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

BOOZ ALLEN CLASSIC

June 23, 2004

Fred Funk

POTOMAC, MARYLAND

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: You had a wonderful week last week. Looks like once again you had a lot of fun at one of the major championships. Why don't you just talk about that and then we'll get into questions.

FRED FUNK: Well, it was a good week, considering the state of my game going into it. I wasn't playing very well, but I've been working extremely hard on my game. I worked hard in the last five or six weeks, still struggling a little bit with my ball striking, but honestly I played really well going into Saturday. And then I was really nervous Saturday teeing off because I still didn't know where my game was, and I just butchered the first two holes.

Then I turned that around and actually had the lead going down 14. And I could look over and I saw 18 scoreboard and I had the lead by myself, and I went to my caddie I said "Hey, Mark, Mark I'm leading the U.S. Open."

He said, "Doesn't matter till tomorrow."

I said, "I'm leading the U.S. Open. Give me a little break." I wish what I would have done is a little victory dance, letting everybody know I'm leading right now and I've got it right now; I'm in there right now. But obviously that couldn't happen.

I actually relaxed a lot at that point even though I made three bogeys coming in. It was just before that time, the golf course was playing so hard, starting to play so difficult on Saturday, and it was getting to be kind of goofy golf. I knew everybody else was struggling and I just said, I'm just not going to let this golf course get to me and keep a good attitude and I did.

Unfortunately I didn't finish as well as I wanted to that day. I think I shot 72; I think I shot 72 that day. And then Sunday, actually when I got finished I did a few interviews and I was probably there for another hour, it was almost pitch dark and the wind just started blowing about 30 miles an hour that night and it blew all night long. And I knew Sunday was just going to be ridiculous, and it was. It was way over the top.

I was real excited being paired with Phil. It was kind of like the pairing I had with Tiger at Hazeltine. The only difference was they were rooting for Phil a lot more than me, and at Hazeltine it was they were rooting for me more than Tiger. So it was a lot of fun. The atmosphere was incredible.

I didn't play that well, but neither did many other people on Sunday, just because of the conditions. The USGA just did an awful job with the setup of the golf course. The kind of measure of a golf course, if you hit a good shot, you should be rewarded; and good shots just didn't get rewarded. It became just a battle of attrition, really. Just everybody, I think 79 was the average, which is ridiculous I think. You have the best players in the world, and they are shooting that high, it's just not right.

But they can make their arguments and we can make ours. USGA will continue to do what I think they always want to do, which is make pars nearly impossible to shoot and we'll go out there and try to do it.

It was an exciting tournament. I'm kind of rambling on here, but I'm sure everybody felt I read the analogy, but I actually thought of it immediately right when Phil 3 putted 17. I'm not a huge horse racing fan, but watching the Belmont and when Smarty Jones lost, it felt like just such a downer. He had a chance to win the Triple Crown and didn't get it, and when Phil 3 putted 17, it was basically over, and you could just feel the air just go out of everybody. Everybody just went, ahhh, that was no good.

Phil told me on the range, let the winner come out of our group. And I knew I didn't have a chance to win shortly into the round, but Phil was playing great. He was playing good enough to win the golf tournament, but apparently Retief made a lot of 1 putts. It was an exciting tournament until 17. It became a little anti climactic at that point.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Now you're close to home, a very familiar place.

FRED FUNK: This is my major.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Why don't you just talk about this tournament and the changes in the name of the tournament and the excitement here.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, I think it is an excitement. Booz Allen has made a commitment to try to get this tournament in the forefront with some of the best tournaments, and they want to do everything they can to generate a better field. The players are happy about coming here and we are just trying to figure out a strategy. Obviously a lot of things have to do with where it is on the schedule and the venue, combination.

This time of year, you're fighting with a lot of prestigious tournaments that are preceding this thing for the six to eight weeks ahead of it, and where it is on the schedule this year, it's a little tough because everybody is just worn out. But when it follows Memorial and Colonial, and now Charlotte, really successful tournaments that people are going to go to, they have to pick and choose. So it's a little bit of that.

And next year, I heard that it's definitely going to Congressional and we are going to be making some changes to this golf course in the meantime. I think it can create a lot of excitement in the future.

It's exciting to have a sponsor that really is dedicated. You can tell the difference when you go to other tournaments around the TOUR sites; that when a tournament sponsor is really into it how much the tournament can change. And Ford is one sponsor down at Doral that has just made that tournament really special. So you can see that if the title sponsor really wants to make an effort, it shows pretty quick. And the players have really fallen in love with the Ford sponsorship down there, and I can see that happening up here with Booz Allen.

Q. Where this falls in the schedule, does this become even more demanding for you than it normally is?

FRED FUNK: No. I enjoy coming back here and playing. I actually have found a way in the past few years to play this course really well it used to be, I saw Inside the PGA TOUR this morning, the 12th most difficult course on the Tour last year, and it's usually one of most difficult, always Top 15, Top 10. And it was always a little too long for me. The long holes were too long.

But a few years ago, I guess four years ago when I had the lead going into Sunday, after that week, I kind of knew I could play this course pretty good, and I've learned to really accept the fact that I can play this course well and obviously when you feel that way, you usually like the golf course. It's matured into what I think is a really good test really good test of golf. Shot values are really important, especially that stretch, I think from 9 through 14 are pretty neat, following that creek and everything. It's a demanding week, but a week I look forward to every week.

Q. Player the week before the U.S. Open, will use that week to prepare for the U.S. Open. Does that take pressure off this week that it's after the U.S. Open and guys can ease up a little bit?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, I think the ones that played in the U.S. Open last week will feel more relaxed. If they played last week, they are going to come here and they are actually going to see green grass, which that in itself is nice. (Laughter.)

We didn't see any green grass. They even lost the range. The range was dead last week by Sunday. We always thought grass was supposed to be green and it was just all brown last week. That in itself makes it more appealing to the eye when you're out there. And you're just going to have a more relaxed feeling when you're out there playing. U.S. Open setups are usually totally different than our normal setups. Not that it's that easy, I've seen this course play as difficult as the U.S. Open a couple of years when the greens got rock hard. I don't think that would be the case this week.

Q. What do you think happened to Phil on 17?

FRED FUNK: Nothing happened to Phil, other than the fact that when he hit that bunker shot, I think nine out of ten times he would have gotten but the ball released a little longer than he thought, and I think two things happened there. One, he didn't quite hit the bunker shot that he wanted to, because I know he didn't want to leave it behind the hole. But two, there was a lot of stones in the bunker, little pebbles, and when some of those stones when a stone got between the ball and the club, it took all of the spin off, and it would release out. And it looked like he hit a good bunker shot and it just didn't have any check on it. You know how much he can spin the ball and control the ball. It just released out. I think he might have even gotten a stone between the ball and the club at impact and it released behind the hole.

Now, TV did not do it justice, but it was a pretty good slope. If he missed that putt, like he did, no matter how easy he hit it, it was going to go by the five or six feet it did, and those are not gimmees coming back. Obviously, it was something that we wish I wish didn't happen and he wishes didn't happen, but it just is a position he put himself in coming out of that bunker. You could see when he walked out of that bunker, the replay when he climbed out of that bunker and he saw where that ball went, he knew he was in trouble on that putt. You could see the look on his face like, gee, I didn't want to put it there.

It had nothing to do with nerves or choking or anything else. He was walking up 16, Mark and I my caddie, we said, "Phil's got this thing," and that was before he birdied 16, because he was playing great. Seemed real confident, he was real relaxed; and then he birdied 16 and I thought, he's definitely going to at least get into a playoff I thought.

And he really didn't hit a bad shot on 17. You can't miss it right there, and he was in the bunker that you he had a perfect angle to the pin and it just came out too high.

Q. You consider this tournament your major. Tell us what goes into your thought process coming to play your home and how important this tournament is to you.

FRED FUNK: Well, I've always wanted to come down 18 and have a chance to win this tournament. I did twice and the one year, I really let it go, I let it go early in the round. I didn't let it go on 18; I let it go when I teed off the first four holes. But it was always a tournament I dreamed of playing really well in front of my hometown and home boys, I always used to root for the home guys, Donnie Hammond, guys in the local qualifiers. I think if you interviewed any of us from here, any hometown boy from on the Tour, whatever site it is, they want to play really good where they are from, no matter whether they live there now or not.

Q. This tournament is a favorite for some of the young guys trying to make a name for themselves and if you look at the field this year, with Bill Haas and Kevin Na, what do you think these young guns are bringing into golf?

FRED FUNK: Well, that's the thing one thing that upsets me that we see every year, upsets me and a lot of the pros. It's unfair and upsets the tournament directors is when the media prints who is not at a tournament because some of the marquis guys are not there. There's so much talent at the other end that guys break through. Kevin Na is an incredible player, 20 years old. Obviously Bill Haas is coming off the all time best stroke average in college history, turning pro this week. That's an exciting story.

I think it needs to be focused when you don't have a tournament, when you don't have your marquis guys of Phils and Tigers and Vijays, and obviously you want the marquis guys because you want to see them. But the talent definitely does not drop that much. It's incredible how much talent is at the bottom, the whole field can win the golf tournament, or any golf tournament. I think there's a lot of story lines there that people really the real golf enthusiast would really like to know. They would like to know more about the younger guys that are coming up the Charles Howells, all of our young guys, are wonderful guys they are going to carry the banner in the future. It just seems so much more mature for their years. I had not figured out how, I guess the game of golf really does that, if you don't have to do all the work, I guess that makes you mature before your years. That's what it seems like with these kids. Kevin Na, I don't know if he's been in here yet, you ought to have him in here. He's a really interesting guy and a really unbelievable talent; and obviously Bill Haas, I'm sure he's been in. Some great story lines. Just go right on down the list. I haven't seen the field of who is here and who is not here.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Adam Scott is here.

FRED FUNK: Adam is here? He's an unbelievable talent here. There's a lot of talent here. And I'm playing with John Daly, he's a story himself. You can write a book with him. So there's a lot of characters out here and it's a lot of fun.

Q. (Inaudible.)

FRED FUNK: I don't know how old Corey (Pavin) is. He's younger than me for sure. There's no reason if you stay motivated that age has any factor and Jay Haas is the best example of that. He totally got motivated to not really get ready for the Senior Tour but make the Ryder Cup and see how good he can play again before he makes that next journey, whatever that is.

He started playing really well last year and this year is playing great again. There's really no reason that age has anything to do with it, as long as you're healthy enough and motivated enough to play well.

Q. This question has two parts. One, you mentioned how great it is to be here. Could you, one, talk about the love affair you have with this area. And two, they are going to make some changes to Avenel. Are there a couple of holes that you can say emphatically don't change because you love this hole?

FRED FUNK: 14 is a great short hole. It's funny how some of our best holes on the Tour are our shortest holes on the Tour: 10 at Riviera, 14 at Memorial, you go on and on. 10 at Westchester, 7 at Westchester. They are just great, great fun holes because there's so many options to play. It's just not hit it off the tee and hit it on the green. You have a chance to reach the green, the long hitters do.

14, 18 they don't need to change. I'd like to see 9 change a little bit. I think it's too high up. When it gets windy, the ball is just in the air for so long, you have no control whether that thing is coming down; and a pretty demanding tee shot especially when the pin is back.

I don't know how to change it at this point, but that's one I would change. And I'd like to see 6 change a little bit, and probably the only way I would change it would be make the greens a little bit deeper so it would reward guys going for the green a little bit more, but keep it as a par 4 and keep that tree that's in play on the right side so you have to keep it down the left side.

I had heard they were going to do that and Ben asked me what I would do to change the golf course, and I said I would just tweak it here and there. It's not a re routing deal. I would like to see somehow get it more spectator friendly down through 9, 10,11, 12 and 14 and 13 to figure out how to get more people through there without getting this bottleneck. I don't know how to do that. I don't know whether they can clear out the trees some or what, but those holes are too good to change. There's really no room to change them, anyway. Just make it a little more spectator friendly for the tournament week, I think that would be really important, too.

Q. What kind of a fitness program are you on?

FRED FUNK: Haagen Daz. Haagen Daz, a special fitness program. I do like my Haagen Daz.

I'm in the fitness trailer a lot, an awful lot. It's eat that at night and try to lean up in the day. That's what I do.

I do a lot of stretching. I'm still tight. I actually got on a really good strength program. I've had a chronic bad left shoulder and I've been working on that for the last ten weeks. It doesn't give me any pain anymore, which is the first time since 1986; I hurt it here playing in a Pro Am at Woodmont in 1986. It's bothered me ever sense and I finally found a doctor that's put me on a program to do it. It takes me 40 minutes just to do my shoulder three days a week and I do both sides just to even it out, but it takes 40 minutes just to do the shoulder workout; and five weeks into the program, the pain went away. So, that was great. It's easy for me to go in there and do that program because it was all so quick and that's kind of where my focus has been the last 12 weeks or so, 10 weeks.

Q. Do you do anything special when you're back here?

FRED FUNK: We are this week. I'm going to tonight I'm going down to University of Maryland, to Lito's Pizza (ph) and we are having a reunion with all of the guys that grew up at University of Maryland golf course, the range, all of the guys that worked there. We are trying to get as many guys that still live around here to come in and we are just going to have a little night of pizza and fun and just see each other again. We haven't seen each other that much. My sister is still here. I've had two outings, I had a charity thing at River Bend yesterday where I auctioned a round of golf and I had to pay that off yesterday. And I had a thing at Cape Cod on Monday. So I've been running around. Today is the first day I got here I just got here ten minutes ago .

Q. Inaudible?

FRED FUNK: No, I made a point never to anybody who could beat me. I played for their food money. It was a subsidy to my income. (Laughter.) I had a few guys that were really good, and one of them, he's the main teacher here, Frank Rosen (ph) is the main teacher here. His first assistant is John Haddock (ph) who played for me. He was my No. 1 player at Maryland. A lot of them are still into golf but none of them made it to the Tour. Bill Bonchauk (ph), after I was coaching, is in the field, and he's playing this week so I really look forward to him playing. I heard another University of Maryland guy qualified.

Q. A little off the wall question. You played in the Presidents Cup in South Africa, the same two captains are going to be here. I assume that's another one of your goals including the Ryder Cup. Can you talk about how much fun that was and whether you like the system of breaking the tie there was a tie last time and let a tie go again this time?

FRED FUNK: Well, realizing this is the biggest thing I've ever accomplished and actually being a pick of instead of making the team on my own merit, which would have been nice, but after getting picked by Jack, I kind of reflected on it a couple of days. It meant more to me that Jack felt enough about me to pick me to be part of his team so that was really neat.

And then the actual experience was unbelievable. Playing, represent your country and playing as a team, it was really neat. The dinners at night, even the night we got blitzed, we had zero points I think Saturday night, and we were having a ball at dinner just having a great time.

The tie thing, I don't think it should ever come down to two guys representing their team. Tiger said it was the most pressure he's ever felt in his life, and yet both he and Ernie just buried those putts, and that's why they are who they are, they can do that kind of stuff. I don't know how they could even draw it back.

But it was an incredible experience. So I know they are doing something different with the ties. Either they should just let it be a tie or yeah, that's fine with me. The odds of it actually ending in a tie are so slim with so many points and so many scenarios. If you do battle all either that or you have the whole squad go out there and you break the tie; that's a logistical nightmare.

Q. One more thing on the Presidents Cup. Everybody at some point is going to say it's Ryder Cup versus Presidents Cup. Does this last event, the way it ended, the fans, did it jack it up in terms of prestige?

FRED FUNK: I think it does. The only thing we're missing in the Presidents Cup is the history. It doesn't have the history of the Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup was the traditional match play deal that everybody it just had so much history. We just used to beat up on the Europeans and now they beat us as much as we beat them. The Presidents Cup is now stronger than any European team now can field, and I think it's a tough competition, to be honest with you. It just doesn't have the history. I think it's really exciting.

One drawback I see to both events is that now one is one year, one is the other year, and you're basically going to have your marquis guys, Tiger and Phil and Davis, our studs on our team are going to be playing every year. Now, hopefully they stay interested and want to play every year, because it's a tough week emotionally. Every other year, it's going to be a big travel issue. You've got to keep Tiger really wanted to play last year and he was really into it, and I think because of how much fun the team was having it got everybody really up there pumped up and ready to play. And it was fun.

But the only downside I see is that you're going to have our same guys getting beat up on by the media, getting beat up on just in the competition itself every year, and that can wear on them after a while.

Q. When you turn 49, will that be the last sort of

FRED FUNK: I would love to make that team. Next year is my last full year on this tour, and I plan on making a quick jump, a leap to the SENIOR TOUR. So I'm actually doing the opposite of Jay. I'm looking forward to going, and he didn't want to go. That's fine. He can stay over here and I'll go over there. That's a big goal.

I just moved up to 9th in the Ryder Cup and that's exciting. That would be ridiculous at this point in my career to make a Presidents Cup and then maybe make a Ryder Cup and make another Presidents Cup. I'd like to see them bring the same two teams at the Presidents Cup and do it again. That will never happen, though.

I never played RTJ and being here in the D.C., area, that would be huge, I think. I think it would be great. It was a great event in South Africa. I thought it was a wonderful the way they presented that thing over there.

Q. You're playing with John Daly, how do you prevent his length off the tee from mentally affecting you during your round?

FRED FUNK: I get that every week, every guy in the planet hits it by me. John just is fun to watch, everybody knows he can't drive it. It's no big deal if he's 60, 80, 100 yards ahead of you, because he's going to do that to almost everybody, except for some of the guys out here, Hank Kuehne. Victor, I saw him hit the ball for the first time Monday, and he's longer than Kuehne. He's unbelievable.

It won't affect me. I'm just going to publically say that.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Fred for joining us.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297