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BUICK CHAMPIONSHIP

August 27, 2004

Fred Funk

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

LAURY LIVSEY: We'd like to thank Fred Funk for joining us. You are tied for the lead after the second round and earlier this year you shot a 69 64 at Sony in Hawaii, and you're one better on another par 70 course. Can you talk about your day a little bit.

FRED FUNK: Today was a really good day. I hit every green but the last hole. I didn't even hit any fringes. The last hole I got kind of unfortunate. I hit a really good drive and got out there on one of those moguls and I was on the left side and the ball was way above my feet. I aimed at that right bunker thinking it was going to hook with a 9 iron and it didn't hook enough and I got stuck in that hard rough and hit a bad chip.

That was really the only downside of the whole day, just a little unfortunate break on the last hole.

LAURY LIVSEY: Are you surprised a little bit how you're playing? Did you feel this coming on at all.

FRED FUNK: I did Tuesday. I felt something was going to help, and then it was started working at the Pro Am today, and then yesterday when I trusted it, it was really good, and today I trusted it a little bit more, and I'm just reinforcing it now. I was really pleased with the way I hit 6 iron I hit actually I hit every shot perfect coming in from 14 on, drives, second shots, putts, everything was just dead on, and I felt really good about that.

The 6 iron I hit on 16, I was kind of in between. I knew I had to kill a 6 iron, didn't really want to hit a 5 iron to go long, but I'm over the ball thinking if I miss this thing a little bit it could come back in the water, and that's not a good thought, but then I just stuck with the real aggressive swing thought and just hit it perfect. I missed the putt, but it was really a good shot.

So I was real pleased. I've got something I'm working on, and I'm hitting very few poor shots now. A few weeks prior I was hitting very few good shots. That's a big difference.

Q. Mentally with you being on a roll coming down the stretch today, mentally do you take that 18th hole and put that in perspective and know that you did much better right before that?

FRED FUNK: Well, I just got unlucky. You never feel good finishing with a bogey especially in the middle of the fairway with a 9 iron on a hole that is usually a pretty long hole. I put that behind me. It was a weird stance there. It was an extreme stance, not a weird stance. It was just an extreme ball above my feet with a short iron. They tend to go pretty hard left, and I was swinging really hard at it, and I thought it was easier for me to swing hard 9 instead of an easy 8 with the lie I had, and I just overplayed it.

Q. Did you have a flat lie on 17? It looked on TV like you were uneven.

FRED FUNK: 17 was perfect. That fairway is pretty flat there. I hit the 3 wood off the tee and it was it little more right towards the water than I wanted, but it was perfect. It went out there about 280 from the tee, so it left me with just a wedge. But those holes were playing downwind.

Q. Did you have a bad lie near the green there on 18?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, real bad. It's real thick, just real thick, juicy rough that's kind of wet still. I just didn't commit to it, and I decelerated just a little bit and it went right out in front of me. It was just a non committing it's funny how often you hit bad shots when you just don't commit to the shot you need to hit. I really needed to swing hard at that thing and let the club do the work, and I chickened out on it. There's a case where I'm trying not to make a mistake and I made a mistake anyway.

Q. Can we talk about your two birdies on the front nine, 2 and 4?

FRED FUNK: 2, I hit a good drive and I was in between. I hit the 54 degree wedge. I think I was 80 yards to the hole and tried to take the spin off of it, but it had a tremendous amount of spin and it spun back to about 22 feet or 25 feet and I made that.

I didn't hit that good a drive on No. 4, but it's a really good hole, and I was fine on the left side. I hit a 5 iron in there today. Yeah, I hit a 5 iron to about ten feet, 12 feet, and made that, and that was it on the front side, I think.

LAURY LIVSEY: And 14 and 15.

FRED FUNK: 14, I hit a really good drive and tried to play it that's another thing. I can play a draw now, which I haven't had in a long time, and I set up tried to hit a hard draw out there and I hit a really good shot, got down with an iron and hit that to about four feet.

15, I hit driver and just held onto it a little bit and it was to the right of the green, pin high, and I hit a good chip to about, I guess, six, seven, eight feet, and made that.

17, I hit the 3 wood and the pitching wedge to about five feet.

Q. Have you played with Zach Johnson at all and do you know anything about his game?

FRED FUNK: I played with him at Memorial the first two rounds with Jack Nicklaus. I said it was the "Jack and Zach Attack." Zach is a really, really good player, strong player, hits the ball a mile with no effort. He's a future stud out here. He'll be right there by the time when Sunday night rolls around. I would anticipate him being right there.

Q. He's a rookie going into Saturday, you know, sort of in the lead, and you've been around for a while. Do you remember how you may have felt maybe your rookie season if you were in contention on Saturday?

FRED FUNK: Well, the rookies now are a lot different than the rookies back then. They're a lot more seasoned with the Nationwide Tour and their backgrounds. They're just so much more seasoned than back when I came out on Tour, and I was an old rookie, a 32 year old rookie scared to death. But the guys now are just so ready to go. They're not scared of anything. As far as their physical talent, sometimes their mind might get in their way, but I don't see Zach as one of those kind of players. He's very good. I'm very much impressed with him when I play with him. He just has the total game.

Q. You've got that winning feeling right now?

FRED FUNK: I've got that where it's fun to play feeling again. I haven't had that in a while, so I'm really looking forward to going out, no matter what I do. If I hit a couple shots poorly, I feel like I'm hitting so many good ones that I can get this thing going, and I'm really excited about this Ryder Cup coming up, where if you asked me three days ago after Firestone, I wouldn't have been too excited I was excited about going to the Ryder Cup but I wasn't excited about how I was playing. Now I feel like I can be a major contribution to the team and play with the talent that I knew I had, I just didn't know where it was.

Q. That means a great deal to you, doesn't it, representing the nation and

FRED FUNK: I just want to go in there yes, it does. It means a tremendous amount. It's like making an Olympic team. It's a great accomplishment for anyone. It's definitely not old hat to me like it is to some of these guys like Phil and Jim Furyk and Tiger and those guys that make every team. It just is a testimony to how good those guys really are, to be that consistent and making all these national teams. It's phenomenal. It's a big burden on them because they've got to play every year and they're under the microscope every year, but for me I'm very excited about it, and I'm going to take my enthusiasm in there with me, and DiMarco and Chris Riley and Jay Haas are just so excited about being there. All of us are excited about being there, but I think I'll single out us four that are just extremely fired up to go for all different reasons. First time, may be the last time. For me it'll be the last time because I'll be moving on. I'm not going to do the Jay Haas thing (laughter).

Q. Have you had a chance to even have you seen Hal yet?

FRED FUNK: I talked to Hal. Not much. I guess the first major time we're going to get together is on Monday of Oakland Hills, and with the matches starting Friday, it's a long week by the time you get there Sunday night, and by the time Friday rolls around you're ready to be chomping at the bit I'm sure. He did say he sent a CD to everybody. I haven't seen it yet, personalized to each player, expressing his acknowledging the fact that you're on the team and what to expect, and I'm sure it's a little bit of in your face type enthusiasm tape, too.

Q. Not Hal, he doesn't get

FRED FUNK: Or Jackie Burke. It'll be incredible.

LAURY LIVSEY: All right, Fred, good playing.

End of FastScripts.

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