WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 21, 2002

Fred Funk

TODD BUDNICK: We have Fred Funk. A tie for four at last week's PGA Championship. You've had an incredible year this year. I think would you agree with that. I know you're looking for that win, and maybe that's something last week's play will carry into this week.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, I've been knocking at the door the last month or so, I guess, because I've had two seconds, a fourth. I was leading the John Deere after two rounds with two 64s, and didn't putt very well on the weekend and let that go; I think I finished 23rd.

Just trying to keep playing as consistent as I have, but last week was a magical week as far as the way the fans took to me and I took to them and the way I was playing. It just became a lot of fun, and I truly enjoyed it.

In fact, on Sunday, I was having so much fun with Tiger and the atmosphere I was having out there, or feeling out there, that I told my caddie, I didn't want the day to end; I would have wished it was 36 holes, when a lot of times, you are trying to get it to the barn.

I was a little disappointed not playing a little bit better on the weekend, or on Sunday mainly, but I couldn't take away from how much fun I had all week, with the Minnesota fans, who were fabulous, and more or less adopted me, I think.

Q. Why do you think that happened?

FRED FUNK: I think I was a little more animated with -- I felt in the middle of my first round that my putter was hot. I was making some nice putts. I was reacting to them a little bit, but the crowd was really reacting and then I acknowledged the crowd and they really acknowledged me. It got to be a give-and-take thing, where I think they appreciated me showing some sort of personalty out there while I was playing, and then I appreciated that they appreciated that, and then it just got to be this thing going back and forth. It turned into a pretty electric atmosphere.

Q. It's almost like you fed off each other.

FRED FUNK: No question we did. It wasn't anything I could have -- it was intentional on me trying to have a good attitude, and an exceptionally good attitude last week, because I was really pleased about a lot of things that were going on, with my family and things like that, my golf game, being in the first major this year.

I couldn't have imagined the response I got from the crowds and the kind of week that it turned out to be. It was the highlight of my golf career, the atmosphere last week.

Q. Have you ever connected with a gallery anywhere close to that before?

FRED FUNK: No. I've had a small group of fans. I have the Funk's Punks at home and the home crowd at Kemper, but not an entire city that more or less adopted me. It felt great. Especially for a guy my age, too. I'm 46. I'm not one of the young guys that are springing up. They just really appreciated -- I guess just appreciating being out there and looking like I was having a good time while I was out there and playing golf. A lot of times, I think we focus on what we do in a negative way out there, and we overemphasize our negatives instead of our positives, and I was trying to overemphasize the positives, because in most sports, you're truly reacting to doing things good. You can show some personalty when you hit a home run or hit a three-pointer or slam dunk, which I'll never know how that happens, other than the shot on 7 last week.

I just was showing -- I was enjoying my good things that happened, and trying not to dwell on the negative stuff. Fortunately, I did that, because I think when I had to go back and play the five holes to finish that second round on Saturday, I wasn't feeling any rhythm in my golf swing. I was a little -- and the conditions were really tough. The wind was 180 -- well, not 180, but it was playing more into the wind, almost all into the wind coming in, where the night before it would have been downwind on my last four holes.

So I kind of got the raw end of the deal on that and things were not going too good. But a lot of good things ended up happening in there, where I made the bogey on the first hole, and a good putt on 6. And then I was dead on 7, just playing for a bogey and I make birdie with the chip.

Then I bogeyed 8 and made a good par save on 9. So it could have been a lot worse, that's for sure.

Q. Has it carried over to this week? Have you noticed in practice rounds, the fans?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, no question. I've had so many comments on how much fun it was to watch me last week. So apparently -- I haven't seen a tape or anything of it, but the response I've had from the fans here and the media, my peers, everybody -- I had Andy Bean call me in the middle of the my round. He leaves a message, "You're in the middle your back nine on Sunday. You're coming out of your putts, but I'm loving watching you." He gave me some helpful advice when I was in the middle of the round. Unfortunately, I could not get it while I was playing. It might have helped me with my putter.

And a lot of the other players, Blaine McCallister called me and said, "It was great watching you. That's the way it should be, that's the way you should always act."

I was like, "Well, why don't you act that way, too?"

Q. Has there been any response corporately?

FRED FUNK: My agent said there's been a lot more interest, obviously. Considering I didn't win the golf tournament, it's been a big positive. That's for sure. It's almost as if I'd won. Rich Beem I'm sure, is getting an awful lot out of it, and he deserves it, the way he played. No question.

Q. Some of the Maryland thing, you had the "Beware of the Turtle" on your shoes?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, "Fear of the Turtle" on my putter, which is -- when the University of Maryland basketball team was making their Final Four run, my caddie, who is also from Maryland, wrote it on the bottom of my putter and I've had it on there ever since.

Everybody knows me as a former University of Maryland golf coach, and anything else -- and then my nickname, the Chicken Hawk, which Blaine McCallister gave to me which is that feisty little bird that's on Foghorn Leghorn, the cartoon character. (In cartoon voice): "Now, that's a dog, son." You know how that big rooster says that?

That's about it, I guess.

Q. Tell us about the newspaper circulation business before.

FRED FUNK: Well, from 11th grade through college, I drove a newspaper truck and dropped off to the carriers all of the papers in the University of Maryland area. So it was a two-day-a-week job, Saturday morning, Sunday morning. I left at 1:00 in the morning until 10:00 in the morning. It was a great job. It supported my golf growing up, because I also worked at the golf course. I was making $8.00 an hour back then. That was a lot of money when minimum wage was like $2.15 or something. It helped support my golf and gave me a lot of free time.

Q. I wanted to ask you about next week's event in Vancouver. You've been a supporter of that event and played well there a couple of times.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, big-time support. I heard their sponsor might pull out now, or a potential one.

Q. It's not looking good at all. Talk about that event.

FRED FUNK: Well, it's sad to me. I didn't play -- I played the last three years, so I missed probably the first three years. I think this is their seventh year.

For whatever reason, I didn't go to the first three, I don't even remember. But once I went this first year, I knew I wanted to go back. It's not so much that the golf course is that great, but the tournament is run well. It's on a good golf course, and the people of Vancouver really support it, as far as fan support.

It's a beautiful area. It's just really, really nice. The town of Vancouver is beautiful and obviously if you ever -- I haven't done it, but go up to Whistler; there's a lot to see and do, good restaurants there.

I'm sad to see it go -- if it does end up going or it's not able to be saved. You hate to lose a good venue, a good site that really is supported by the people, too. It would be different if we're going to a place where it wasn't supported by the community, but it seems to have quite a bit of community support, and I don't think they are going to -- I think they are going to miss it. They are not going to like losing that tournament.

Q. You were in that difficult positive of trying to beat Mike Weir.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, that was tough. I remember when I drove it in the rough on 18, we were having a little back and forth birdie match. Just had a great battle going all day long, even though he was a group ahead of me, and I drove it in the rough. Fans saw me in the rough laying up, and they just all stood up and cheered because they knew it was over at that point.

But I didn't have a choice. I couldn't go for the green. I would have dumped 50 balls in the water if I kept trying to go for it from there.

Q. Talk about this week's tournament. You've been playing well; how does this course suit your game?

FRED FUNK: This course, if I'm driving the ball well this, should be, really, obviously, a good golf course for me.

It's all ball position. The course is playing a lot longer than it did from what I remember in '98, but it will probably dry out with the weather forecast, I hear, as we go. Each day it will get firmer probably.

It's a beautiful golf course. It's really in fabulous condition right now. I would hate to see it change much from now. It may get a little firmer in the fairway and the greens stay the they are right now, to be would be perfect. The scores would be a little lower than they were last time, but it's such a joy to play.

Visually you stand on every tee and you look up at the hole, and they are really pretty the way they are framed in with the trees. From the green looking back, we were standing on No. 12 today, and looking back from the green, it was a prettier hole going backwards than it was forward. It was just a gorgeous hole the way it's all framed in, with these big fir trees. Are they fir trees?

Q. Douglas firs.

FRED FUNK: The big ones, yeah.

TODD BUDNICK: Thanks.

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