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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP


August 18, 2006


Fred Funk


MEDINAH, ILLINOIS

Q. How is the rain affecting conditions

FRED FUNK: If you miss the fairway by just a little bit, it's really, really deep and thick then if you get past that, you're in the trees so that's no good either. So the key is just getting the ball in play and it's really not playing the length that the yardage is, 7,500, 7,600. But it's just the fact that it's more of a position golf course I guess. That's how I kind of picture TPC and some of our better golf courses.

Q. You said recently you're going to give it maybe a year, another maybe two years out here before going into the Champions full time per se. What are you proving to yourself just this week?

FRED FUNK: I'm not proving anything to myself. I'm just pleased that I'm playing a little better than I was earlier. I'm getting more out of my rounds now. My short game was so bad, mainly on the greens a month or so ago. I played nine weeks in a row trying to make a couple of those were Champions Tour events, and unfortunately in the middle of that nine was my worst stretch of confidence and a peak of low confidence, if there is such a thing, that Senior Open and the Senior Players. I was hitting the ball really well and finally it kind of crept into my long game, but now my putting is back and I'm a lot more comfortable on the greens. That's the biggest difference, so I'm not really if I'm trying to prove anything to myself, it's that I'm still comfortable on the golf course and I can be comfortable on the greens.

If you'd asked me this five or six weeks ago, I thought I had totally lost it on the greens and I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to come back. Now I'm real comfortable and real confident and enjoying putting again. So that's a big difference.

Q. What was the turning point?

FRED FUNK: The turning point was really my wife gave me a little lesson in Milwaukee. I went out the first hole, I was on the 10th hole, 3 putted from about 30 feet right out of the gate, we had a rain delay, we got washed out that day.

But it ended up being a perfect evening and we went back to the putting green at the end of dinner. My wife is telling me everything, conventional club, do this, do this, try that. Finally she said try to get your right hand with the claw grip underneath instead of on top and it completely changed the forearm position of my right arm and changed my stroke to eliminate the pulls and I don't do that as much anymore. I have a lot more touch. I just know I'm getting the ball online now and I wasn't before.

Q. Is there something about this event, given your background that motivates you a little bit more than maybe the other majors?

FRED FUNK: No, it doesn't motivate me more. I can tell you I have a true heart for the PGA of America. I was a PGA club pro for a long time, and I had some of my first success before I got on Tour when I qualified as a club pro, I came out and played. I remember leading at Palm Beach Gardens after 22 holes and I was scared to death. I was talking to Raymond Floyd and I was like, hole I smokes, what am I doing up here on the leaderboard and I quickly took care of that by starting to hit it in the rough right away.

I really do have a place in my heart for the club pros and how hard they work and where they belong in the game. I like the way the PGA of America sets up a golf course, too. They do a really good job. So I think you know what I'm talking about. I don't need to say a lot.

Q. People wonder, why haven't you won a U.S. Open, and you've cataloged why you may not have and they go to a lot of U.S. Open type courses, but does the course setup give you and a lot of the other guys a fighting chance?

FRED FUNK: I don't know, every course is a little different, and they play different each week. So I don't know how to answer that as far as you know why I play a little better, my record is a little better in the PGA versus the U.S. Open. And they are very similar. Very similar venues. Other than Whistling Straits, very similar venues would I say, and it just I couldn't put my finger on that one really.

Q. If conditions stay roughly the same, what do you think it takes to win?

FRED FUNK: Double figures, I think it will probably be I thought the scores would go a little lower today actually. I thought they would be 9 or 10 under was leading. Still might be with Luke out there.

But I picture 12 early in the week and now I picture 12, 13, 14, maybe 15. Is stretching it though.

Q. Should we be surprised to see Fred Funk at age 50 two shots off the lead here anymore?

FRED FUNK: Oh, I don't know, the age thing I think is way overplayed, I really do. I'm almost tired of hearing the age thing as an issue because Jay Haas played unbelievable golf and still is right now. Loren Roberts could come out here and play. Hale Irwin was the he pit my of a guy playing great at age 50.

You know, I think if you take care of yourself and you're motivated, really with this game, to a point, maybe there is when you get 55, 56, there seems to be a line where your physical abilities drop off a little bit. But if you take care of yourself and you're motivated, I don't think there's a reason you can't play.

So 50 is not that big a deal, I don't think. Although I'm going to back up with that. Going up against these guys that hit it four miles, yeah, it's tough.

End of FastScripts.
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