MERCEDES CHAMPIONSHIPS

January 10, 1999

Fred Funk

FRED FUNK: Y'all fire at me. I don't have anything to say.

FRED FUNK: Yeah. He played -- from 9 on, he played flawless, other than one shot maybe, the tee shot on 12. He had a good up-and-down on 1, 1 and 2, and a really good 2-putt on 3. Then he made his bogey on 4. He made a good par save on 5. Then from that point on, he just played really solid. He just got right through. He got through that bad stretch. When he birdied 6, it really settled him down, I think. He knocked it -- not that he was unsettled, (laughter), but he was pretty much knew it. I think he knew he was in control at that point. I actually thought there for a minute, I was able to put a little heat on him. I mean, made par on 4, birdied 5, had it in there pretty close on 6 and he makes it. He makes it on 6; I miss. I 3-putt 7. That was all she wrote as far as me catching him, I think. He just really went on from there. He just played real steady. I think more or less he knew he had the tournament. It was just fire, not fall back. He was just going forward.

FRED FUNK: No. Yes and no. I am one to watch the other player, because I really enjoy watching good golf, too. To watch a David Duval, a Tiger Woods, those guys, it's fun to watch guys that have a game that I don't have, that can overpower a golf course. Every now and then they can just turn it up a notch and really show some superstardom that they have, or the reason they are superstars. I don't put myself in that superstar category because I know I'm not. Those guys are. The reasons they are, they have that extra that the Michael Jordans of our TOUR. They have that little extra. They're all great athletes in the NBA, but he dominates. How does a guy with all those athletes dominate in that sport, then in our sport you're going to have our dominate guys. David right now is our dominate guy. He has no weakness. The thing with golf, there's so many intangibles to scoring. You don't have to be a long hitter. You don't have to be a great iron player. You don't have to be the great putter. But he's all of it. He has no weakness. He's a great driver of the golf ball, he's extremely straight. He has great control of his irons. He has -- he just chips, everything is good. You can just go right through the whole thing. Then his mental game is as good as anybody's, if not better. He's hard to beat. He has to be -- I think he has to have the flu or something to not play good. Even then, it might just slow him down a little bit, he'll probably shoot even lower. He gets in his own little rhythm. He doesn't get out of it. You can see that. I was watching that today. He never got out of rhythm. He never hit a shot unless he was ready to hit it. Never hit a putt unless he was ready to hit it. When he was a little bit in trouble, he had a tricky up-and-down on 1 and 2, a real tricky chip, best chip I've seen -- one of the best chips I've ever seen on 8, he was short of the green. Probably 80-foot chip, 30-foot break. He played it up that big ridge, let it come back to almost a gimme. You see a guy with the nerve to hit that shot, the touch to pull it off under the circumstances he was in, it's amazing. He's got it all. You can say all the superlatives -- whatever that word is.

FRED FUNK: Thank you.

FRED FUNK: No. We were talking. That's a really good spot if you're going to slow down, he likes watching the surfers. We were talking about the surfers, doing all that. David and I talked all day. I tried to upset him with his car last night. I took his car to the restaurant, messed with his seats, mirrors, turned the wipers on. That didn't faze him either (laughter). I was trying to get him before he even got to the course, but it didn't work.

FRED FUNK: The valets forgot it was up here. I just got a ride down. I get down there, they said, "No, it's up there. David's car is right here, he went with somebody's else." I took David's car. Had all the seats up on the steering wheel, tried to get the mirrors screwed up. I told the valet guy to leave it alone.

FRED FUNK: Everything. Heaters on the seat, yeah, everything. I would have flattened the tires. If it was his car, I would have (laughter).

FRED FUNK: I forgot the radio. I should have turned that all the way up.

FRED FUNK: That I was going to do it last night?

FRED FUNK: I told him on 17. I said, "By the way, how was the car?" Didn't faze him. You just can't piss the guy off (laughter).

FRED FUNK: That's exactly what David does, goes about his business. He doesn't need to bother with the biorhythms or ups-and-downs of the round or anything. He's on go mode and he's going to kick our butt. He's been kicking our butt.

FRED FUNK: He's great.

FRED FUNK: We can talk about anything and everything. We talked about his skiing, anything and everything. He's building a house about three doors from me. He's building a lot bigger one than me (laughter):