An Interview with Fred Funk
March 28, 2008
PHIL STAMBAUGH: 67 today, your lowest starting round since
Hualalai when you opened with 67. Your thoughts about how the
course played.
FRED FUNK: It's about time. I played great. Playing difficult,
greens are real firm, real fast and that's different. Fairways
are a little narrower than last year, you've been that hearing
that so I'll repeat.
It's a really good test. The weird thing was the wind, when we
were walking up when we started, it was coming out of the south
and just gradually started turning as we were on the front nine
and started coming back in off the coast. So it went from kind
of a south/southwest wind to a north/northeast wind and that was
weird.
It made it play a little tricky, especially during that
transition time, and 17 is playing -- even though you've got a
front pin, it's a pretty difficult hole. I'm really pleased with
my round overall.
To summarize what I did, because I've been really struggling
with scoring recently and it felt good to make some nice saves
with my putter and make some putts. So that's something I've
been really working on extremely hard for about five weeks and
finally got a good round in.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Do you want to take us through your round?
FRED FUNK: Birdied 2 and made a nice putt. Hit in the bunker and
hit it to 12 feet, ten feet, something like that. So that was a
nice one, especially I missed it from four or five feet on 1 for
birdie. I had to gear up my mental attitude from that point.
And then I made that one and hit it close again on 3 and missed
it from about five feet.
But then I made a nice save on 4, and another nice save on 5
from the front bunker on 4, and I hit it in the right rough on 5
and hit a tough chip to get it close. I made probably an
8-footer for par at least.
And then I made a nice birdie after having to lay up on 6. I hit
a wedge to five feet, four feet, something like that. That was
nice.
And then finally hit a good drive on 7 and hit an 8-iron in
there about 20 feet and made that.
And then 9 is always a nice one. I hit a good drive there and
hit a 9-iron to 15 feet or so, 12 feet.
So I had a good front nine, especially after the putts on 1 and
3 that I didn't make, but I made the four nice ones and a couple
saves. So really good, solid four nine, 4-under.
Then didn't birdie 10. I drove it bad and didn't get my wedge
close, so that always hurts, because that was finally our first
downwind hole that we had. It just seemed like every hole we
played, it was into the wind, the way the wind was turning.
So gave one away there kind of. I think the field is probably
birdieing that hole. And then that was nice, par 5, after
running my putt by on 12, probably six feet.
13, really playing hard. The green, everybody is hitting -- at
least in our group, is hitting over. I was on the back fringe
and putted it by about eight, ten feet and made it coming back.
Oh, I eagled 13. I was thinking 14. I was just thinking 14, the
par 5. That was pretty good, too. The eagle on 13 was really
good.
Nice birdie on 14, I had to lay up.
16, I hit a nice four wedge off the tee and then hit it to four
feet.
Ballooned a 6-iron on 17 and went in the bunker and didn't hit
that good of a bunker shot. I had probably a 6-footer, 7-footer
from behind the hole to the right. Tough putt to make, and I
missed it.
Good up-and-down after a bad drive on 18. So real pleased
overall, because I did make some good saves there in the middle
and still made six birdies.
That's always a good day on a really good golf course.
Q. Looks like tomorrow you are in a group with a guy in the
Hall of Fame and a guy who is a career club pro, who, you know,
didn't have much success on the PGA TOUR, Lonnie and Bernhard.
First of all, have you got to know Bernhard?
FRED FUNK: Oh, yeah, Bernhard and I are really good friends.
We've got real close probably the last three or four years.
We've become really good friends through Larry Moody, our TOUR
Minister, and really just being almost parallel last few years,
we've been kind of running the same thing, just trying to do the
best we could on the regular TOUR until we got out here, staying
very competitive and working out and things like that.
He and I have got a lot in common the last few years. I can't
say I have a lot in common prior to that because I didn't know
him at all.
Q. Has he done what you expected out here?
FRED FUNK: Oh, yeah, he's a very competitive guy, unbelievable.
He's a guy that's truly had the yips. Couldn't do anything on
the greens at least twice in his career and has overcome that.
You know, obviously he's gone on to win the Masters and -- how
many majors does he have, two? Two Masters. Obviously he's a
great player. He's physically in really good shape and mentally
he's really strong.
He's on a mission. I think Bernhard is on a true mission to
dominate out here -- if not dominate, to win the Schwab Cup. No
question in my mind that's what he wants to do and that's his
goal, and he's off and running.
Q. How important is it to get a good start like you did today
in a tournament like this on a course that can be challenging?
FRED FUNK: Well, this year is more challenging than last year. I
think there will be more separation in the scores, I think, just
because of the firmness of the golf course; mainly the greens.
But with three rounds -- that's the biggest difference I see
between the regular TOUR and out here is the three versus four
rounds; it's like a sprint. You can't -- you're immediately into
the moving day on Saturday after one round, and you've got to
position yourself, and it's hard to position yourself if you're
starting behind the 8-ball on the first day, if you shoot a
higher number.
It's very seldom I think a guy -- I really don't know, but a guy
like Denis Watson who shots 65 and to overcome that many people
that he did at Valencia, that's pretty rare. Obviously we had
really tough conditions and he got really rewarded for a great
round, but you've got to start off pretty well I think.
I'm more or less trying not to look ahead, and that's the one
thing out here, is that you can look at the scoreboard and
you're kind of treading water and you're even par, 1-under, a
couple over, whatever you are, and you look up and somebody is
5-, or 6-under and you start pressing and all of a sudden you go
the wrong way; you can't do that.
You've just got to, as they say, take one shot at a time or one
hole at a time. But it's hard to do. But you've got to focus
that way.
Q. Tell us about the plane ride yesterday.
FRED FUNK: I got to land it twice, and he let me take off, and I
had never flown before in my life. He put me in the pilot side
on the left side and had me do all the checklists. I didn't even
know -- he said: "Hit that button, turn the key and start
taxiing."
"How the hell do you taxi? I don't know how to taxi."
He said, "Hit the throttle and use the pedals." Like I was going
down the runway all over the place.
I said, "Does it count if you're not really going straight?"
He says, "As long as you don't hit anything." And so we're going
down and he said, "Full throttle, take off." And I'm thinking,
how is this thing going to straight? "So once you get to 75
miles an hour, pull it up," so we pulled it up.
He had a set of controls, but at taking off, he didn't do
anything. But coming down, I said, "Keep your hands on those
controls over there."
He said, "Don't worry, I'm not taking my hands off the control."
Who knows, he said I had like 70 percent of the controls the
first time landed in Miami, and then coming back here, we landed
just at dark last night, just before dark, and he said, "Well,
you had about 85 percent that time." I went, okay, whatever. I'm
bouncing -- there wasn't even any wind and the plane is
bouncing. I was a nervous wreck.
Q. Don't have to have a learner's permit?
FRED FUNK: I don't know. I'm not trying to get him in trouble.
(Laughter).
Q. Was it easy?
FRED FUNK: The plane was great. There's no way I would want to
land it in there's any wind or anything.
Q. They have a parachute, don't they?
FRED FUNK: Yeah, that's if you're high up enough and you can
deploy that thing.
Q. Now, is this motivating you in any way to maybe go get a
pile's license?
FRED FUNK: No. That was fun, though. It was fun. It was a great
trip. Made that little deal -- I had to do this outing
yesterday, and so I played the Wednesday Pro-Am and John Super's
(ph) office said they could take me down there, and, well,
that's nice enough. There's nowhere really to sit in back,
there's not much room, so I was in the front on left side. Got
in, said, "Well, isn't this your side?"
He said, "No, it's your side today."
PHIL STAMBAUGH: How long did it take.
FRED FUNK: About an hour and a half. It goes about 200 miles an
hour.
Q. You were at the Miami Beach Country Club?
FRED FUNK: Yes.
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