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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 25, 2005

Fred Funk

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: First of all, just want to reiterate what I said earlier. They called play, and they're going to return at 7:00 a.m. in position. The first tee time will be the 7:50 tee time, which will be going off at 7:00 o'clock.

I'd like to thank Fred Funk for a few minutes for joining us. I know it's been a long day. You didn't get an opportunity to play. Why don't we just start with questions.

FRED FUNK: What have you guys been doing all day?

Q. Same as you.

FRED FUNK: I got to go home, play a little ping-pong.

Q. You guys are sort of used to this, I suppose.

FRED FUNK: This year.

Q. It's part of the job, but does it get to the point where you get really frustrated?

FRED FUNK: Well, you can't let it get to you to the point where it changes your game or your attitude because you've got to realize everybody is in the same boat, and if you go in with a bad attitude, or if you go back out with a bad attitude then you're putting yourself behind the 8-ball, which is totally unnecessary. Everybody has got to fight it. It has been frustrating for everybody this year, media, players, officials, TV. It's been real frustrating for us to get these tournaments in.

As I say, our West Coast Swing, but Riviera just going 36 holes was very uncommon, to say the least. I guess the last time we had that was Byron Nelson that I can remember where we stopped at 36 holes. And actually the golf course was playable but the weather just kept pounding us. Riviera really stood up to the amount of rain it had, and then La Costa was obviously just a big drain, and it holds the water and that was a big lake during match play. Had that not been a match play event that probably would not have been played. We got lucky there that they were playing a venue or a format at a venue that was pretty much unplayable, but they were able to tweak it around so you could play match play format so it was fair and they got it in.

What's real unfortunate is when you have the golf course here which was in really good shape early, and we had mud issues yesterday, and then today with the rain and everything else, trying to get this thing done by Sunday, such a big tournament, having guys going off both tees, probably we're going to have this weekend to get this thing in, and we're just totally at the mercy of the weather.

Q. Somebody in your situation where you shot a great number late Thursday, you're looking forward to coming out here Friday morning when maybe the wind is down, does that make it maybe a double disappointment?

FRED FUNK: No, because again, you can't really -- try not to let it get too negative to you. I was hitting the ball on the range really solid. I was excited about going. I was the 8:00 o'clock tee time originally, so I was ten minutes from going, and I was looking forward -- we all want to get out there and play. Y'all want to see us play and we want to get this thing going. There was no apprehension in going out there. I was excited about everything and still am, but it's just a frustrating thing. You've just got to deal with it.

You just can't mentally let yourself get down on it because everybody is dealing with it. The question is going to be the mud issue. Mark Russell said there's a possibility that they will re-pair or re-start, I mean, it's not out of the question, he said in his words, because of the mud on the ball, and they started with the ball playing it down this morning, and you've got to finish that way in the second round or pull them all in and start all over again. They said there was three or four fairways out there completely under water and they couldn't get them in play, so they had to call it today, and now we're hoping. I don't know which fairways were those really, really bad ones, but I could probably guess.

Q. Has that ever happened before, calling those couple holes off?

FRED FUNK: You know, I think they -- it's not -- I don't think it's a written rule, but it's an unwritten rule that no golf played is ever called. You don't get a Mulligan. You don't get to go out there whether you had a good start or a bad start and start all over again.

Obviously they don't want to do that because once the round is started -- I think Joe Ogilvie is 2-under through two and had a good start, and I'm sure some guys are over par and would like to re-start and you don't want to do that, but at the same time they made that decision to go play the ball down. You saw a lot of balls yesterday -- I saw a lot of -- I had a little minor issues with the ball, but Justin Leonard yesterday in my group had one really bad on 16 and it just took off dead right. You just lose total control of where the ball is going to go, and now you're depending on luck out there and not the skill level of the players, and that's not fair.

A lot of people criticize when we play the ball up, but when the fairways are in a condition where it's real sticky and the mud really sticks to it and it doesn't come off when you make impact and the ball gets squirrelly out there, it becomes a luck issue. I think Ernie had 180 or 185 yards to the front of the green on 16 and chose to lay up because he had so much mud on his ball. It's something you've got to deal with, but it's not always fair. It's not allowing you to really see the skill level of the players.

Q. What's the most interesting or unusual way you've spent a rain delay? Have you had time to take up any new hobbies with all the rain delays we've had this year?

FRED FUNK: No, because usually I'm stuck like everybody else in the fitness trailer or the locker room, and you just pass time. This particular week I live close enough that I chose to go home pretty quick after they called it this morning. I saw how heavy it was raining and lightning, and I said, well, I'll go home and chill out there. I have a lot of house guests so we were playing ping-pong and watching ESPN seeing if we were getting any updates.

Q. How were you doing in ping-pong?

FRED FUNK: I got beat. It was ugly. Home court, home table. I know the breaks (laughter).

Q. Looks like the radar is actually clearing off right now. Were you surprised you guys didn't go back out?

FRED FUNK: I thought for sure whatever possible golf we'd get in. There was no way I thought we were not going to be able to play today at some point if it stopped. I thought we were going to go play. Last week at Bay Hill I teed off at 6:30 playing one hole because they were trying to get whatever they could get in. I had to play 35 holes the next day. It was like, why did we play one hole, but they were trying to get as much golf as they could in, and that's what I definitely thought they were going to do. But obviously the conditions out there were not good.

George Boutell was coming in like every two minutes, well, they're still out there looking. What are they doing? They're still looking. It was funny.

Q. On a course that's obviously not going to get any roll the next three days and with you not being the longest hitter on the Tour obviously --

FRED FUNK: What's so obvious (laughter)?

Q. I mean, you're one off the lead. How disappointing is it?

FRED FUNK: Well, it wasn't running yesterday, either. Really the problem when --

Q. For your game.

FRED FUNK: Well, for my game, even yesterday's conditions I thought were better for the longer hitters because when the fairways -- I said it in here yesterday, there weren't that many guys, when we have control of where the ball is going to stop, it's advantageous for the longer hitters because they can stop it in the fairway, and regardless of whether you're long or short that's when the scores are low because the balls are not running away. When you get firm fairways with the high cut of rough, it tends to run into that rough and then you're chipping out. It's easier for everybody when it's soft because length is not an issue here with 90 percent of the guys.

But this is the kind of golf course that I'm comfortable with, and I like playing here and I know I can score on it when I am playing my game, which is hit it from point A to B and stay out of trouble and pick and choose my spots. We're getting less and less of those kind of golf courses out here, but this is one of them. To me it's my favorite TPC, and it's ironic it's the first one they built, and it's really -- come from in its early history, it had a bad rap, too, where people seemed to like this golf course where it's matured and the subtle changes they've made to it over the years.

Q. This is the seventh tournament in 13 that's had some sort of weather delay. With the way the year has played out, has it been to the benefit of more experienced players who know how to handle that type of -- has experience maybe come in more handy for people this year?

FRED FUNK: No, I think if you look at the year, it's the year of our big guns taking control. It's the Fab 4, the Fab 5, whatever you want to call them. To me that's the highlight of the year or that's the focus right now with everybody, including the players that are out here, is how well our marquee guys are playing right now, and they've really stepped it up. It's fun to watch, even as a player, to see how well they're playing, and it's exciting for everybody to write about.

I think as a viewer and as a golf fan, that seems to be more the focus, and I think it should be more the focus of how well Vijay and Tiger and Ernie and Phil are playing and Retief right there, and then the side notes of how well David Toms is playing and a few others, Adam Scott and those guys.

Q. Did you perhaps anticipate that they're going to play -- that the weather is going to come in and play lift and clean in situations like today? Should they anticipate that the weather is going to come in and start out playing lift and clean?

FRED FUNK: That's what I thought they would have done because of what the weather forecast was and how these fairways are with the little swamp muck that's under there and the mud always sticks to the ball. It seemed like it would have been a no-brainer to say let's play this thing up. We don't like playing it up, but at the same time we don't like mud balls, either.

I thought they would have anticipated that a little bit more, and it would be unfortunate if they have to start again tomorrow, restart because of that issue.

Q. Do you think as a resident here, I don't know if you're home much in May, do you think would the weather be better for this tournament in early May than --

FRED FUNK: The weather would definitely be better. My only question, I don't know whether the transition time with the grasses -- I don't recall how good it would be. The Bermuda doesn't come in that well anymore here in my opinion. It's been over seeded so heavy for so many years in a row that the Bermuda seems to be choked out more or less, and it doesn't get as healthy as it used to.

The year Tiger won the amateur here, which was, what, '94, that was a long time ago, ridiculous how good a shape it was in. That was in August, and it was fabulous how it played. The fairways, the Bermuda rough was deep. The fairways were running 16. You had to really shape it off the tee to hold that fairway. It played a lot shorter and harder, but it was beautiful. The course doesn't seem to get in that kind of condition with the Bermuda at this point.

Q. If you were commissioner for a day when would you think about holding this event?

FRED FUNK: I think May would be the ideal date because of where it falls -- you'd have Augusta and then this would be -- everybody builds up to Augusta, and then you'd have THE PLAYERS and you'd have one every month and go like that. You're not competing with football and it's a good time of year, not competing with NCAA basketball. I think it's a perfect time of year if they can grow the grass and get the course in that kind of condition.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Fred, for joining us.

End of FastScripts.

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