MICHELOB CHAMPIONSHIP AT KINGSMILL

October 2, 2002

Fred Funk

JOAN vT. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Fred, for coming to spend some time with us. I know it's been a busy time for you and a lot fun. Why don't you just talk about the last couple of weeks and coming in this week ready to rock & roll.

FRED FUNK: Where do you want me to start, last couple weeks or way back?

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Wherever you want to start.

FRED FUNK: It's been a pretty good run since really the three weeks I came back from Europe when I played the Irish and the European and the Scottish trying to get the British, didn't make that, came back for BC, finished second there, and second at Flint, and then went to PGA and obviously that was just a fantastic week for me, the best week I've ever had in golf as far as having fun on the golf course, interacting with the spectators and just having a ball. Short of winning the golf tournament -- I felt like I won more than even if I had won the golf tournament. Short of winning the golf tournament it was the most spectacular week I've ever had, mainly just because of the interaction with -- the way I was playing, the attitude I took going in, which was trying to focus on the positive stuff you do out there instead of all the negative and just try to have a good time, and it really worked that week. Getting paired with Tiger on Sunday, obviously he brings a totally different atmosphere along with him when he's in the group alone, and then when the crowd was rooting for me as much as him or even more, even Tiger had a good time with that. That was a great time. Then I followed that up with a second at the World Golf Championship in Seattle, played pretty good at Vancouver and a took a couple weeks off and went to the Irish Open -- not the Irish Open but the WGC in Ireland. Actually I played good over there but I putted horrible, and that's what I've been doing so well, and then last week I finished tied for second, was really actually disappointed after last week because I got in a position -- it was surprising in one hand that I got in a position to win and actually was leading the golf tournament after how sloppy I played the first two days where I was making a lot of birdies, I think I had 25 birdies and an eagle last week and only finished 16-under, and obviously I made a lot of mistakes the first two rounds, two doubles and a bunch of bogeys and that's kind of what I was doing in Ireland.

I made 17 birdies over there and finished 3- or 4-under, whatever I finished over there. I've been making a lot of mistakes, and then on Sunday I had a mistake-free round and felt really good about my golf and then I took it off on Sunday and was 7-under after 13 holes, and I didn't see the board but apparently had a two-shot lead for a short time there. I didn't birdie 14, which I hit a 4-wood over the green on a short par 5 and didn't get up and down out of the bermuda rough, hit a really bad wedge shot on 16, and that was the most disappointing part. I was in perfect position to at least keep the heat on or put the heat on Loren and Freddie just made a birdie in front of me and I ended up making a bogey. So a disappointing second last week as it turned out. In one regard I was surprised I got in that position because I played too sloppy the first two rounds, but I played really good on the weekend and honestly and thinking of breaking 60 and winning the golf tournament I fell too far ahead walking down 14 after hitting a really good drive. I was just playing really good and was thinking the best and trying to think of the positive and a couple negative things happened there coming in.

But it has been a good roll, and coming into a golf course I really like here, even though I've only played here once since they've moved to the fall, I finished third one year.

I love the golf course and I'm really sad, which is another subject, that it's the last one. I'm actually disappointed either -- I guess I'm more disappointed in Anheuser-Busch not thinking they're getting their money's worth out of a PGA TOUR event. I think they're wrong in that aspect, leaving a good venue and a good golf course, a popular spot for the Tour to come. But that's a different subject?

Q. Is there some nostalgia? Is it just another stop on a long -- or do you sense it's the last one?

FRED FUNK: Well, obviously we're in hard times with corporate America -- not us, but corporate America is in hard times, and they have to refocus on where they're going to put their advertising dollars and how much impact they're going to have with those dollars. And I'm just surprised that a huge a company as Anheuser-Busch is, and the amount of money they put in their advertising budget, which I've heard is hundreds of millions of dollars, that they can't see justification for sponsoring a major Tour event at a really good venue. Worst case scenario, if they didn't like the site, then continue to sponsor and move the site. I'm not saying they don't like the site, but if there's something that's holding them back, I'd like to see -- hopefully it's not our Tour that's holding them back. I would doubt that.

I always thought it was a well-supported event. One thing with the media, constantly focuses on who's not at a Tour event when Tiger is not here, not at an event, and all the negative publicity that gets fueled from the media I think hurts sponsors. All they read is who's not here instead of who's here. And I think you, as media, would focus in more on the positive of guys like Rich Beem, Dan Forsman just won, Gene Sauers who just won, guys who aren't in the general focus of the public. Me, I mean, I'm not a big gun out here on the Tour but I'm having a small little impact and people enjoy watching me play golf right now, and that's great. But there's a lot more of us out here that do that. I think that's what really hurts our Tour is it's all the negatives that are drawn up when Tiger is not in the field. Sponsors look at that and say, hey, I'm putting in all this money and we're not getting Tiger. Tiger can't play every single week, and he's not the whole Tour. He's the best that's ever played the game but he's not the whole Tour.

Q. Is there any correlation between your new relaxed on-course demeanor and your solid play in the game?

FRED FUNK: I think so. I hope so. I'm hoping it's -- it's got to be some sort of correlation. One thing we're told as golfers is not to get too high and not to get too low. We tend to get too low a lot quicker than we get too high about things. In other sports you see people celebrating home runs and touchdowns when things happen. In golf this game beats you up so much, and I expect -- we're going to make bad shots; we're going to make bad decisions, hit it in the rough, behind trees, out of bounds, you let it get to you, it's going to get you down. But when you make a good chip, a good iron shot, you want to hit more of those. It actually was fueled with a ping-pong match I had with David Duval at home, weeks ago, months ago, you get there on a ping-pong table, you're screaming and yelling and jumping around and you say why can't we do this on the golf course. I mean, David doesn't see it that way. David is just the opposite, but I did. I said, shoot, I'm going to do this.

Q. Is that where it started?

FRED FUNK: That's one thing. That's where it started, and another thing is what happened -- which I don't want to get into, with my brother. That had a lot to do with it, too. It's not easy. What happened in Minnesota was rare with -- I don't know whether that will ever be duplicated again, the kind of excitement the crowd had already, they were just ready for someone to give them a reason to celebrate, and I reacted to my couple comments I made, and they were going crazy, and then I reacted to them and thanked them and I got them pumped up and they got me pumped up. I didn't have a difficult putt and I was thinking this would be something if I really made this thing instead of the 3-putt or something negative or get it close. I was thinking, boy, if I made this, this would be really excited. I had a positive thought, so it carried over and it actually got to a much smaller degree at Valhalla carried over next week where the crowds expected it, and Vancouver a little bit and I took two weeks after.

More in Ireland, I think because I was over there for three weeks, but obviously you have a really strong field there. Unfortunately I didn't play well there, but they still recognized me, and that was fun. So it made it -- it was nice to get a little note right for all the hard work you've done, and the positive comments I've had coming back were -- I've heard under the circumstances it's fun to watch golf again, you've made golf fun again or whatever, whatever it is, it's not watching a bunch of robots out there.

We are in the entertainment business out there, but it's a difficult game. It is a game that beats you up, so it's not easy to do. It took a real conscious effort to do it. You know, even last week I got pretty fired up at myself, mad at myself for doing inconsistent shots that I was hitting the first two rounds. You can't help but get a little frustrated. My wife was over there and I threw a ball at the amusement park over there at the 7th hole, and she says, hey, hey, you can't do that. I said, I'm a little pissed. I don't care, you can't do that. It's definitely a conscious thing that you've got to really work at.

Q. Well, Tour players have been criticized a lot for being sullen and unresponsive. Is that a message from you in the past month for some of those guys?

FRED FUNK: I hope so. I hope in a way that the belief that you can't get too high, can't get too low, why not let yourself get up. Obviously you don't want to get too low. It's human nature to do that, but I think to allow yourself to focus in on the good things that happen out there, and let it go. Let it go and let yourself go. You know, you don't want to make a jerk out of yourself. It's something -- it's got to be kind of natural. I mean, in the beginning rounds I made a couple of putts early in the round, which is early in the week. I'm not in a position to do anything. You just can't go, yeah, I did that, that was great, but at least enjoy and acknowledge the crowd, just not a "thanks a lot, I was supposed to make that." Thanks or whatever if they give you a little applause. Acknowledge the fact that they're out there and they're supporting you and supporting -- they love the game enough to come out and watch you play golf. I think they deserve a little acknowledgment for that.

Q. Had you been a tense player before this?

FRED FUNK: I'm still a very intense player.

Q. I mean a tense guy.

FRED FUNK: I think I'm a real focused player, but at the same time I don't -- I really enjoy watching the guys I'm playing with. I acknowledge guys I'm playing with when they hit good shots, good putts, I'm there in their corner. I enjoy watching good golf even if they're beating me. We're out there trying to beat the golf course and we're trying to beat each other but we're mainly are trying to beat the golf course, and if a guy is playing well, that's great. I try to do that; I try to have fun while we're in a group. We're not out there just to ignore each other and stay out of each other's way. I like rooting for the guy, as well, especially a guy that's even a rookie that's a little uncomfortable or a guy that's about to lose his card to try to pump him up because especially this time of year, I know what they're going through and it's not easy.

Q. You mentioned that the media focusing in on the fact that if Tiger is not here, there's a problem. It hasn't just been Tiger who has been conspicuously absent throughout the years. Rarely have many top 10, to 15 guys on the money list, a majority of them, come here in any given year. I'm curious when you're in the locker room or just talking to guys, why, is it simply the way, when it was in July it was too close to the British and in October people want a rest?

FRED FUNK: A lot of times where it's on the schedule, honestly there's nothing you can do about it. If you're stuck between some really good events -- Kemper Open is my home tournament. I'm from Maryland, even though I live in Florida now, but that was my home tournament, and they're stuck in a position where they're a couple weeks before the U.S. Open, they have Memorial and Colonial and Dallas right before them and then they have Westchester afterwards. They're kind of the odd man out so they're stuck in a date that's tough to draw a strong field. The year they did have a good field was the year they had the Kemper and the U.S. Open and Congressional back-to-back, so obviously you could see even that year that when the schedule allowed the guys to come in that wanted to play the week before, they were there. They didn't have to move hotels or anything.

Q. Just across the street, right?

FRED FUNK: Right. So where it falls on the calendar is a big thing. Again, I agree with you, it's not just Tiger, it's Phil and it's Ernie Els and Retief and those guys, Vijay, guys people want to see, but you get David Toms, one of the best players in the world, David Duval plays here. I am sure -- is Furyk here?

Q. Hoch. Hoch is here.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, you've got to some really great players, but then you've got the guys that jump out of nowhere, what is considered nowhere, and they end up winning the golf tournament. It just shows the depth of the field out here. Freddie Couples, he hadn't played that well and then last week he almost wins a golf tournament. I think that's where the focus needs to be. It's not going to happen.

I mean, in a real world people are going to focus in on who's not here because obviously people want to see the best come in, but we still are the best that ever played golf, and it's a really strong field. Same thing happened with the Europeans in the Ryder Cup. They got no respect at all from anybody in the media or even from our team obviously, although I think our team respected them a lot more than the media or the world, but those are world-class players on the European Tour, a lot of them play over here, and in that format alone it makes everybody pretty close. To me it's not an upset that they won. It's not that big -- it's great for golf, a great competition, but it wasn't an upset.

Q. When you say Kemper struggled with its date and its field, what kind of crowd is supporting the gallery?

FRED FUNK: Huge. D.C. area has been a really good supporter of golf I would say. When the Senior Open went up to Baltimore, Maryland area, the Baltimore area really supported -- which is the D.C. area, as well. Kemper has really great crowds.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Their biggest problem is rain.

Q. The crowds are just --

FRED FUNK: If they're happy with -- if they want to host the PGA TOUR event but are not happy with the spectator support at the site then they'll drop the whole ball of wax and go somewhere else. Anheuser-Busch is huge. I probably shouldn't say this, but probably in today's hard times and real life with the way the economy is going and everything else, people are probably drinking more of their product, so they shouldn't be hurting. In a bad economy they probably do better.

Q. There's four seconds in eight tournaments is awfully impressive. Can it be frustrating to you?

FRED FUNK: It was frustrating last week. I wish I had played a little better on Sunday at the PGA, but I refuse to let anything damper what happened that week. The heck with that, that was great. I still felt like I had a chance to win after I birdied the 11th hole that way and Rich was behind us, I think I was like two back at the time and I thought if I would make a run coming in, but I didn't, I went the other way, and rich went the other way, he just separated. That was a great week. Last week was the most disappointing because I got -- in one hand I saw what I did early in rounds where I really could have helped myself to get in good position. Instead I shoot some lights-out golf for however many holes that is, about 30 holes' worth. 31 holes I played 13 under par, and then -- and to get in position, and then I just let it go. I didn't really let it go but I didn't keep the pedal to the metal, and I'm not going to take away from what Loren did because he made some great birdies coming in and clutch putting. He deserves to win but I wish I had at least kept the heat on him a little bit. That was disappointing there, but you can't -- when you start complaining with second places then I think you're up there where Tiger is. I don't expect to be where he is.

Q. Fred, the note right you're enjoying now which you referred to, did you think that maybe -- that your chance had passed and that you were going to continue on just as sort of --

FRED FUNK: I never expected anything like what happened in Minnesota. There was no way. That fueled the whole thing. I had some good solid golf the two or three weeks prior to that, but then -- that was just -- I was still just me. I was just plugging along, plugging along. Now you're at a major and you had the atmosphere of the Minnesota people there. They really were phenomenal. That's the most fired up group of people I've ever seen that truly love golf and knew what golf was all about. We get a lot of people in Phoenix and they get fired up to just be at a party. Phoenix is just, I think -- the golf tournament is an excuse to have the gathering of people there. You know, it's just a big party for them. But at Minnesota it was truly an event to see. They really wanted to see it. They were excited that the best in the world were coming to Minnesota to play golf and had a chance to really show case that. They just ended up somewhat adopting me. It was great.

What was so unique about it was the fact that it started on day one and I kept myself in position. If I had blown out at some point it probably wouldn't have been as big a deal, but I stayed in position and then I get paired with Tiger, everything was setting up. It got really climactic with Tiger in the group on Sunday, playing with him, because he brings his atmosphere alone.

Q. That's supposed to be a very awesome thing and you get yourself out of your game and that kind of thing. Did that happen to you?

FRED FUNK: Tiger and I are really good friends. We kind of rib each other all the time and give each other a hard time whenever we have a chance. You know, I gained a Mini Me fist pump when he made his chip in and then he set up the atmosphere for me when I made my putt. I knew it was a staged thing because I was going to do it on Sunday when I fist-pumped the crowd when I made that long par putt on 16. I was out there in the fairway and the grandstand was going crazy. I told my caddie after I hit it in there 15, 20 feet if I make this I'm going to do the same thing. Then I chip in from the fringe and I made an 8-footer for par. He's walking off the green and I'm giving it to them. It really went over good, and Tiger had a good time with it, although he told me on the 2nd tee, I don't know what you're excited about, we're professionals, you're supposed to two putt for pete's sake. He actually said on 11 walking up the fairway because between the 10th green and 11th tee you've got to walk about 50 yards through lots of people, and they were so loud and therapy rooting for him, rooting for me, he said this is unbelievable, this is awesome. When he says that he's really enjoying it.

Q. In a weird way do you feel as though your name perhaps has helped you --

FRED FUNK: Absolutely.

Q. If you were Joe Smith maybe you wouldn't have the same --

FRED FUNK: That's the other part. They had fun with the name. It's a name that's been hard to grow up with sometimes, but it's been fun, too. I actually have had -- it's a name that you remember whether it's good or bad. If you do something bad they're going to remember you, you do something good they're going to remember you. The young people have a good time with it, the old people have a really good time with it, the drunks have really good time with it, so it's a lot of fun.

Q. You've had to deal with things at various stages, jokes or whatever, comments through your life?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, you get picked on and stuff growing up. Either that's why I'm so mean as I am or I have the sense of humor that I do.

Q. That's working?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, that's definitely working now.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: One more question.

Q. Mental approach has been so much better. What have you gained?

FRED FUNK: The putter got hot. I was actually looking at my stats just two weeks prior -- actually on the European Tour when I went over for those three weeks, and all my stats have been a lot better than I've ever been. I was second or third in greens in regulation at the time, my driver was accurate, I was hitting it far enough. I'm still a short hitter in terms of what's out there, but I'm averaging 275. My scrambling was good, every stat across the board was much higher than it's ever been and I felt like I was treading water on the money list. I was hanging there around 40th or 45th and I said I'm playing good enough to be top 15, top 20 anyway, and even my putting stats were up. They were better than they'd been, but it wasn't translating into four good rounds of golf. Stroke average was there and everything. It wasn't translating to the top ten guys, I had better stats than every guy except for Tiger on the Top 10 but hadn't won a golf tournament. All of a sudden the putter got really hot for a few weeks and it helped a lot.

The key is you've got to shoot a couple of real low rounds, and that's what I wasn't doing early. Is that good?

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Fred, for joining us.

End of FastScripts....