U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 8, 2006

Fred Funk

CRAIG SMITH: Fred Funk with five birdies and a low round for the championship of 65.

Q. Tell us some general comments about your round?

FRED FUNK: Well, finally I got my short game working. So I was that was a great sign and a great relief. And my attitude, I really was lambasting myself and actually embarrassed the way my attitude was all week. I was just so anxious and putting more pressure on myself than I needed to.

I just kept putting myself behind the eight ball with my attitude, because I just wasn't seeing putts going in and then I would get impatient and I just said no matter what happens today I'm going to go out and have my normal attitude, enjoy it and if I don't play good, I don't play good. And if I do, great. And I played with my normal attitude, instead of just it's an end all. I just never come in I have never come into a tournament being the favorite, I guess, and I took it the wrong way. I didn't handle it good because I never experienced that before.

So everybody talking about me coming in and playing good on the Regular Tour and then playing good here and all my interviews I kept saying, you just can't show up and expect it, and you don't. Not with this game. You never know what's going to happen. And I just had a lot of impatience working, and today I went back to the claw that's worked for me recently. Made a couple nice putts early and just felt more comfortable over it. So it was a good solid round with a couple really good saves coming down the back nine. When we turned into the wind it got a little tricky and it felt good.

Q. Golf course seems to be playing a couple strokes easier today.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, it seemed like everybody was jumping out to really fast starts and then the back nine's always a little trickier and you still have some tough pins out there.

It's almost seems like, and I hate to say it, but it seems like the last two holes the wind is kind of dying down a little bit. And I'm hoping it does. Because it was blowing pretty hard all day and I would like to see the leaders have the same thing everybody else had today.

But you can't control that part. But if it is into the wind coming in, and this golf course, it can still get you. And it seems like a lot of guys and it will be interesting to track the scores and see. Actually, my caddie said the same thing, was how many guys got off to fast starts and how many held on to it. And how much damage was done to their round later in the round because it looked like a lot of guys jumped out early, especially the first seven holes, and then tried to hold on.

Q. Did it seem like the pins were a lot more receptive, especially on 2 and then again on 4, the two par 3s? Because people have been really able to hit the ball very, very close there all day. Did it seem a little easier?

FRED FUNK: Well, 2, everything feeds right back to the pin off that front slope. So, yeah, that for a very difficult green, that's the one spot that, as long as you're not above it, it is okay. But you actually use the back as a back stop. So that one, yeah. But 4 wasn't all that easy, I guess it fed to it a little bit. But that was a tough pin. That's always a tough hole. The wind was really howling there. It was down, down and across. And it really, really was a tricky shot there.

Q. You're in this right now and of course there's still a lot of golf left to play, but you know, it has to be gratifying to have struggled like you did Thursday and Friday and then comeback up here and get yourself back in this.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, I did an awful lot of damage, though, early. I was coming from way back. So that was the most discouraging thing. Because I really have been playing pretty solid all week and I just have gotten nothing out of my short game. I've really was disappointed with that. And I came back last night with my kids and wife and we worked on for two hours we worked on different things and just tried absolutely everything.

I mean, from claw I mean, I was almost was ready to put it between my legs and do something. And I walked out of here really didn't do anything. Didn't really come up with anything. And then we this morning I was going to do my conventional grip and the last minute, I said, heck, I'm going to go to the claw because the biggest thing is my speed has been so bad. My stroke has been kind of iffy and trying to force it. And there's no rhythm to my stroke.

So with the claw, it seemed like my speed was a little better this morning when I tried it. So I said I'm going to commit to that and it worked. It was a lot better. And it always feels good to make some good par saves. And I did that today, too.

Q. You had 24 putts.

FRED FUNK: 24 putts today? That's really good. That's really good. Obviously, I didn't hit as many greens as I thought I did. But it was that's good. I like that. I love that. I love to be known the boss of the moss. I would love to be known as Loren Roberts. But that's that would be the best club in the bag to be working for you.

End of FastScripts.