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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 24, 2005

Fred Funk

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

JOE CHEMYCZ: Fred Funk, 7 under par, 65, birdie on the last hole. Playing with Zach, that must have been fun for you today.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, it really was. We went out and were really relaxed for whatever reason. Zach and I did a lot of talking today and actually Justin early. We just had a relaxing time out there. And we played a lot of good golf.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Golf course is yielding some low scores today, surprisingly.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, we obviously saw that from the morning scores. You see Steve Jones shooting 8 under while you're warming up and the 6 under, and a lot of 4's and 5s. You could see it was going to give it up a little bit.

But anytime you have soft conditions I always say when we have control over where the ball is going to stop, obviously the scores are really low. And the scores are high when we don't have very much control where the ball stops and you have firm conditions. The courses might play sort shorter, but you can't control the shots into the greens or you can't hold the fairways as easy.

So it's actually set up pretty good in these conditions with these fairways for the long hitters, but fortunately it's a golf course, and getting fewer and fewer, where a guy with my lack of power can still score well here. I've said that all along whenever I've played here, that this is one of the golf courses that I feel I have a comfort level on. Even though I can't overpower anything, I can go from point A to point B and give myself enough chances for birdies to score.

But it's tough enough for the long hitters where they can get in trouble. You can make some big numbers out here. Everybody can make them pretty easy.

Q. Does a real good scoring afternoon on Thursday in this event really make you feel good, based on the assumption that the winds kick up in the afternoon and tomorrow morning you may have pretty calm conditions?

FRED FUNK: Hopefully it will be calm, but the key for me is it's warm. Last week down at Bay Hill with wind chill whatever it was, and Friday and Saturday morning, close to 35, 40 degrees, boy, it was cold. Those aren't conditions I like at all. Nobody likes them. But my body doesn't function when it's cold. If it's warm like they're calling for out here all week, I like that.

That's probably the one factor that's different from the afternoon players versus the morning players, the mud on the ball I'm sure they had more mud on the ball than we did in the afternoon. I'm sure the course is drying out a little bit. In the morning you have a dew factor which adds moisture. It has that swamp mud underneath the grass that sticks to the ball, and I had a few mud balls today. Nothing real significant, and the course is in great shape considering the rain we had Tuesday night.

But that's the only downside, I think, is just how soft everything is and how much is sticking to the ball sometimes.

Q. Looking at the leaderboard, there's Steve Jones, Fred Funk. Did it feel like 1994 or something?

FRED FUNK: Dig up the archives here. It was great to see Steve Jones. Looking on the board and my caddie, I wasn't looking, Steve Jones just shot 8 under. I go, "Steve Jones shot 8 under? Where did he come from?" That's great to see. Obviously he's had a lot of health issues with his injuries he's had. And it's great to see a guy come back in this big a tournament and score that great a round. He's a great guy.

There's a long way to go. It's TPC, it's tough conditions. It's going to get tougher as the week goes. The greens hopefully Mother Nature will let the greens get faster. The interviews you see prior to the tournament, everybody talking about how hard it is to hold the lead when you're going to Sunday.

And I still look at birdies, I've said this before, as birdies are your deposits in the bank and you know you're going to have some withdrawals, and hopefully you have more deposits than withdrawals by the end of the week. And right now if the conditions stay soft, this course is going to be low. So you've got to keep getting it at this point.

Q. I know you just live over yonder. Do you play this course a good bit when you're home?

FRED FUNK: No, never, really. I've probably played it two times a year other than this week. And I'm a member of the course nearby, Pebble Creek, so when I am home I don't play that much golf. But when I do go, I go over there, because it's so quiet. This place is a factory over here.

Q. Best score you've shot here?

FRED FUNK: Oh, I'm sure it was.

Q. Felt like it?

FRED FUNK: Felt like it.

Q. Do you go over there to practice?

FRED FUNK: Vijay wears out the range on this course. There's no balls yet.

Q. You come to buy souvenir shirts and stuff?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, go for the merchandise.

Q. Have you played with Zach Johnson before?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, actually it was Zach and Jack Nicklaus. Zach Jack attack at Memorial. And Zach played great. He shot like the same score the first day, I don't recall. But Zach can hit it a long way. I'm surprised how far he can hit it when he catches it up. Last year at Memorial he was 40 yards right by us, and it's all air time. He hits a real high ball. It's pretty impressive. He's a good kid and a lot of talent, like all these kids are nowadays.

Q. Are you the type when other guys in your group play well it helps you a little bit?

FRED FUNK: Well, I always root for the guys, no matter whether I'm playing. I always seem to be able to tell a guy to make a putt or knock it in, whatever, congratulate him when he does. I've always done that. I like to see good golf. And even if I'm not playing it, I try to stay out of the other guy's way if I'm not playing well. And I try to boost the guy up whenever I have the chance.

So Zach and I were doing that all day, and so was Justin early on before Justin kind of had some bad bounces, and you don't want to bother a guy like that at that point. It gets to be a little different atmosphere. But it was fun.

I can't say you really ride another guy's momentum so much. It does make a little bit of difference when you see some putts going in the hole, rather than the whole group lipping out all day long. When the cup looks like you're seeing the ball go in the hole, it definitely reinforces you a little bit, whether it's your ball or not. Sometimes. And other times you really are in this type of tournament or any tournament, you're so focused on what you're doing, it's not that big a deal what the other guy is doing. But I'm rooting for the other guy.

Q. When you're playing in front of the home fans, is it harder for you not get ahead of yourself?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, I was trying not to get I've had that problem recently, trying to see the final I'm looking too far okay, whatever. And when you're really, really focused you're just making birdies and you're just moving along and you're playing one shot or one hole at a time, you kind of know what you're doing, but you're not looking out, projecting the score or seeing what everybody else is doing.

So I kind of fight that sometimes, especially this big a tournament. And I really wanted I turned 4 under on the back nine, and I was thinking, golly, it would be nice to have a good front 9. And then I had a wedge into 1 and I spun it off the front of the green, and I had a tough I was just really fighting hard not to make an unforced error bogey there. And I hit my first putt from short of the green, about eight feet past the hole, and I really, really wanted to make that putt and I made it. That was a big momentum keeper.

There's always a point in the round where you know it's kind of the take you over the edge a little bit. And I made that putt and then I made a nice birdie putt on 2, and that just really relaxed me a lot.

Q. I didn't see the little celebration. Where does it rank on the Funk scale?

FRED FUNK: Real low. It was nothing.

Q. It's just the first round, you've got to save it?

FRED FUNK: I was just kind of psyched, because I got this new ladies' 3 iron game improvement I don't know what it is, but it is some weird club that I saw in the Taylor Made trailer, I saw it about a month ago, and I said I have to at least hit this thing. It's a 3 iron loft, but graphite shaft, about an inch longer, and I can hit this 3 iron straight up in the air, about 215 yards, and I'm like Vijay with this one club. It's the only reason I played Bay Hill last week, because the par 3s, I knew I had a club I could hit those par 3s.

Q. 2 and 17?

FRED FUNK: Yeah. And sure enough I did. And I used it all week. In fact, I birdied 17 twice with that club last week, the first round and the last round.

Q. Maybe the only guy?

FRED FUNK: I think a couple of guys birdied on Sunday after I did. But I was the first one to birdie on Sunday. Today I had it on 5, playing into the wind, a pretty good drive, but I still had 210 or 215 to the pin, and I just smoked this 3 iron, straight up, right at the flag. I thought it was going to get there, it actually fell about 20 feet short of the hole just on the green. But it was just a beautiful shot and that's when I did my little two step thing. I don't know what the heck I did.

Q. Does this mean that real men play with women's clubs?

FRED FUNK: Well, there's no yes (laughter). There's no stigma anymore to putting styles anymore. Now the hybrids have come out. Most guys have Rescues or some sort of weird utility club. Vijay is it the 9 bent to the 5 wood? And here's the best player in the world with a really easy club to hit. And he's got it because it's so easy to hit. He sends it straight up in the air, can hit it different distances. So I was always looking for something I could hit that would replace a 3 iron that I could hit in the air and feel comfortable hitting and sure enough I did.

I have a whole new set of irons I got two days ago from Taylor Made, through the rest of the bag, and I switched balls today from the X Ball back to the Black Ball, to the regular Pro V and I used one ball all day. I'm superstitious. At the turn usually I get rid of it after three holes. And every time I looked apparently I don't compress the ball near enough to make any mark on the ball, because it looked brand new when I was finished. It was unbelievable. And it had not even a score mark on it. I went, I'm not taking it out, it seems to know where the holes are going.

Q. There aren't any other women's items you're using recently?

FRED FUNK: I'm not going to tell you anything about my dress or anything.

Q. How do you know it's a woman's club, does it say?

FRED FUNK: No, it's not a woman's club. A woman should use it. Anybody should use it.

Q. It's a Taylor Made club?

FRED FUNK: Actually they said it's their most expensive club to make, four different pieces welded together, the face, the back. It's ridiculous.

Q. Do you happen to carry a man purse, also?

FRED FUNK: I'm not telling.

Q. So you said you feel like Vijay, how come you came in here (laughter)?

FRED FUNK: Now, we were at Doral I was paired with Vijay and I had that club and we were on the 4th hole, playing into the wind on the par 3. He takes a 3 iron and sends it straight up in the air. And I take this thing really nice, it looked just like Vijay's shot. I told my caddie, I feel like Vijay. For one shot I felt like that, because he had the same club in his hand that I did.

I've had more journalists ask me about Vijay the last three or four weeks looking for dirt. And you guys letting up on him at all? Let me ask you guys something.

Q. We're just looking for anything on Vijay.

FRED FUNK: He's a good guy. He's lightened up a lot.

Q. No, he just doesn't talk to us very much he's not open at all.

FRED FUNK: I thought he has opened up to you guys.

Q. Not really. The last six weeks he hasn't come into the pressroom after two second places?

FRED FUNK: He gave a nice interview on TV after he missed that putt with Padraig. He didn't go to the interview room. He actually smiled after missing a little putt.

Q. It's inconceivable that he would sit here and talk to us the way that you're talking to us, it wouldn't happen.

FRED FUNK: He should lighten up a little bit.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Fred, you birdied 11, just start us with that one.

FRED FUNK: I actually hit a drive down the left side and I tried it was really a dumb play, I had a 3 wood that I knew I probably couldn't get there. But I was trying to get it snugged up against the bunker. I whiffed it. I had a long bunker shot, really hard shot, one of those do you commit to it and hope you hit a good shot or do you fluff it out there and leave it 30 feet short of the hole. And I decided to go for it and knocked it about a foot from, I don't know, I was probably a good 50 yards from the pin. That was a great shot. That was ridiculous.

I birdied 12 from however long that was, 20 feet.

And then 17 after last year I made seven on that the first day with the same pin, that was definitely in my mind. I hit a little 8 iron about it was measured three feet and six inches, so I made that.

18 I hit kind of chickened out on my drive, but had 6 iron in and rode the wind probably about eight feet from the hole, made a nice putt there.

Then I told you about the save on 1.

I birdied 2 from probably about 12, 15 feet.

And then 6 I hit, my only fairway I missed I hit it in the fairway bunker on the left. A lot of sand and it's hard to catch them clean. But I caught it clean and hit it up about 10, 12 feet and made that.

And then birdied 9 from about three or four feet. I think I missed three greens and one fairway. It was a pretty solid day.

Q. What's it say, everyone talked about the Fab 4 this week. They were talking about Vijay, you and Steve Jones, 46 and you're a tad older?

FRED FUNK: Yeah.

Q. What does that say?

FRED FUNK: Never say never, I guess, I don't know. But it's early. It's just amazing how if you want to call those guys the cream of the crop, which they are, the cream rises, and I'm sure by the time Sunday rolls around, there's going to be, out of those four guys, there will be two or three that will be right there, if not up top. Hopefully I'm with them. But those guys are too good. And they've been playing great.

I think it's an exciting time for golf right now. It's fun to watch. Even as a player to watch the level of play that these guys are playing right now. The way Tiger played and Phil's show down at Doral was fantastic. And Vijay seems to finish either in playoffs or wins. A Brink's truck went by when I was on 15 last week, and I said there's Vijay's limo.

Q. Is it ever discouraging to see the bar set that high?

FRED FUNK: No, what has really changed and I am pretty adamant about it, and actually upset about it, because of the technology a few years ago when the Hex Ball and the X Ball came out. There was a huge spike in distance, and the longer guys, with whatever club it takes to get this ball up high enough and fast enough with the right spin, it doesn't come down. They made the long guys so much longer, and it just made a big gain for the long guys that were already long, really stepped it out there. And I just don't have the horsepower to get it out there. So it created a bigger spread between the long guys and the shorter guys, when the technology just before that, I picked up a little bit, and they picked up just a little bit and it was a little tighter.

But in one year they went from three guys over 300 to I looked this up, and 65 no, three guys over 300 and I think it was 13 guys over 290. And when those two balls came out they had 13 guys over 300 and 65 guys over 290. It was a huge difference. And now all the balls have caught up to those balls. And that's why I wished the USGA or the Tour or somebody said we've got to stop. But now it's too late. Those balls are already out. I don't think it will be a significant increase anymore, because from what I've been told the performance of the ball is at its limit. It can go further but you lose control of the irons.

The athleticism of the players is so good, so you're going to have distance. I have no problem with that; athleticism, talent, that doesn't bother me at all, that's fine. I think the prototypical body is going to change, we're all going to look like Olympic swimmers, with the huge arc built into their bodies and they're going to hit it miles with no effort. I came in the wrong era.

End of FastScripts.

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