Q. Is the golf course harder than you expected it to be?
FRED FUNK: Yeah, I think everybody is surprised at how difficult it is playing. I think a lot of guys were thinking, you know -- I even thought, I thought 12- to 16-under might win but I think if you got to 12 , double figures might win this thing at 10 ten if the greens stay really firm, which I think they will, the way the forecast it. If the wind blew like it did yesterday it would be really, really tough.
It's good. It's firming up, so it's making it more difficult to stay in the fairways when you hit them. And the defense of the golf course besides the rough is the quality of these greens, the shape of them, the slopes on them and the firmness of them, and the par 3s here are really tough.
Q. Do you prefer it to be more difficult for everybody?
FRED FUNK: The biggest thing that I think keeps scores high on golf courses in firm conditions. If you add any other element to it, the high rough or wind, when the pros lose control of the ball, where it's going to stop, that's what is difficult. A course that plays 8,000 yards and the ball is plugging on the fairway, plugging on the green, they are going to eat it up. Guys where length is not an issue, it stops where they hit it. But now if you've got to shape your shots to hold it in the fairways, it's difficult. You have the firmer conditions, you have the high rough and you have the pretty tricky greens, very tricky greens; so you have three elements that are very difficult.
Q. Is this the same golf course --
FRED FUNK: I wish I was playing as good as I was a couple weeks ago. Yeah, it is, it's a ball-control golf course. It's not a bomber's golf course. It doesn't matter, I hit it plenty long enough to score. With short irons in, I just wish I had more control of my irons. I'm really struggling with my irons this week.
Q. Did you see any of the pin placements for the weekend?
FRED FUNK: They mixed it up pretty good. They are not all Sunday pins. Even on Sunday, they don't have all Sunday pins, they usually make them a little easier.
They could get really tricky with them and hide them behind the bunkers a little bit. When they are three and four paces from the edge, they are pretty tough, no matter where you are. So with these greens, it's very difficult when you get them that close to the edge as firm as they are.
Q. Did you like the golf course when you got here on Tuesday or did it grow on you?
FRED FUNK: Mike Weir told me how good this was before I got here. I was asking him because I don't usually play up here when it's at Glen Abbey; that course doesn't do me any good to go to. Royal Montreal I liked. And Mike told me early in the year, he says, "You're going to really like the course we are playing this year." So, great, I was coming and I just love it.
Q. Going back in the next few weeks, do guys come up to you and ask you about it?
FRED FUNK: Yeah, it's like all the bad press that TPC Boston got last week, it's going to go around like wildfire and this course is going to go around like wildfire.
Q. Going to different courses, do you think that would be a good tactic to take for this event -- it's going back to Shaughnessy in a few years?
FRED FUNK: Shaughnessy is similar to that. I like the fact this they are moving it around --
Q. Is it different from other tournaments at the same level --
FRED FUNK: I would like to see that. That would be great. It would be something different. We wouldn't go to those cookie cutter, stand up, bottom it away courses that they are building nowadays. This is unbelievable. They just used to merge -- it's neat when they don't move anything. They used what they have, and they built the golf course because back then they don't have any bulldozers and stuff to move all this. They did a great job. The guy really knows what he did.
The only iffy hole is 18. It's an awkward tee shot because you have to keep it short. It's still a good hole. It's just an awkward hole. I think that's the only one question out here.
Q. On some courses, 18 is a hole that you can win, but this might be a hole, No. 72, you could lose it?
FRED FUNK: Oh, you could lose it on 18 easy. You could win it making a birdie, too. You could make up two shots on that hole quick, which is a good thing. As far as spectator-wise you couldn't ask for a better hole, with the amphitheater that's around the green. It will be great on Sunday being in that last group and kind of fun to win this thing. That would be a great atmosphere to have.
I think it's just going to go down really as a well-respected golf course that everybody liked. I can't see one person walking away from here saying it was a bad setup or a bad golf course. Only one that they might say anything bad is 18.
13 is really tough, too. 13 is ridiculous that, par 3. There's nowhere to hit it.
Q. (Inaudible.)
FRED FUNK: I was really excited. I'm thrilled at this stage of my career to have made something like that. The biggest thing in my career, by far. To even be thought of by Nicklaus to be picked, to be good enough to be picked makes me feel really good. That makes me feel better probably than the guy who finished 10th. A guy said that to me the other day, yesterday, and I started to think, yeah, it does feel pretty good, to be the 11th guy that he still thought I was good enough to pick. I did think that whoever finished 11th me or Bob Estes was going to go. Not knowing this, but I think Jay Haas was going to be the man who played good at PGA which he did. I think Jay is a great pick. It's sad for Bob. It would have been sad for me if I was 12 and Jay jumped ahead of me. But the makeup of the team, the chemistry of the team, I think it's a perfect fit.
Q. Did Nicklaus talk to you?
FRED FUNK: Not until after.
Q. Did he say anything prior to?
FRED FUNK: No. I talked to him a couple weeks before I went to the British, asked him because I was going to play in the Irish. And I said: "Jack, would it do me any good to go to the Irish after the British?" And he said no. I said, "Well, what if I finish first at the Irish?"
"Wouldn't do you any good." (Laughter.) So I quickly pulled out of the Irish. I pulled out of that really quick and came back home to play.
It was a real battle. I went through a tremendous high and a low there chasing that thing because I played so poorly at Royal St. George and came back to Hartford and played poorly. Played okay in the Buick, but then went to The INTERNATIONAL and played poorly. Really been struggling with my game like I have never struggled. I don't know if it was a combination of trying too hard or what.
Anyway, I went and saw my teacher and I played good at the PGA when I had to. It was kind of weird, I was the only guy really in contention to -- me and Bob Estes and Jay. You had Verplank and Slu and Fax and all of these guys right there that missed the cut and kind of opened it wide open. And Jay was pretty far back. If Chad Campbell had won, he would have passed me. A lot of scenarios going down on Sunday could have happened. I passed Bob by one shot. If I finished one shot worse, I would have been 12th and he would have been 11th. It was that close.
Q. I'm curious about your nerves on that first tee --
FRED FUNK: Well, I think it's -- I hope that some day the Presidents Cup will become as big as the Ryder Cup. I think the International Team is probably stronger top to bottom than what the Ryder Cup can throw out, what the European team can throw out.
So the only difference between the two is that they have a history. The Ryder Cup has a history and the Presidents Cup doesn't. The bad thing with the Presidents Cup is that you're both overdrawn, same superstars, and if you ask those guys to play every year, it's difficult. Especially when it's on a venue that's so far away. I know a lot of guys in Australia probably didn't want to be in Australia why, but Jack's thing, his one thing he asked, if you don't want to go, don't go. I would rather have 12 guys that really want to be there than the best players that don't want to be there. Fortunately everybody is really excited about going. His thing about the whole thing, they really want to go there and try because I think we got killed in Australia because nobody really wanted to be there. I told him, I would love to be there and I meant it. I'd better leave now.
End of FastScripts.
