GREATER GREENSBORO CHRYSLER CLASSIC

April 22, 1999

Fred Funk

FRED FUNK: I had 7 birdies today. Three bogeys. Started on No. 10 and hit a wedge into a -- I hit it close on 10 with an 8-iron and missed it, but birdied 11 with a wedge in. Hit about 15 feet. 13, I hit it in the front bunker and blasted out about 12 feet and made that. 15, I hit another wedge about five feet. And then bogeyed -- 3-putted 16, and hit it left in the rough on 17. And then I birdied 18. 9-iron about five feet. And then hit the green just on the fringe on 2, in two, and chipped down about two feet. On 3, I hit it really close. Hit it about five feet and missed it. Had it pretty close on four and missed it. Had it real close on five, missed it. About six feet below the hole. And about a 10-footer on 6 and missed it. And 7, I hit it just 12 feet from the flag about less than a foot, just off the fringe, a really good lie, and I made bogey from there, and birdied 8 and 9. Hit a 4-iron into 8 about, oh, about seven feet. And then hit 9 in two; 2-putted. So it was an exceptional ball-striking round for me and really left a lot out there. The bogey on 7 really fried me. Kind of toasted my oats on that one. Just such a cup, simple shot, and I totally gave it away. It's the kind you can make, and I made a bogey. I missed a lot of short putts. I was hitting really good today. We lucked out with the weather and we really -- the wind really didn't kick up until about the 17th hole. It was very -- you had to go out there and not hit it in the rough. I've never seen this golf course play short like this. It's usually pretty wet and on the water, basically. But this year, it's real dry and the balls are running. It's playing really short. But you've still got a lot of rough, and you've got to keep it out of the rough. One thing with it playing short like this, though, especially with the wind direction it's on right now, is like 14 is downwind; a real long hole. A couple long holes are downwind. Even if you hit it in the rough, you can get an 8, 9 wedge on there and run it up there. It's good wind direction coming out of the south or southwest.

FRED FUNK: I think it's key every week. You know, for me, I take pride in trying to hit it straight. It's the key to my game. I've gotten a lot longer, too, when I'm swinging well. And now, even though my stats don't say I'm real long, I'm averaging like 267 or -8. I'm able to hit it really far. If I get the right conditions, like on some of the par fives, I hit 9 in two today. It's playing downwind. But still, that felt pretty good. That's like 600 yards, 585.

FRED FUNK: Looking back, I was just furious walking up 8 after I bogeyed 7, because I just felt like I lost 7 out there. I know I missed three inside six feet for birdie. And I missed a couple others. But, you know, it was just one of those days, I was really hitting good. I got my distance control down today. It was working pretty good.

FRED FUNK: It's been -- that part was good. It was really fun the first three or four weeks to play real solid, which is something I haven't done. Usually I will wait till the weather gets like this consistently, usually about 90 degrees in June, and I start playing good. It felt good to get off to that good start. But then it got to be frustrating, because I looked at my stats and I think at one time -- three weeks ago I was the best third Thursday and Friday scoring average. Right now, I'm third or fourth, and I let it go on Saturday and Sunday a little bit. I've been putting myself in position and not finishing it off, which is just opposite early in my career was like. When I've gotten in position, I've won most of the time. If I've led it going into Sunday, I've won it every time except for once. And I think that was at the Southern last year -- twice last year. It started last year at the Kemper. I started that trend last year and I've got to get off that trend. But it is nice getting out early on Thursday and Friday. It's just that I know I'm playing good. Now I've just got to let myself play good on the weekends. I've not been playing bad on the weekends. Just get some tough conditions like you see and -- like at TPC, I finished horrible there on Sunday. But it's been a fun year as far as getting off on Thursday and Friday is pretty good.

FRED FUNK: Well, I heard the weather forecast, and I thought last night they were saying it was going to be really high winds all day, especially picking up in the afternoon. I get out here; it's perfect. It's warm. Just a little breeze blowing. You get out here, and you can feel the moisture in the greens. They put a little bit on it because they really lost control of the few of the greens this year. I think the superintendents with the weather -- the TPC was a joke. Bay Hill was a joke. I disagreed with some articles with some fans writing in about guys complaining about our conditions. But my answer to that is if a golf course does not reward good golf shots, then they have lost control of the conditions. And they got to the point where I think at TPC and Bay Hill -- and it happens at Augusta a lot. But Augusta is Augusta. But we've been playing some really firm conditions. It's okay to have firm conditions. But when we are hitting shots in there that are just bouncing off the greens and running in the rough that's four inches deep and you can't get up-and-down, there's no imagination. That's when they have lost control of the golf course. They could have done that here. If they didn't put water last night and the night before, I think with the temperature and wind that was predicted they could have. It's going to be tougher for the guys in the afternoon. It's going to be tough for us tomorrow when we go out. I think it's really important that they try to give a golf course that rewards good golf shots. You get a golf course that's set up on TPC, I've going to go off on this for a second because it pissed me off sometimes, especially after reading these articles with people writing in. But you're playing into just the one-dimensional player, the long-ball hitter when you get it like that. A guy that can overpower the golf course. And there's a lot of guys on the TOUR that can overpower golf courses. And if they are hitting it into the fairway or wedge into green or 9-iron into the green, they can stop those, but the guys that hit it 260 or 265 and they are back trying to hit a 7-iron in there, they are hitting good golf shots and not getting rewarded because they can't get that little extra spin you need to hold it. That's where they are losing control. I think you've just got to look at a golf course and say: Is it rewarding good golf shots? And if it doesn't, they have got to figure out what it to do, whether it's redesign or water. We're playing for too much money out here, and there's too many good players out here to be playing goofy golf, and it gets to be goofy golf. And that sounds like sour grapes probably to a lot of people. I totally agree with Azinger and Stricker and anybody else that's complained and gotten bad publicity on it.

FRED FUNK: I was the second to last group last night in the Pro-Am, and he said a couple players felt that it was getting borderline. The greens -- I didn't play Tuesday in the back round but they said they were really firm on Tuesday. And they put some water on them Tuesday night and said they were just going to put enough to keep them alive and get a little softness to it, because it's also not fair when you have that few in the morning and they toast it out in the afternoon and the guys in the afternoon have no chance; so you want to have equal conditions or as close as you can. So yes, they are planning on putting water on it, to answer your question.

FRED FUNK: I would hope they do, because they are already dry and you've got the severe rough. And you have fairways here that's never played where the ball's really running. So there's a lot of fairways here, like 15 and 2, they are two par 5s, but you can't hold the fairways -- 2 and 15. Did I say 5? 2 and 15. They are par 5s. And unless you hit a perfect shot out there, you can't -- you can't hold the fairways because they feed into the rough. And everything on 15 over the hill is feeding into the rough. I've never been able to drive over the hill before, and today I'm driving it way over the hill and it just roles down into the high stuff, and there's no way it's going to stay up because it's running.

FRED FUNK: Well, in one regard to get the courses firmer because everybody is complaining they were too soft. And then they go the other extreme and they get them a little too hard. It wasn't completely their fault. They got a little bad luck with the weather. They weren't sure they were supposed to be getting the high wind like at TPC. And Bay Hill, Bay Hill was tough. There's some really tough greens there. When they get really hard and you try to shoot them up over the water and like and try to hold them -- if that's what they want to do, fine. I'm still going to play.

FRED FUNK: They were a little sticky. They weren't super fast. But it was in good condition. I've never seen the fairways near this good. The whole golf course is in great condition. It's just playing totally different than it's ever played before. The key is still to keep it out of the rough and get it on the right side of the hole.

FRED FUNK: It's in response to what the players wanted. They wanted to get firmer conditions, and that's fine because you do want to reward good golf shots. But you don't want to go beyond the edge where they have gone a couple weeks and they were a little bit, in my opinion, a little subject to what mother nature did it to them. Phoenix was another one where they kind of lost control of the greens.

FRED FUNK: Well, there's enough technology, and common sense, I think, is another one to go out there and say, Hey, do we want to have these guys bounce them on to these greens into the rough or do we want to watch them chip all day and watch good golf shots. Depends on what they want to do.

FRED FUNK: I'm not ever going to tell them to toughen them. If I ever design a golf course it will be tree-lined 30 yards wide. No rough.