually had a pile of sand behind the ball, which made it a little tougher bunker shot than it could have been or would have been if it was a purely clean lie. But I was pretty happy when I hit that actually when I saw it in the sand.

Q. And what had you said to yourself at the 18th fairway?

FRED FUNK: I basically I put a really good swing on it and a real aggressive swing on the tee and I did not want to bail out, although I didn't want to hug it that close to the left side. I hit it really solid and got down where I was only 170 to the pin. And I just said, let's put one more good swing on it. Actually at the back nine, when I was walking to 10, I kind of counted, I said, how many full shots do I have left on this back nine? If I do everything right, I have 17 full shots to commit to. That's all I've got to do is 17 full shots to commit to. I counted and I go down 10 and I hit two good ones there.

And I went down 11 and I actually hit I didn't hit a good second one, but I hit a great third one.

And then when I hit the shot on 13 it was a lucky one. I didn't really mean to be left of the flag there. I was just counting down. Okay, I've got ten more full shots.

And probably the best shot I hit all week was the 3 iron into 16, with my new 3 iron. I love that thing.

Q. With all the delays this week and the rough being up and then the wind today, is this as long a week as you can ever remember playing in? Can you remember a longer, tougher week than this one?

FRED FUNK: We've had some tough weeks this year. Riviera was a nightmare; we couldn't get going, and ended up 36 holes, which doesn't happen out here very often.

LaCosta was under water. If that wasn't match play we wouldn't have played.

Then Bay Hill last week we had a tough time, last week. It's been a year of Mother Nature kind of controlling what we're doing out here and causing a lot of havoc.

But this week was really tough. It's unfortunate because the golf course was so perfect before all this rain hit. It was still in remarkable shape. We don't want to play the ball up, but we had to play the ball up. I read something from a USGA official in the paper and I just didn't agree with him at all. To me it just verified that the USGA says some has some different ideas about what golf really is. We had to play the ball up. It would have been a total joke out there with all the mud we had on the ball. So it was unfortunate but it was something we needed to do.

Q. Getting back to the 3 iron on 16, coming off the bogeys, the two bogeys, how hard was it to take such an aggressive approach?

FRED FUNK: It wasn't. I caught I hit a really good drive and then I was over in that left swale in the middle of the left center of the fairway, so the ball was pretty far above my feet. So I had kind of a draw lie with a draw wind, hook wind. And I aimed it right on the boards, right of the pin and hoped that thing was going to come left.

I hit it as solid as I could and it hung there for a long time before finally the wind hit it and dropped it up to the left. Again, that was a super aggressive play, but at that point I didn't I just felt like, how many chances do I have to win? I was letting THE PLAYERS Championship go, and I didn't want to let it go. I wanted to be aggressive and try to win the thing.

I was really hoping after I hit that shot that I'd make the putt and have an eagle. The last two years I've eagled that hole on Sunday and thought I was going to do it again.

Q. You had a long wait on the 17th tee and you obviously were pacing around. Are you going nuts at that point? What's going on?

FRED FUNK: I'm just trying to stay loose. My back was getting a little tight and I was just trying to keep walking around and stay loose, and I didn't want to just watch what was going on up there. I didn't want to think about it too much. I just wanted to take in the whole atmosphere there, is really what I was trying to do. I was trying to get away from the guys I was playing with and all the caddies. I was kind of taking in the whole scene, really. Not the golf scene, but more of the spectator scene, the spectacle that that hole really is. It's such a pretty hole, but it's just tough to play.

Q. Where did you watch the other guys finish out? Were you in the trailer, on the range? What did you do?

FRED FUNK: No, no, I was in the trailer they didn't have a TV, so I was with Jimmy Roberts with his monitor there watching with my family, inside the ropes there by the trailer.

Q. Before you hit the chip shot and before you putted you took a lot of deep breaths. How exhausted were you after today's round and how mentally draining was it?

FRED FUNK: I think it was very mentally draining, and I was trying to relax, but it's hard to relax. This golf course is so hard to finish on. 14 every hole is if you get it a little if you get it in the wrong spot you're going to make a big number somewhere. I was really pleased that I was hitting a lot of greens, but I wasn't pleased with the way I was finishing off the putts coming in. It created a little more anxiety than I wanted because I was just giving it away.

How many guys win THE PLAYERS and 3 putted three holes coming in? It was something.

Q. Is the tee shot at 17 harder when the guy that hits before you goes in the water?

FRED FUNK: No, it's hard anyway. It just doesn't ease up.

Q. Over the last three holes, over which shot do you think you were the most nervous and why?

FRED FUNK: 17, I think, because it can just ruin the whole week. Bob Tway, I witnessed that this morning where he hit four in the water and made 12 on the morning round. That was hard to watch. We were two groups behind them but we were on the tee. He drops his tee shot in there and then goes to the drop area and hits three more in and 3 putted from the back of the green when he finally got it on. You can ruin your whole week. You hate to be working so hard and have that one hole ruin your whole week, because if you hit it in the water the first time, there's no guarantee you're going to hit that green from the drop area.

It just doesn't end on that hole, and then you finish that hole and then you go to 18.

Q. How many holes did you have left in the third round?

FRED FUNK: I was in the middle of 5.

Q. And at what point I know this always gets emotional out there with the all the people and everything. Was there a point where you really started to notice the galleries getting real loud and supportive?

FRED FUNK: I think when I really got in true contention for the win. I think Joe was at 12 under at one point, I don't know if he ever got to 13. Did anybody ever get to 13?

Q. Early this morning.

FRED FUNK: Well, Joe was at 12 and I think I was at 7 and something's got to happen here, I've got to make some birdies, make a run. I actually told my caddie, if I can make four or five birdies coming in, I might be able to win this thing. And that was after I birdied 7. And then I made the birdie on 8.

So I think the fans or the gallery really started jumping on when they saw me start getting closer and closer, and then I actually got the lead. Yeah, it was pretty loud and emotional.

Q. What does this do as far as assessing your post 50 plans?

FRED FUNK: I don't know. My wife really doesn't want me to go to the Champions Tour.

SHARON FUNK: Not yet.

FRED FUNK: Not yet anyway. But I don't know, this is this could change a lot of things. But I really feel like I can help the Champions Tour. But at the same time I'm competitive out here and Jay has been competitive and Loren and a lot of guys have still been competitive out here. And it's kind of hard to say, okay, that's over and let's go to a new chapter.

But I'm not sure. I'm going to have to reevaluate because I really have some big goals where I want to I still want to make The Presidents Cup team, I was on the last Presidents Cup team in South Africa, and I really want to make that team. That was my only goal this year.

And then my following year, if there's any way I can get on that Ryder Cup team, try to do a little better than we did last time. It was such a great experience; even in our loss last year, it was an unbelievable feeling. There's a lot of goals there that I have. And this really helped achieve may have helped achieve a lot of those that I had.

Q. It's such a big event; is the pressure even harder on someone that's more high strung like yourself, like I guess you've said?

FRED FUNK: High strung? Who said I'm high strung. Am I high strung?

SHARON FUNK: No. They don't call you Chicken Hawk for nothing.

Q. Will this help you down the road when you get in a similar situation?

FRED FUNK: All right, what am I answering? I lost the train there.

Q. Will that make it harder for you

FRED FUNK: The future, you mean?

Q. Finishing up here, just

FRED FUNK: Oh, no, no. I was really working hard on staying in the moment, and it was hard to stay in moment, though. I kept thinking, golly, I've got a chance to win THE PLAYERS Championship. I really wanted to win this thing. And when I saw I had a chance coming down the back nine, I did not want to let it go, and I was letting it go with those 3 putts. It was tough with that.

I wasn't controlling my mind as well as I wanted to because I had to keep consciously talking to myself, saying the right things. I am proud of the way I didn't let the 3 putts totally destroy me. I was trying as hard as I could on them. I knew I was in they weren't easy 2 putts. If they were easy 2 putts, that would have been a different story, but I had a really hard putt on 14 and a really not that hard a putt on 15, but then a really tough putt on 17. I left myself in some positions, that I said okay, I was in a tough position, it's okay, let's move on. I think it helped. I don't know if that answered your question or not.

Q. Last year you said you wanted to be the best 47 year old golfer that ever lived. How does that fit in and where does this stand as far as being the best 48 year old golfer that ever lived?

FRED FUNK: I don't know, there's been some pretty good 48 year olds. But this one definitely this championship really puts me up there with it. I'm sure as the greats that have gone through there, I have no idea, I just wanted to be as good as I could be at 48 and if my and then at 49, and when I was 47, to have made The Presidents Cup team and Ryder Cup teams the last two years has been phenomenal, way beyond my expectations, if you'd asked me back in the middle of my career.

But even though I'm not trying to validate or trying to prove anything to anyone, I still feel like I have room to improve and I feel like my goal is just to see how good I can be and how good I can get and that's been my goal. Whatever that measurement is when I look back, this will be huge, a 48 year old winning this thing.

Q. This week there's been a lot of hype about the so called Big Four. How great is it for golf and the sport or meaningful for the sport that in a week where none of them are in contention, the fan favorite, local guy like yourself would be in dramatic fashion?

FRED FUNK: That's what feels really good is not only the Big Four, but the Big 140 that started this thing. That felt really good to come out on top in as strong a field as this is, with all these great players. But I really feel the big four and the big five, whatever, you've got to throw Retief in there. But it's a real exciting time for golf. It's fun for, I think, for the guys that are actually out here on the Tour to see the level that these guys are playing at right now. The way this year has unfolded prior to this week it's been pretty fun to watch, really prior to I guess through Honda. You have Vijay every week, Tiger, Phil, all the guys that have been playing great. Ernie goes and wins back to back in Dubai and Qatar, and it's great for golf to watch, because the top the No. 1 ranking guy is just interchangeable right now, and they're all very capable of winning or dominating every week.

Q. Did you ever imagine you would win a major, and if not, is it easier for you to imagine yourself as a major champion?

FRED FUNK: I'd love to them to make this a major and then I'll have one. No, why imagine it. You drive in and you see living here, three or four weeks ahead of time they have the banners up when you drive in of all the past Champions. And you see Calvin Peete won way back and David Duval and Davis and all the great champions that are there, and now I'm going to be on one of those. It's going to be pretty neat. It's just something that I can always be look back and say I was THE PLAYERS Champion one year, and that's very special.

Q. You alluded to earlier in your career not having such high expectations of yourself, and when did you really think you were going to amount to something out here?

FRED FUNK: I'm still working on it. I don't know, I've always had a really hard work ethic and I've had I'm really hard on myself, even though it's kind of it's not really the way to measure myself in the fact that I try to not put too much pressure on myself and yet I expect a lot out of myself. It's a double edged sword there. I don't know what's going on with that.

I do expect a lot out of myself but I try not to put too much pressure on myself and try to see how good I can get. Sometimes I'm a little too difficult on myself and I've got to look back and say, hey, I've had a pretty good career here, and it's been a fun ride. I think it's time to lighten up on myself a little bit. Really the last year or two I've been able to do that when I am struggling with my game. I say, hey, I'm going to have some down times, but I know I can play when I'm playing good.

I can't figure out myself, basically, as far as putting a lot of pressure on myself and looking back where I came from.

Q. You have at least five more years to do that.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, yeah, I know. Again, I don't know what I'm going to do with that now, I've got that exemption.

Q. Have you ever been upstairs in that room, the Champions' Room?

FRED FUNK: I've walked through it, yeah. The Champions' Locker? I get my locker up there, yeah. I've been up and walked through it. We used to have the dining up there at the top.

Q. As it relates to the importance of this tournament, The Masters and The British Open give the winner a three year exemption in this tournament. Do you think that's about right?

FRED FUNK: Say that again, because I don't know that one.

Q. With this win you get a three year exemption to The Masters and The British Open. Does that seem adequate for the stature of this tournament, and is it surprising that two would give you a three year exemption, but the U.S. Open and PGA only gives you one?

FRED FUNK: I think it would match what the exemption used to be a ten year exemption for this thing not for those tournaments, but for the Tour. Yeah, I'd like to see five, just for my own selfish reasons.

Q. What do you think this tournament deserves, the winner should get?

FRED FUNK: I think it should be equivalent to U.S. Open and a Masters and a British. I mean, they want to put it on that scale and the field certainly warrants it. I think the golf course warrants it. I don't see why it should be any different.

Q. What years did you have

FRED FUNK: I moved here in '93, built that one in '95, '96, we were on the Valley course there.

Q. You still come back here to practice, I understand?

FRED FUNK: I don't practice here very often. I go to Pebble Creek and it's real quiet over there.

Q. Would you come back here and practice now?

FRED FUNK: Probably not.

Q. Can you talk about what was going through your mind when Donald hit the shot in and then the putt looked like it might go in?

FRED FUNK: I was surprised he putted it. I thought he was going to chip it. I thought he had a better chance of making it with a chipper than putting through the fringe, because the fringe was kind of gluey. But I was just holding my breath. Not that I ever want a guy to miss it, but I sure wanted to win this tournament.

Q. Do you wear pajamas when you take a nap?

FRED FUNK: No, I was in my gym shorts and a T shirt.

Q. You said you had to get out of your pajamas.

FRED FUNK: That's what are my pajamas, gym shorts and T shirt.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Fred Funk, congratulations.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297