VALERO TEXAS OPEN

September 29, 2002

Fred Funk

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Fred, congratulations on another great week. You came up a little bit short, but you certainly brought your late season magic to Texas with your fifth Top-4 finish in your last eight events. Talk about the week and really you're keeping this ride going.

FRED FUNK: I'll tell you, the first two rounds were really frustrating because I was playing pretty good. I kept making big numbers. I made a couple of doubles and a lot of bogeys and a lot of mistakes. The two 68s were not really good rounds, just because of the inconsistency. I think they could have been a lot better if I didn't make the untypical mistakes that I made.

Yesterday I played really solid. Pretty much mistake-free and shot a 64. At that point, I think I made 17 birdies and an eagle, so I had the equivalent of 19 birdies and was still only ten under par. So obviously you can see there were a lot of mistakes there.

And then today, I got off to a really solid start anyway. The birdie on 1 and could have birdied 4, but two pretty good pars on 2 and 3, so I felt good about that. And then I birdied 7, 8, and 9, and that was fun. That kept me going.

Then really the part of the round that really I could have let go was on 12. I had a bad tee shot and I had a shot where I was just hoping to make four and don't make worse than five, and ended up making a three. So that was a huge difference there. I birdied the next hole. So I'm leading the tournament. I didn't look at the score board and I assumed I was definitely in a really good position.

And I hit a good shot into 14, and got into that stuff behind the green and hit a poor chip. And if I could just have those two holes back and the birdie putt on 17, the chip on 14, the second shot on 16 was terrible. Then I hit a great tee shot on 17, hit a poor putt.

18, I played perfect. I thought I hit a really good iron in there. I didn't think I could hit an 8-iron there and tried to hit a high soft 7 and I did, and it was too much club. I actually had a good putt on that hole and misread the break. I thought it would go to the right. It didn't go to the right at all. I thought it would.

In the long run, it was a little disappointing. Yet to be in that position of winning a golf tournament, after so many mistakes I made early in the week, Thursday and Friday, I should feel pretty good about that. So that's the positive side of it.

Q. How bad was your lie on 14?

FRED FUNK: It wasn't that bad. It was just kind of nestled down in that rough. It wasn't that bad, really. I just decelerated. It's just one of those chips where you've got to commit to it, and I decelerated a little bit and it just comes out.

Actually, that was a bad way to play that hole, because it actually would have been better if I played aggressive. Even if I rolled it off the green on the other side, I would have had an uphill putt coming back. I really had a tricky 2-putt from where I ended up leaving myself. That wasn't a good play at all. That was pretty poor. And I've been working on that shot all week. You just never know how it's going to come out. I get out on the chipping green and six in a row and then you flub one, then you hit six good ones in a row and one goes rocking across the green. So just you never know what's it going to do.

Q. What happened on 16?

FRED FUNK: Perfect yardage to the pin, 81 yards which is about what I hit my 60 degree wedge, and I just kind of came over it and I think I flipped it a little bit. Any time you come over it a little bit, it goes a little further and there was no margin for error long past that pin. I got down to the bottom. That was a bad shot. That's where I could have kept some heat on him. I could have gotten back in and made birdie there and gone to 18, instead of going back to 16. That was a huge difference there.

Q. You were in the valley on 16, right?

FRED FUNK: Yes, I ended up down in the thing. I actually hit a very good first putt. I thought I had a pretty good second putt, but either I misread it or pulled it a little bit. I don't know what I did there. Either way, it was a really bad bogey and at a bad bad time. I could at least keep the heat on. I saw Freddie make the birdie in front of me. I had an easy shot. To be my only bogey on the weekend and have a shot like that was pretty bad.

Q. Earlier in the week we talked about your new enthusiasm that you brought from the Ping-Pong match with Duval. Did you find that this week here?

FRED FUNK: That's something you can't force. What happened in Minnesota was definitely a magical week. You know, you can't fake it. That's the thing. You can get out there and there's a time and a place to do the fist pumps and do whatever and get fired up. Today I got fired up. I mean, I got a little fired up on 9 when I made that putt there, and made the birdie on 12 out of nowhere. I was excited there. I couldn't keep -- if I could have kept the momentum going a little bit, it would have been a lot more fun coming in, for everybody, including me. But I didn't do it.

Again, I got to focus in on all the positive. When I come away from this, I have to realize second place or tied for second wasn't all that bad. I just want to win so bad. That's what is disappointing. I feel like I'm playing good enough. I'm getting myself in position, and today I obviously got myself in really good position. I just didn't finish the way I needed to finish to win a golf tournament. You just can't make a bogey coming in. You have to keep making birdies, especially on a course like this, coming in and I didn't do it. I had all the momentum in the world, five holes to go, and I went the wrong way.

Q. Were you aware that three 40-somethings were battling for the lead?

FRED FUNK: Yes, I said to my caddie, other than Tom Kite and D.A. Weibring and maybe Jay Haas, we're the oldest guys, and all three of us were leading at the time or tied. Yes, it was pretty neat. I love seeing the old guys beat the young guys.

Q. You've had a good summer, haven't you?

FRED FUNK: Yes.

Q. If you had won today what were you going to do with your family?

FRED FUNK: I was going to take all of Sharon's side of the family and treat them to Kapalua; planes, everything. So they're out.

Q. Where do you go in second place?

FRED FUNK: Probably down to Austin.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thanks, Freddie.

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