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FORD CHAMPIONSHIP AT DORAL

February 28, 2006

Fred Funk

DORAL, FLORIDA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Fred, thank you for joining us. This is the beginning of the Florida swing, and you had some great memories at the end. But let's just talk about being back at Doral and the great condition, the course is in pretty great condition with the circumstances from the hurricane.

FRED FUNK: It's amazing, when you get over to 12 and 13, you see the difference. I had no idea it was that much land on the other side of that hole between the road. They did a great job. And the golf course is in great shape. It's soft, which I wish it wasn't soft, but it's setup really good, very narrow fairways, and it's in great shape, considering what they went through last year with the hurricane season. Even if they didn't have a hurricane, it's in great shape.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: How about your game?

FRED FUNK: Well, it needed a transfusion. West Coast was one of the worst West Coasts I've ever had, so a lot of it in the beginning was all the putter. Then when I came back out the second week that I came back out, it was everything. So it was not a good West Coast. My sterling match play record is intact, so I had to keep that streak going.

So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to getting away from the West Coast. I very seldom have played well on the West Coast but this year was really bad. It's been a little bit of a frustration. I think I led I didn't lead I think I was third and fifth in greens in reg and at the Hope and the Sony. I finished last in putting those two weeks and that's not my normal game. I usually can putt pretty good. Now all my stats are pretty poor, rather than my accuracy, but it's coming around.

I'm healthy now, healthy about as healthy as I've ever been in about eight months, and I'm looking forward to just having some good weeks and getting back to TPC. Really looking forward to that.

Q. Given this is a birthday year for you, did the way you started on the west, did that play with your head a little bit more than it would have if you were, you know, a young pup at 46 or so?

FRED FUNK: No, I'm having a hard time answering or even analyzing how I'm thinking. Because I've got this Champions Tour on the horizon, and I'm excited in a lot of ways to move over; I'm also hesitant to move over because I still want to stay competitive out here.

Because I've had quite a bit of success; the last four or five, six years have been my best years on TOUR, and I still feel like there's a lot of room for improvement, but I still have that hanging out there. I feel like I could do really well out there.

But the way I played on West Coast, it wouldn't matter. I'd go out there and I wouldn't do well. I didn't play well at all, so it wouldn't matter where I was playing. And that's discouraging, because when I go to the Champions Tour, I want to go out there with my A Game and I want to play the way I know how to play.

I think I'm putting a little too much pressure on myself in ways where I really want to make the Ryder Cup Team, that's been my number one goal, and still stay competitive out here, and to finish in the Top 30 is the other goal.

I don't even know whether it's more of an accomplishment, not that I feel like I need to prove anything to anyone, other than myself, but it would be kind of remarkable at my age and the kind of game that I have to still remain in the Top 30 out on this tour versus going out there and having success out on the Champions Tour, hopefully, and people say, well, he should have done that, but it's more of a feat to have been consistently playing well and being competitive on this tour. With not only my age, but my game. The game has totally changed in the last few years.

You know, I've never been able it overpower a golf course, but now it's getting to be a joke where the guys are hitting the ball. It's just making it that much more difficult to compete out here. So it's a really roundabout way of where I'm trying to explain how I'm kind of confused of where I'm going to go, what to expect, what to do. I know I'm going to play three or four events, at least four events probably on the Champions Tour this year: The Senior U.S. Open, the Senior Players; I found out I got in because I'm the current PLAYERS champion, so they let me roll over into that.

Q. Works in reverse.

FRED FUNK: Yeah. And the one in Oak Hill, the one in San Antonio, and maybe the British Seniors.

Other than that, I'd really like to stay out here for most of this year. And then next year, I'll do a little bit of both early, but I'll probably focus more on the Champions Tour next year.

Q. Did Loren Roberts stoke things at all for you, watching him?

FRED FUNK: It's great to see. But there's a guy that it just shows, he's always been a good ball striker, he's never been overpowering, but he's always been an unbelievable putter. That goes a long way. He won the first three. He's such a great putter, it's hard to beat that. He was playing golf courses where I guess he was setting up a lot of birdies; through an 18 hole round, he probably had 13 or 14 birdie chances it sounds like, the way he was hitting it, and he's making a lot of them.

It's not a surprise. You can go out there and say, I played better than Loren out here the last few years, but you can't beat a guy when he has a putter like that, and when he's hitting the ball well, too.

Q. Do you see pros and cons or mostly pros with the Florida swing being reconfigured next year?

FRED FUNK: We were talking about that today. Does it start at Honda and then go to Innisbrook?

Q. It will go Honda, Tampa, Bay Hill and here, and Jacksonville is moving.

FRED FUNK: That's all part of the dynamics of the schedule that complete changed.

The one total different thing that we're going to face is what Innisbrook is going to face, playing Innisbrook in an overseeded condition versus the bermuda. It's going to play totally different, a lot softer, more like it did when we had the JcPenney years ago. Most of us like it. I would think that the tournament directors and the tournament director and our officials would rather see the bermuda conditions rather than the overseed conditions, because I think that's such a good golf course. It's a demanding golf course and it plays pretty tough in those conditions.

Q. Is it just firmer?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, the ball tends to want to get into a little bit more trouble and roll into the intermediate rough. It's a good shot maker's golf course and one of the better ones we play, one of the better ones we play in Florida, or one of the better ones in Florida, period. It's going to change that tournament a lot.

Honda going to Champions I think is a great move. Hopefully they are going to marry into a good they will finally have a golf course they can call home. Honda is such a great sponsor to hang in there for so long and not have a consistent venue. So I think as a tour, as a group of players that have been out on the Tour long enough to know what Honda has been through would see it as a positive move. Hopefully it will be.

Q. I think they are the second longest continuous sponsor out here.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, I think it's a good thing. It seems funny to have so many great golf courses, or what you would think so many great golf courses down here that would possibly host.

Q. They tried them all.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, they tried them all. They have ones that they have built for it and it hasn't worked. I'm really not a big fan, and you know my quote with Mirasol.

Q. Say it again just for old time's sake.

FRED FUNK: No, I don't want to say it again. (Laughter) but I just didn't think Mirasol was a great venue with the way that Fazio designed that particular one, with the concept of those greens. But that's my opinion and a lot of other guys, but that's okay.

Q. What about Doral as a WGC course, or does that really matter?

FRED FUNK: No, that doesn't matter. I think it's fine. I think it's kind of sad that Ford Ford has done such a great job. This tournament has gotten so good over the last few years and the golf course has gotten better every year. They just have done such a great job for the outside stuff, not just the golf, but the eating area coming off 18, just the little things that just make a little different tournament a little special. Ford has done a great job. I think they should be commended for the job they have done. But it's kind of sad that they don't have an opportunity to have a guaranteed field that they are going to have with a WGC event. That would have been nice.

I don't know if they could even have been a sponsor with what's going on with Ford. I don't know all of that behind the scenes thing, whether they could have really re upped with what's going on. You guys might know more about that than I do.

Q. In a couple of weeks, they are going to make the final decision on whether to overseed or not overseed for THE PLAYERS Championship and the May date. What do you think should happen and how is that course going to play either way they go at that time of year?

FRED FUNK: I would like to see it not overseeded. I always think a golf course that is not overseeded, the bermuda is so much healthier that they don't have to deal with the transition times and the overseed coming in and then going out and trying to bring the bermuda in.

I think that was a big problem with the TPC in general over the years; it's been overseeded so heavy, to be perfect conditions, for us in March, that they needed to do it to have the conditions in March, but it just killed it for the rest of the summer. It was never really in good shape the rest of the year.

Now we put in, I think six of the seven driving holes on the front nine have been redone with the sand base, and those are in really good shape.

I played yesterday, I started on 9, and 9 fairway was really good. I would think if they didn't overseed and we just don't get an unusually cold spring that the bermuda would be coming in fine and the course would be designed or played the way it was really designed, and that's firm and fast and that's what you need.

I even had mud balls yesterday on the back nine. I was on 16 and I had a mud ball and hit it and the thing just took off dead right out into the lake. When I was playing with Justin last year, we had well, all of us had mud balls, but he had one that he decided to go to the green and went out to the right. You get the fairways, the new fairways, you don't get the mud on it, or a lot less likely to. And even if you did, it's not that muck, that gluey swamp mud that gets on it that doesn't come off; it would be more of a sand.

I think everything is for the better going to May for the TPC. I think it will be really good. Where it's positioned with the major rotation, I think the golf course will be really good. I remember the year they played what year did Tiger win the Amateur there?

Q. '95?

FRED FUNK: '94 or '95. I happened to be there, I moved there in '93, I was there and watched some of the matches. The golf course played so good, it was just firm and fast and the ball was running out. But it would run out into trouble because you had little bends in fairways and you had to think of where you were going to hit it.

When it played like it did last year, and it's kind of where this one is, this week right now anyway, the ball stops where it lands, and if you hit the fairway, it's going to stay in the fairway. But what gives us trouble and shoots the scores up is when we don't have control of where the balls are going to stop. We know where we can land it when we're on our game, but where is it going to stop. If it's running and it's running into trouble, and there's a lot of trouble at TPC, that's when the scores go way up.

That's the way it played when Janzen and Duval won. They were very little par if under par, 3 under or 5 under or something, I forget what they were, or even, even.

Q. You got it right.

FRED FUNK: Was it 3 and 5? Really firm conditions. TPC, that ought to be a good move. Just the way it unfolds with the rotation of the majors, it will be really good.

I don't know whether it ever ought to be considered a major. I hope it will be for my sake. (Laughter) Because I want to play in the Father/Son. You have to win a major to play in the Father/Son. I just found that out last year.

Q. That's the only criteria. Imagine being an IMG client.

FRED FUNK: And David Duval couldn't play because his dad didn't win.

Q. You mentioned the Champions and PGA National. Have you played the course and sort of unrelated, could you talk more about the differences in courses and conditions between, say, the West Coast and Florida?

FRED FUNK: I think course conditions change, to answer that one. Just the greens, we had good greens at Kapalua. You tend to have pretty good greens that stand up to the traffic at Sony and you have really good greens at the Bob Hope. Other than that, I didn't play Torrey Pines; I didn't play Phoenix. Usually Phoenix is pretty good. But Pebble Beach is known for their greens not standing up to foot traffic, and you're putting on waffle irons.

I could not believe how bad the afternoon times Friday, I played in the afternoon at Riviera, and I thought they were fine on Thursday. I didn't even notice that much bumpiness. But Friday, they were almost unputtable around the holes. It got to be, you know, a pinball machine going through. It was tough. It's just discouraging. If you're already a little beat up with your putter, it's really going to beat you up mentally.

So I think the biggest thing when we come back, we get firmer greens where it will stand up to the foot traffic and feel like you can make a good roll and you get rewarded for putting, making a good putt.

As far as the venue with the Champions, I played there with the PGA and Nicklaus has changed it since then. It has some history there. It's a good golf course and it's a great facility. I think it's a slam dunk for Honda to go there. I wish we went there a long, long time ago, instead of trying to create a golf course for it. And we outgrew I guess Eagle Trace and we went to Westin Hills, and then we went to Heron Bay and nobody really liked that that much. I thought the first course at Mirasol was a lot better than the other one even though it was a birdiefest. It was fun. We don't get to play too many fun courses. They just keep backing the tees up.

I think it's a good move going to Champions.

Q. You mentioned 12 and 13 out there, and how much different does that look, are there other places on the course where because of hurricane damage, missing trees?

FRED FUNK: That looked like a dense jungle that you could not even walk through, those trees were so thick, right of 13 and right of 12. You just see nothing and realize there's some land between that road, I don't know why it was never developed; I'm sure it will be now (laughter) commercial residential.

But they did a heck of a job. We all used to we needed a bathroom break, we could walk behind 13 tee and all peed behind 13 tee there, like at Augusta, it's a private thing but we all did it. (Laughter).

Q. How different does the rest of the course look?

FRED FUNK: You know, I didn't notice you notice a few trees down behind 15, the par 3, and it's not quite as thick back there, but you just more flying over yesterday. We flew right by coming in and you could see just how sparse it looked compared to what it used to look like. The playing part of the golf course still looks the same, really good.

Q. Any holes that changed at all strategically?

FRED FUNK: No. I just think that now you have more actually those trees were so thick there on 13, and especially if you had the wind right to left on 13, and if you could keep it down, the wind wouldn't hit it as much. Well, now there's no trees over there to knock the wind down, so you're more exposed. But that's the only thing.

Q. Did you ever get an exact diagnosis of that chest problem that you were having? Mark said it's kind of gone away for the most part.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, it went away about three weeks ago for some reason. It was a cartilage pull or something in there. Nobody really could find it, intercostal joint right here. I did it in July and it killed me all last year.

Q. Did you do anything to treat it?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, I did a lot of stuff other than it wasn't a surgical thing and it wasn't something guys wanted to shoot cortisone into because they said where it was, it could puncture my lung. I said, well, okay, I don't want that. So I kind of was just living with it, icing it, treating it and it would never go away. Some weeks, some rounds, it would bother me a lot more than others.

For some reason, it just kind of went away though.

Q. You said before the last couple of years in terms of just power out here, it's sort of gotten out of hand, have you seen even a noticeable difference between this year and last year?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, there is. There's talk with this rookie class with Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes and others, Villegas hits it a mile, too.

There was a guy behind us, we still don't know who it is, I was playing with Lee Janzen and John Huston, 16 today was a crosswind, left to right, not helping at all. If anything, was hurting a little bit. And we were getting ready to walk off the green and the ball flew on the green and landed there. The guy comes up and he apologized to us and we still don't know who it is. (Laughter) We all looked and said, who was it well, we still don't know who it was. He's either a rookie or a qualifier. We just nicknamed him Sven. Sven; my caddie came up with it. It just flew up there and stopped, right there in the middle of the green.

That's just the nature of the game now. I played that alternate shot thing at Pebble Beach and Bubba Watson was my partner, and had Jonathan Byrd and then Ricky Barnes and the Villegas guy, me and Omar were the short guys. And alternate shot, they are all trying to drive the third green from that back tee. Hicksy came up to me, the caddie, I'm sure everybody knows Hicksy, Payne's old caddie, and he said, "You know, you don't have to be that good anymore. Just hit it. If you can hit it that far, you don't have to be that good, just a wedge."

No par 5s, even if you're in the rough, you can get a wedge somewhere on the green, and if they are on their game, they are going to kill you. It's true, when the guys are flying it, 300 is still a long way in the air, and these guys are now flying them 330 and 340. Where is it going to stop?

And it's not conditioning. The guys are bigger and stronger, but the ball, they have just lost control of the golf ball. It's going too far. The gap between the short guys and the long guys has been spread out, because if you can hit through it a certain amount, I've been through this a hundred times, and I think you guys know it. You get rewarded exponentially if you have good amount of clubhead speed by getting the ball up there and it just doesn't come down. The gap between the short guys and the long guys have really stretched out to an unbelievable difference.

They have got to do things to these golf courses, to do what they think, protect the game. But then with that being said, you have golf courses like Hilton Head last year, was the hardest stroke average to par until we got to Baltusrol last year. Hilton Head was our hardest golf course to par. So you get the Westchesters and Waialaes and Hilton Head, Colonial, certain golf courses that are designed really well, shot makers golf courses, then you can look at the leaderboard and you'll have long hitters, short hitters and medium hitters. That's a sign of a good golf course, not just 7,800 yard golf courses.

Q. What's your schedule?

FRED FUNK: Not playing next week and then I'm playing Bay Hill.

Q. What would happen this week and Bay Hill to give you more confident in the PLAYERS Championship, one Top 10 or a couple of cuts made?

FRED FUNK: Nothing like that. My ball striking is getting a little bit better. It was real good early and then the last few weeks, the cold weather at Pebble just really messed me up. I got into some bad habits.

But now I'm healthier as far as my body. I feel like I can put the club where I need to now. And I think I've got my putting straightened out. That will be the biggest thing. If I feel like I can start making putts like I normally can then the long game is going to come around.

To me it's all about putting. I have to be able to start scoring. We've all been through it, too. When you're not putting well and you're hitting good golf shots and not making them and then you miss greens, no matter how good you chip it, you're not making them and all of a sudden everything goes down the toilet, so you have to have that part of your game working no matter what.

Q. Speaking of length, didn't you beat everybody at the 8000 yard Institute course? How long did it play?

FRED FUNK: 7,800 yards. We played on a day, it was kind of like a Pebble Beach day, 55 degrees and it was blowing about 15, 20. It was a really cold chill in the air and the greens were 15 and a half. Fastest greens I've ever putted in my life. (Laughter).

They were lush, it was just like looked like carpet and they were still 15 1/2. It wasn't dirt. It was the best greens I've ever seen in my life.

Q. What do you think of the course?

FRED FUNK: They have got to check their egos somewhere, the guys that built it, the Fry brothers, it's just a little too much. It's a little overdone here and there and a little too long. It could be a good golf course, but a couple little changes. And in phenomenal conditions. It gets four rounds a day I think is the average, if that. Nobody plays it. You've got to know the Fry brothers and they have to allow you to come out. They cancelled a couple guys' memberships, I heard a rumor, because they played too much. They played like four times a month and they said, "We don't want you anymore."

Q. You could always move the tees up?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, they could. There's plenty of room to move it up. There's also room to go back. They could truly going to 8,000 yards. We played it just under 7800.

Q. Who all went with you?

FRED FUNK: It was Vijay, Sluman, Tim Herron, Tom Pernice kind of put it on and invited everybody, Jeff Brehaut, Olin Browne, we had about 16 guys there. They were giving away a 14,000 TV, this new flat screen, 65 inch thing that I didn't need, so I'm still waiting for my $14,500 check that they said they would give me. (Laughter). Still waiting for it.

Q. There's still talk of the San Jose a thing?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, they committed to one and they also committed a huge dollar amount that Tim Finchem told them no. He said, we can't go that high because we just can't go that high.

Q. The purse, you mean?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, the purse. They wanted to be a top tier event.

Q. That's a fall tournament, isn't it?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, it's going to be a Fall Series, at least to start with, so I don't know. I don't know how long it's going to be.

Q. The way the game is evolving with the power, will that push you to the Champions Tour quicker than you want to go?

FRED FUNK: That's what we were talking about when that guy drove the green on 16 and Lee Janzen is sitting there, "Gosh, bring on the Champions Tour. I'm too young, I'm stuck in the middle. You can't get me there quick enough." And Lee is not short. In today's standards, he's not short. He's 20 by me off the tee. It's just amazing. And you guys are seeing it every week.

Q. Will that push you to make your decision?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, if I'm not able to be competitive.

It's just not that many golf courses I can compete on out here now, not as many as I used to because they have changed them all. And whenever I reach a par 5 in two, then they change it to a par 4. (Laughter). It's ridiculous. There's no way this thing could be a par 5, Fred reached it. I'm surprised No. 1 is still a par 5 out here.

Q. How does it feel to be a barometer of that sort; if you can make it, they change it.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, exactly. It's unbelievable, I'm the standard of shortness out here.

Q. This tournament has done a lot to bring it back to an elite event, but how much does having a duel with Phil and Tiger on Sunday do for an event?

FRED FUNK: That was great to watch, even for the peers out here, the guys watched it, I watched it, it was fun to see. It's funny because you see Tiger drive 16 hole, and they both bogeyed it and Tiger tried to drive it

Q. Phil was short in the bunker and Tiger ran it over.

FRED FUNK: That's right. I thought it was the other way around, okay. Anyway, that hole was being overpowered, that was the one that gave them the two bogeys last year on Sunday. It was fun to watch, but you could just see, they were just sending it out there and Tiger hit four fairways or something the last round. That's the discouraging thing.

Q. Is it an exclamation point of what they are trying to do here in revitalizing it and making it legitimate again?

FRED FUNK: What's that?

Q. This event, did having those two emerge at the end, did it legitimize Doral?

FRED FUNK: I think Ford has done such a great job. When you see, when guys come over the years and how long has Ford been a sponsor now?

Q. This is fourth year here.

FRED FUNK: Well, word travels pretty quick. It's like Wachovia, one year, everyone knew, got to go to Wachovia, that's a good golf course.

I think everybody used to love Doral before the original changes. And then they got it back after I guess Ray Floyd did the first changes and nobody really liked those that much and they kind of put it back and got it to the old Doral. Everybody loved coming before. And then Ford did such a good job to get it in good condition, where it is on the schedule, it was a good fit.

Yeah, I think it's good, and just word of mouth creates the guys have a good experience and they say, yeah, let's go. And then when you start weighing, if it's an iffy, Doral versus here versus here. Doral is doing a good job, it's in good shape, on a good golf course, I'll go to Doral.

Q. Have you talked to anybody about how difficult it is, or is it difficult to straddle both tours? Have you talked to Jay?

FRED FUNK: I've talked to Jay a little bit about it. Loren originally said he wasn't going to go out, and then after he goes out and had success, he doesn't want to come back. But nobody has really had success bouncing from one to the other.

Howard Twitty was actually at the putting green last year at La Costa and he brought that up. We got talking and he says, you know, it's hard to do both. He says, "You get that mentality out there, it's three rounds, there's no cut, it's a little bit more laid back." They are still good golf courses and you still have to win quality golf shots to win, but it's not the same feel that you have out here. It's not the pressure of making the putt, the pressure of going up against all of these guys out here that are so good out there; it's just not as many guys that are competitive.

So it's just a different feel. You tend to get a little relaxed out here and then you try to get pumped back up to do the other one and you just can't quite get there. Whether that's true or not, I don't know.

Q. How much of your decision with your special situation, you travel with the family, and you're obviously comfortable with the lifestyle here, and knowing all of the stops and knowing everything, where it's a little bit of an unknown.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, it is. It's always a little scary to go out on the unknown there. We do, we have a comfort level out here with everything. We know where we're going to go and don't have to wonder where the locker room and everything is, like a rookie again. But I'm experienced with being on the road. It will be an easy adjustment. I wouldn't think that would be that big of a deal.

It's just the fact, do I want to turn the page to another chapter, am I ready to do that yet? I'm not really sure. I still pinch myself to the fact that I've had the success that I've had out here, especially this late in my career, to still be doing as well as I'm doing. But I still feel like I can do more, so it still drives me to do well out here. And then when I do make that move, I want to be focused out there.

That's why when I said last year when I was told in the media room after I won THE PLAYERS, well, you got a five year. I said, What the hell am I going to do with that? (Laughter) When you wanted it and needed it, I didn't have it. But now I get to a point in my career that I don't really need a five year exemption. I could have lasted enough on career money or did whatever. But it's nice to have options.

Now I can play specific events. I am excited about that. And I would still love to go to Sony. I still love to go to Westchester. Riviera is one of my favorites, Hilton Head. There are certain ones that if the right scheduling works, I'll still do those and hopefully not have my schedule so full that I can't do them. I still like to show up out here every now and then.

Eventually I do want to see how successful I can be as a champion on the Champions Tour.

Q. I don't know how you feel about Cog Hill or East Lake at all, but I would think both of those might have some interest for you as well, does that make it something that you might want to try

FRED FUNK: East Lake is one?

Q. Do you like East Lake?

FRED FUNK: Oh, yeah, I like East Lake. I don't play Cog Hill because it's fallen into a part of my schedule that I always needed a break and I haven't had much success there, but yet I love the golf course. That's the kind of golf course I like with the rolling hills and the treeline and that's what I grew up on, so that's the kind of look I like, and the grass I like to play on. So that's really good, and Westchester, that's really good.

Obviously I guess they are rotating or rolling those playoff courses

Q. Those will all be part of the ones at the end, except for

FRED FUNK: For how many years?

Q. Cog Hill will move. They want to go to Crooked Stick one year. But I'm just saying, tonight you have a meeting and you're going to be talking about all of these things, FedEx points are a big issue, and you're talking about next year spending more time on the Champions Tour. But it seems like in some ways, the ones you are talking about would be perfect for you at the end of next year and the FedEx Cup race.

FRED FUNK: I'm not even worried about the FedEx Cup right now. My only initial goal this year was to try to make Tom Lehman's team. I would love to do that and be a part of that, because it's been so much fun being a part of the three teams I've been on in the last three years.

That would be a huge goal to make, and honestly, I was in good position when the year started, but now I've fallen way back. But you can also see where it doesn't take much to jump back up in there. If you do it the right week and have a few good weeks, I could be right back in the picture, and who knows. THE PLAYERS Championship came out of nowhere last year. It would still be a dream to make that dream.

Q. Did you see Tom is 10th on the points list?

FRED FUNK: Tom is playing great.

Q. What would your counsel be to him on whether he could be a playing captain or not?

FRED FUNK: I agree with what he says. If he makes it on points, he would probably play. How could you argue?

Q. Could you do both?

FRED FUNK: I don't know if you could do both. Yeah, I think you could with the guys that he's got helping him out, with Loren and Corey. Yeah, I don't think it would be a problem.

I think he's playing so good, why not. He's one of the gustsiest match play players we have. If he's playing that well, you sure would want him on the team. I would want him on the team.

Q. You've been on a couple teams, Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, how much does the captain really bring? A lot of captains will say, I don't have much to do with this, these guys go play and that's it. How much do they really have to do with it?

FRED FUNK: I think Jack, he was the captain of both Presidents Cup teams and he and Slu were great together. Slu, especially in South Africa, he was the intermediary between the players and Jack. He fed Jack the info, updating of how we were playing and how we felt. We could always go to Slu and Slu would go to and it was great.

The last Presidents Cup, Jack was more hands on, even more so than South Africa, because I think he was in the current with how the guys were playing. He knew who was playing good, who wasn't playing good. He really followed it. It was on home soil. He was great. And we all voted hopefully that he would get voted to be the next captain again.

We asked him in the room that night and he said, yeah, and we're trying to push to get Jack again. He really enjoyed it. It was a special year for him being the Presidents Cup captain of the winning team and what he's gone through all last year with losing his grandson and everything and the tribute we made to him. It was a very emotional week. Phil did a talk when we presented that portrait that was unbelievable. He's the only guy in that room who could possibly have given that talk out in the room without breaking down. Amazing that he could do that and still keep it together. It was very special.

But totally different feel than the Ryder Cup. It's just so intense at the Ryder Cup. I think it would be very important for a captain to come in there and try to do what Tom is doing, to get the team together as early as you can, to think together as a team, and we really are a team over there.

But to try to minimize the pressure that we put on ourselves to win that thing, and to minimize the pressure that you guys put on us, I think that's what is really important and what we've got to focus on and what Tom is trying to focus on is to trying to get the guys to talk about what we need to do: How can we create an atmosphere that we go out and have fun and enjoy it and if we win, great. And if we don't, don't worry about it. Just go out there and give us best opportunity to play the way we're capable of playing. The only way we can do that is to lower we've just got to lower the pressure a little bit. It's going to be tough being over there on their soil, too.

Q. A lot that stuff, didn't it get solved at least by the fact that you found a couple of pairings? Lehman will have a lot less second guessing.

FRED FUNK: Sure. I was supposed to play with DiMarco at least one match, and when he had the early success with Phil, that negated me ever playing with Chris.

And Jim called Jim had always wanted to be Tiger's partner and they teed up and did so well together. You have two groups set. They would at least start that way I would think. It would be crazy that break those guys, up. And then just see who is on the team to match up from there.

But it's pretty nice to have Tiger set and Phil set and they are pretty comfortable with each other. And you're breaking up two of our best guys. I just never thought it was great to putt our two horses together in one group.

If it had worked, it would have been great. If the other team beats you, they have got all the momentum, had they beat your two studs. Everybody wants to take Tiger down, so to give Tiger a guy that's going to keep it in play for him all day long and make putts like Jim does, it's a perfect pairing.

Q. Do you think the fact that it seems like you've always had a perspective on how good this life could be, is that because it took you so long to get here and stay here and there was some struggles and you didn't come straight out of college?

FRED FUNK: I think most guys, is some ridiculous percentage, probably 98 percent of the guys out here struggled at some point, whether it's just getting out here or during a point in their career.

Yeah, I was a late bloomer. So, yeah, I appreciate the fact that I was able to get out here and have a career and made it a good career. I'm the kind of player that and I look back, especially the way the game is right now, I've never been able to overpower anything, but I've always been able to play my game and been able to compete out here. I've still been able to do it. So that amazes me in itself when I look back, and even having as good of a year as I did last year, the last five years, when technology is going past me and I didn't take advantage of that, or I haven't been able to take advantage of the newest technology like the young guys have.

So, yeah, I look at that and I really appreciate that fact. But if I look at my career, to have the success that I've had with the kind of game I have, yeah, that's good in one respect.

But the other is I never had a total I didn't have a climb and then just went down and had to climb back out. I've gradually kind of gone up a little bit, and it's been really good. That's what frustrates me. I don't want to go out my last year, if this is my last year and just go down. I want to keep trying to keep the curve going up a little bit.

Q. There were guys that hit a wall at 44 or 45 or even earlier and didn't do much after that until the time they got to the Champions Tour, and I'm thinking about Curtis, especially and everything, so you've been able to do more in the last five years.

FRED FUNK: I never had the burnout where I just totally lost desire to work. When you look at Curtis, he won the two U.S. Opens back to back; it's like, geez, he couldn't just stay fired up any longer. He had a little bit of a burnout. A lot of these guys got out on Tour when they were 22, 23, 24 right out of college and they have been playing 20, 25 years, when they get to their mid and late 40s. And I got out at 32 and I had not had a chance to really burn out and lose my desire.

Jay proved you can do it if you have the work ethic. Jay kind of fell down a little bit and he said, okay, my son is coming out, I have the Champions Tour coming out, I want to play with my son and I want to end my regular tour career. He re motivated himself and he played great. That's all you have to do. The game is still there if you're physically capable, and it's just mental preparation. Jay proved that. Loren is doing that now. He's very motivated to go out on that Champions Tour and kick butt, and he did and is. A lot of guys are doing that.

That's one great thing with the Champions Tour hanging out there, a guy like Nick Faldo, he's starting to play really good again, and hopefully Greg Norman will come out and lay a little bit out there. You have the guys, like Kenny Perry, I think he's going to be one of the guys that's going to have a great late 40 career because he hits the ball a mile and he stays healthy. He has a really good golf game and he's going to be really competitive as long as he wants to be competitive. It's just a mental thing.

Q. That burnout factor, is that the reason why you have always seemed like you have fun out there; you horse around with the galleries?

FRED FUNK: I enjoy messing with the galleries. I like to involve them and it loosens me up when they are having fun, too. I really saw that at Hazeltine for the first time when I really made it a point. I acknowledged the crowd and they acknowledged me back, they are having a ball, I'm having a ball, let's just keep this thing going.

It turned out to be a lot of fun. You are in the entertainment business, but we are all told to be one dimensional, don't get too high, don't get too low, just kind of stay there. And then the stupid game of golf, the stupid part of it is we all focus in on the negative parts. We all emotionalize our bad shots. And when we hit a good shot, oh, that's supposed to happen. But when you hit a bad shot, well, that's not supposed to happen. Actually the bad shots are supposed to happen and the good shots, you should be proud of. It should really be the other way around.

Life is backwards. Golf mentality is backwards and you have to flip it. You work your whole life so you have the opportunity to go do things, but then you're too old to go do things because you just can't do it. It's frustrating. We're all trying to scrape out a living. When you finally feel like you worked your whole life and you have time to do something, then physically, a lot of times you're not able to do it. You should be able to get all of the money you make; somebody says, all right, you're going to make 2 million in your life at age 20, go have fun with it and then go work.

End of FastScripts.

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