What they said: Fred Funk

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MODERATOR: Fred Funk, you birdied three of the last five holes to shoot 66 and you're 10 under through 36 holes of the Ace Group Classic. Just a couple thoughts about the round today and how you're playing right now.

FRED FUNK: Well, it's good to make seven birdies each round and have opportunities for even more, so I like at that trend. When you're making seven birdies and having opportunities for more, that's really good. Something I haven't been doing recently, so -- and then making them actually. I've had opportunities, but not making seven. So the putter's working a little better and I'm hitting a lot more quality shots right now. I could see it coming, but I wasn't quite there.

I'm still making a few little mental mistakes. Today on number 3 was a big mental mistake and it cost me only a bogey on pretty much a birdie hole, definitely not a bogey hole. So overall, really good. I'm real pleased with the way things are progressing.

MODERATOR: Do you want to take us through the round if you could?

FRED FUNK: I birdied 1. It was a 3-wood, sand wedge. I probably had about an 18-footer, 15, 18 feet, nice one there. And just poorly laid up into a fairway bunker on 3 and chopped it out, hit a -- I hit it fat coming out and then actually hit a good chip to about five feet and I missed it. Then real nice birdie on 6 and an 8-iron to about six feet. 7, almost everybody's birdieing 7. It's just getting up there around the green, got up and down, six-footer. 8 was -- I had a great shot there, driver, wedge to about three feet. And then I had a couple opportunities there early on 10, 11, 12, and then finally made one on -- I gave one away on 12, but a great up-and-down or a great two-putt from really a long way away on 13. And then 14, chipped, made about a 12-footer. I was the third one to putt and all three of us made it, so that was kind of nice. And then on 15 I hit a great 4-iron in there to about six feet. And then 16 I missed another good chance. 17, I actually had to hit a 4-iron to 17. I fired it out to the right, it was playing long and into the wind at the moment, and probably made about a 25-footer. That's it.

MODERATOR: Any questions?

Q. Is Bernhard about maybe one of the last guys that you guys would expect to come back to you a little bit tomorrow?

FRED FUNK: Do I -- no, I don't expect him to come back, but you never know in this game. Tommy Armour threw a big number up last year, a 61, in pretty severe weather really from what I remember. It can be done, but you've got to do it. You've got to go out there and you've got to shoot a really low number and then if it's good enough to win. I don't really think -- you've got to go out there and start off really fast and hope he doesn't and some of the other guys don't so you can get a little pressure on him, and then it becomes a shootout. So it really depends what happens early in the round. If you look at the -- you know, as a whole, you think there's no chance, but if you can get three or four, five under early on that front 9 and then narrow a little bit of that gap, then it gets interesting. But, you know, you've got some water and you've got some tough par 3s there on the back 9 that can get you here and there. And then 17 and 18 with the wind blowing the direction it's blowing right now, it's not playing that short. So anyway, it's there, but you've got to do it early. I think you've got to put a little emphasis on the front part of the round and try to narrow that gap.

Q. Is there something about the way Bernhard goes about his work, methodical, that has helped separate him a little bit these last couple years on Tour?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, he's very good. He doesn't beat himself, that's probably the biggest thing. He just goes out there and stays with the game plan. He has a game plan, I don't think he ever varies from it. I think he picks and chooses his green light/red light areas where he's going to play aggressive, where he doesn't play aggressive, and if he gets his putter going -- he's always a solid ball striker, but when he gets that putter going, it's see ya.

That's the same with anybody out here. Russ, last year when he got going, his ball striking was great but obviously you've got to get the putter going and he did.

And Bernhard, I remember last year early in the year, he was really frustrated with his putting, oh, I can't putt, and then all of a sudden, it was just see ya, he took off. He got it, got a little confidence, got a little momentum and then off he goes.

Q. Fred, is the better play this week, or are you just struggling with your game or you said you had a head cold you're dealing with?

FRED FUNK: You can tell I've still got the head cold. No, I just -- this is the first year I'm by far the healthiest I've been in a long time. I'm still favoring a few things but nothing like I have been. The last three years in a row I've been sitting in rehab, and it's not drug and alcohol, either. It's physical rehab. So if I had to go a couple more seasons like that, it might have been drug and alcohol rehab after that.

Yeah, I've just been nursing this knee and trying to get it better and it's finally -- you know, that's not the issue. To me, it's just getting comfortable on the golf course, trying to -- I feel comfortable with what I'm doing. I just -- I finally found something with my putting and it's not anything overwhelming, I'm just starting to make some putts and seeing that I'm hitting a lot more good putts and that makes a big, big difference. I putted horrendous last week except for the last seven holes and I didn't do anything at Hualalai when I was over there putting-wise.

So you've got to have that going. These kind of courses, you have to do it. The courses that I really enjoy are the ones where par's a good number. Those are the ones, four rounds and par's a good number. Those are the ones I'm looking forward to, and then we'll see. If my game's on, then I expect to be at the top or near the top of the leaderboard and having a chance to win. That's where you can get some real separation from a lot of guys, when you get courses like that, but it's also fun when we go out here and we have these where you've got to make the birdies. It's nice when you're making them. I made 14 birdies in two rounds and normally that would be -- that's a good trend. I like that trend. So if I can keep doing that and carry that further, I'm going to be playing a few regular Tour events now coming up and hopefully I can keep that going.

Q. What's it like having Sharon as your caddie versus your son this week?

FRED FUNK: Yeah, Sharon's really good. She's caddied for me a lot in the past, or quite a bit, probably about 10 to 15 times at least, maybe 20. She keeps your head in the game really, really good. She's real focused on trying to get me to be focused and really think about what I'm doing; what have you got, what are you thinking, where are you looking, where are you going to land the ball?

And I'm like, Right here, I'm aiming for that tree, okay? I've got to talk everything through. Normally I'm out there and I'm just going -- just trying to hit it right there. She says, No, not right there, where are you trying to land it. Okay. All right. You see that really pretty girl? No, I didn't mean that, I didn't mean it.

Q. What is Mark doing now?

FRED FUNK: Mark's spending a lot of time doing the greens books and polishing off the yardage books on the regular Tour. He'll fill in. He'll probably do hopefully about 10 events for me this year. That's all he said he wanted to do. It was time for him to -- he didn't feel like caddying that much. He was a little burned out on the caddying side. I thought he would caddie for somebody else, in fact, but he said he's not interested in caddying. He caddied last week, which he always does the last few years for JP McManus the guy from Ireland, at Pebble Beach. But right now he's in Puerto Rico doing the yardage book for Puerto Rico.

Q. Different world when the caddie can step away, he's doing well enough where he can step away from it, too.

FRED FUNK: Well, he's got another job. He's doing a pretty good business. I don't know what he makes, but doing the greens books and yardage books on the regular Tour is -- pretty much everybody buys his and he does a really good job and it keeps progressing each year. Obviously the first year is the big year when it's a new golf course. I don't know how many he sells on average when they go to repeat. All the rookies obviously have to get it. Anyway, he does pretty good on that side.

MODERATOR: Anybody have anything else for Fred? See you tomorrow.

FRED FUNK: See you late tomorrow.