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BUICK CHAMPIONSHIP

August 28, 2004

Fred Funk

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

LAURY LIVSEY: Well, first of all, we'd like to congratulate Fred Funk. You're the 54 hole leader so you're this week's Crestor Charity Challenge winner, and for your efforts $50,000 will be donated to the Greater Bristol Visiting Nurses Association and $50,000 will be donated to the health care charity of your choice, which you can designate, so congratulations.

FRED FUNK: That health care; local or anywhere?

LAURY LIVSEY: It's your choice, anywhere.

FRED FUNK: Say that again.

LAURY LIVSEY: It's $100,000 goes to local Greater Bristol Visiting Nurses Association and $50,000 to the health care charity of your choice, so you'll have to give that some thought.

FRED FUNK: Okay. I wonder if Stick in the truck needs it.

LAURY LIVSEY: Well, you're the leader going into tomorrow. Want to talk about your round?

FRED FUNK: Yeah. It was not near as good as yesterday, that's for sure. The fact that I shot 69, it was a pretty good struggle out there today. I started off really well on 1 and 2. 1 through 5, I really played pretty solid. I could have birdied all five, but I was 2 under, and then I hit a terrible tee shot I was pulling my tee shots a little bit on all the holes, but I just came right over on No. 6 and had to lay back and long story short, I made bogey on the par 5, which you don't want to do, and then drove it good on the next hole and hit a 9 iron that landed up on the top tier and it was concrete and bounced over up into the high stuff and I hit a bad chip and a bad putt and gave back my two birdies.

I hit a nice shot on 8 and skulled it over the fairway bunker on 9 and hit a bad chip. It wasn't a bad putt, it was a terrible chip. I turned what could have been a really good front nine into 1 over.

10, I hit a drive out there. The fairway is really muddy and my ball was just like a snowball with mud underneath it, and I just punched a 4 iron in there not having any idea where this ball is going to go. Fortunately it went straight, 12 or 15 feet from the hole. I hit a terrible putt, but I was really happy with that second shot. Then I birdied 11, bogeyed 12 after another bad tee shot, but then I kind of settled down and finished real well. The only unfortunate thing was I really look back on it was a couple of drives. I hit a perfect tee shot on 15. It went over the green but it was a perfect angle chipping back into that pin for birdie. I actually almost made the chip but it rolled all the way down, hit it way too hard, so I had to take my par there, which was a working man's par after my chip that went down the tier.

Then I had a good shot at birdie on 16 and didn't hit a good putt there.

18 was hard to get close to. I hit a wedge into the green and just didn't hit it that close but still almost made the putt.

Anyway, long story short, 69 was a pretty good number out there overall for me. I was kind of surprised that guys didn't that were at 7 and 6, somebody didn't shoot really low. So now whenever the leaders shoot around even par, it's obviously pretty bunched up. I haven't seen the board, but it's got to be pretty tight. How many guys within three shots, four shots?

Q. 20 guys within four.

FRED FUNK: So I think what will happen tomorrow is by the time I tee off, somebody is already going to be to double figures more than likely. You've just got to ignore that and go play.

Q. When is the last time you played with Tom Byrum?

FRED FUNK: I can't remember. Tom and I are really good friends. I enjoy being around him. He's just a great guy. He's been playing pretty solid, so I'm really looking forward to playing with him tomorrow.

Q. How much of a factor was the weather? Everybody was hot out there?

FRED FUNK: That might have been a little bit to do with it. The golf course was a little inconsistent as far as the greens. Some of them were hard as a brick and other ones were soft, and it was hard to get a feel on how the ball was going to react on the greens. Some of the putts looked fast and they weren't fast, and some of the ones that didn't look fast were fast. They were inconsistent today as far as their firmness and speed.

Q. The 20 guys bunched up, how do you approach it coming in on a course like this?

FRED FUNK: Hopefully I get off to a good start. Everybody wants to get off to that dream start tomorrow and make some birdies early and catch some momentum and then go. What you don't want to do is make a couple bogeys early and fall back. You can't panic at that point. If I had panicked today I wouldn't be where I am today right now. You've just got to go out and relax and play, and ideally if you can do that, that's great. It's a lot easier said than done, but just be patient. I think you've got to play smart and aggressive tomorrow. The pins will be tucked. It's usually 18 pretty good pins on Sunday, so you've got to pick and choose based on how you hit your driver where you're going to go at the pins and where you're not. Hopefully your putter is on fire. Basically you really need to have that happen.

I'd like to make as many birdies as I made today and forget the mistakes, get rid of the mistakes.

Q. I was just wondering for this course in particular not being a long hitters' course lends itself to a certain strategy?

FRED FUNK: I think it is a long hitters' course because it has a lot of room off the tee. The fairways are pretty wide. It's bombs away for a lot of the guys. 6 has been pretty hard to reach for anybody because it's into the wind. 13 is just a tricky hole, but the long hitters can get there but it doesn't do them much good because the pins have been so tough up there.

15, I can reach 15, so that's not that big a deal. Fortunately it's not so long that the short hitters don't have a chance, and when I'm hitting it solid, I'm playing long. As long as I'm hitting the ball solid, I'm okay. That's been my issue is coming into this tournament I hadn't been hitting the ball that solid, so when we're playing a real long golf course it's a huge disadvantage.

Q. I would think that maybe until this tournament were you playing it safe a little bit so you made the Ryder Cup, maybe not play yourself out of a tournament, go for the high finish? Will you come out looking for victory more than at other tournaments?

FRED FUNK: No, I wouldn't agree with you because at Milwaukee I really knew I needed some points. For some reason I was so relaxed on Sunday. That was the most fun round I've had in a long time other than yesterday's round where I was really trying to I was trying to win the golf tournament but I never watched the scoreboard, which I usually hawk the scoreboard. When I saw the scoreboard and looked away, I wanted to really focus in on what I was doing, and try and make as many birdies as I could and tied for 2nd and I got a lot of points that week which vaulted me into position to make the Ryder Cup. If I could get in that frame of mind tomorrow, that would be great. I played really aggressive all day long that day, just trying to make as many birdies as I possibly could, and it paid off. It didn't matter if the pins were in the corners, I went at every single one of them. Not that that was a smart thing to do, and I wasn't hitting the ball nearly as well as I am now. Hopefully I can get in that same frame tomorrow, and if I feel that way, that's what I'll do. Today I didn't feel that way. I couldn't get myself to go at a lot of pins until late in the round, for whatever reason, I don't know.

End of FastScripts.

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