Exclusive Interview with Louis DiFez

After the successful interview of Dr. David Funk, official news correspondent, Ian Ding, was granted unprecendented access to another co-founder and co-president of KeyPAP, Mr. Louis DiFez.  In this rare opportunity in getting to know Mr. DiFez, Ian Ding discussed the 2013 Penn Tower Classic (PTC), his life, and what the KeyPAP means to him.

As I walked to meet Mr. DiFez on a scorching mid-summer at his downtown Philadelphia apartment, an air of nervousness overcame me.  I was waiting to meet with one of the valiant competitors in this year’s PTC.  I take the obnoxiously slow elevator to his 8th floor corner penthouse, which overlooks Center City Philadelphia.  He greets me with a smile, a firm handshake, and a strong gaze from his dark-chocolate brown eyes.  But behind his pleasantries, I sense a fragility, a somberness, which can only be caused by the exhausting course of events that is the PTC.  It is two days since the tournament, and from his all-black attire, he is clearly still in mourning.  This is what he had to say . . .

Ian Ding:  Mr. DiFez, it certainly is a pleasure to meet with you today. 
Louis DiFez:  No problem, Ian, the pleasure is mine. And please, call me Fez.

Ding:  Alright Fez, to begin, the first annual Penn Tower Classic has come and passed in grandiose style.  I know you were very vocal about your performance that day.  Can you give us what you were thinking going into the day, your expectations, and what you hoped for the championship? 
Fez:  Well, to start, I just want to congratulate my fellow competitors for a job a well done.  I especially want to congratulate Beebles on his victory; I know he grinded and the last few holes were difficult for him, but he scratched and clawed his way to a win.  For me, going into the PTC is preparing for the unthinkable, the unbearable, and the unknown.  Our ritual on the evening before left every competitor on an even playing field, with only our skills left to shine on the course . . .

Ding:  I’m sorry, but let me interrupt you for a second.  What exactly happened the night before the championship?
Fez: [laughs] Well, I don’t want to give away exactly what occurred, but I will say that we definitely all went into Sunday with the same physical burden.

Ding: [chuckles] I guess it will remain a mystery.  So please, continue.
Fez:  Right, so my thought process was to remain calm, to trust my instincts, and to know that even if I made mistakes, most likely my competition would make mistakes as well.  That is all easier said than done.  I also figured that the course would be playing firm and fast.  And boy, did it ever.  The greens were lightening quick and undulated with the best of them: Augusta, Royal Melbourne, Oakmont.  The team at Forest Park did a great job to make our life difficult.

Ding:  Please tell us what happened before the dreaded, the infamous, “The Collapse.”
Fez:  The images are scarred into my memory, the memories are burned into my thoughts; I replay the holes over and over in my head.  Through three holes, I was in second place and feeling confident, dare I say overconfident.  Gamesmanship is all part of golf, so trash talk was flowing like the wines of Rome as we walked to the fourth hole, which was a par 5.  One part of my game that I have recently been putting a lot of work into is my driver, however, it betrayed me that day.  I took a 2-stroke penalty off the tee and that rattled me.  I followed up with a couple chunky shots. I got to the green on my 8th shot, and was in the hole at 11.  I was devastated, frustrated, and extremely rattled going into the fifth hole.  The 5th was a dog-leg right par 4.  I sliced my drive into the woods, and then put what would be my 3rd shot short of a right fairway bunker.  I chunked my next shot into said bunker, and then spent my next two or three shots getting out of that bunker.  Again, when it was over, I put up an 11 again.  Can you believe that? [chuckles] Back-to-back 11s!  I knew, at that point, that I was out of the competition, but I tried to stay hungry.  I made a few pars, and a nice birdie at the 7th hole.  But I was mentally checked-out at that time and knew that it was over for me.

 Ding:  Well, most certainly you finished with class and dignity.  And I can also say that you put a reasonable round considering the agony that you endured in the PTC.
Fez:  I believe that is one of man’s greatest qualities:  the ability to endure; to get up for more after being knocked down.  A great man once said, “To live is to suffer, but to survive, that’s to find meaning in the suffering.” I certainly found meaning in my suffering that day, it caused me to work a little more seriously on my game.  Oh, and that great man I spoke of, it was DMX.

Ding:  Any final thoughts for the upcoming Penn Tower Classic Qualifier?
Fez:  Dr. [David] Funk and I were actually mutually discussing this at the 2013 PTC.  I felt overweight and out of shape. I am in the process of getting back into shape and losing weight.  I would like to go into the PTCQ down about 15-20 lbs.  I have also been working heavily on my game:  reworking my swing and getting back to the basics.  I feel that, in the end, I will shine at the PTCQ.  Things won’t be perfect, they never are, but I will focus and do the best that I can.

Ding:  Riveting, just riveting.  So, being the only member of KeyPAP who does not yet have a graduate degree, what are your plans for future?
Fez:  Again, it’s an honor and privilege to be in a group of such distinguished and accomplished gentlemen.  I will be a doctor soon, and I plan on being the best doctor I can be, while still retaining my roots and knowing where I came from and how hard I worked to get here.

Ding:  Well, Fez, it’s been a wonderful time. Thank you again for your time, and good luck in the Penn Tower Classic Qualifier.
Fez:  You’re welcome, Ian, it’s been my pleasure.

Exclusive Interview With Dr. David Funk

Today, KeyPAP's official news correspondent, Ian Ding, sat down with Dr. David Funk, co-founder and co-President of KeyPAP.  They talked about life, defeat, redemption, and the Penn Tower Classic.  Dr. Funk recently suffered a heartbreaking 2-stroke loss in the already infamous 2013 Penn Tower Classic (PTC).  This is what he had to say . . .

Ian Ding: Hello Dr. Funk, How are you doing today?
Dr. Funk: I’m doing fine thank you. You can call me Dave, after all I’m basically just like everyone else [winks]. 

Ding: [laughs] Well then, let’s get started.  I want to get right to it and ask you about the PTC.  What was it like going out there and mixing it up with Pennsylvania’s finest professionals?
Funk:  I’m going to be honest with you.  I was not too worried going into the match. The KeyPAP pre-match rituals were friendly and unassuming.  Little did I know what was about to ensue that day.  We went out there and immediately after the first tee I knew that this was going to be a fight that would take everything that I had.  Let me talk first about the mind games the PTC can play on a man.  With its now famous no stroke limit per hole, every shot set the stage for a potential meltdown.  I saw one of those meltdowns first hand early in the competition and frankly, it was tough to watch.  It was a shame, he didn’t have a chance with the pressure of the PTC on his shoulders.  After all he was the only player in the top four that had yet to finish grad school; to be involved with this group before graduating is an amazing accomplishment in its own right, but to expect that he could handle the trials and tribulations of the entire PTC was a bit much to ask.  I mean he was just a kid.  No matter, with two 11-stroke holes in a row he was essentially out of the competition before it started.

"I mean, he was just a kid."

Ding:  That must have taken a little of the pressure off of you, going from three competitors to two.
Funk:  You would think that wouldn’t you?  Watching that poor kid melt down like that just piled on the pressure for all of us. We knew that each bad shot we hit could be the hole that put us out of contention; we had just seen it happen.  As we came down the stretch the pressure mounted.  We saw grown men teeing off with low irons on par 4’s, petrified that they would be the PTC’s next victim.  Then the second meltdown came.  Completely unexpected, one of the most fundamental and conservative players on the KeyPAP Tour put three straight tee shots onto the Jackie Robinson Parkway.  Only two remained.

Ding: (on the edge of my seat at this point) I can actually feel your nerves at this point.  I mean, I know the outcome but I still can’t help but feel nervous for you.
Funk:  Ah, this demonstrates how difficult it is to explain the scoundrel that is the PTC.  At this point both of our nerves were shot. You can’t have that kind of stress on the mind for four hours and still process information on a meaningful level.  We were zombies.  My final challenger was saying things like, “Do you think that we are the most handsome foursome on the golf course today?”  This is not normal conversation while in the teeth of battle.  Finally I pulled out the rattler [this is the name Dave gave his 7 iron because of the loose material that rattles inside when it is held upside down] and put my tee shot in the water on a late round par 3 which ended my day and gave the PTC trophy to its rightful owner.

Ding:  That is as thrilling a sports story as I have ever had narrated to me.  How did it feel after it was all said and done?
Funk: I think that when I see the trophy presented at the presentation ceremony it will be the most difficult thing I will ever have to watch.  To be so close . . .  I imagine this moment in my mind and it is almost unbearable, the real thing will hurt exponentially.

Ding:  To what do you attribute your bitter defeat?
Funk:  There is a threefold answer to that question:  pride, fatigue, and mental exhaustion.

Ding:  Do you think that next year your experience will pay off and give you a better chance to win?
Funk:  Listen, you don’t get to be a member of the KeyPAP by resting on your laurels.  You work for it.  I plan to send a message to the rest of the tour at the KeyPAP qualifier this August.

"My body betrayed me."

Ding:  How do you plan to do this?
Funk: The mental exhaustion is unavoidable in a tournament of this caliber.  So I will address my other two downfalls.  I’m going to be completely honest with you.  My body betrayed me.  I was in the lead for nearly all of the front nine.  When the back nine came around and I no longer had all of my mental faculties available to me I had to rely on my body which was as doughy and unprepared for an event of this magnitude as it has ever been.  I plan to come into the PTCQ 15-20 pounds lighter and when my mind shuts down and relies on the motor patterns engrained into my body from the last 26 years, my body will be able to produce at its highest potential.  As for pride, I will be competing with a new set of clubs this time around.  The new set I will be using is only slightly newer and less dead than my last but it is a full set with no rattlers.  I convinced myself that I knew my clubs and that they were good enough.  Then my beloved rattler sat one right next to Davey Jones and I was out of the competition.  The last and most important aspect of my training is that I will play as little golf as possible in the next month leading up to the PTCQ.  One month of practice will mean nothing at this point.  As I have said many times before you cannot use your mind during the second half of these matches.  So developing new strategies and techniques would only compound the problems associated with the tour.  I will be relying completely on my primal golf instincts.

Ding:  Well Dave, our time is up for today and I must say, the pleasure was all mine.  I wish you all the best in the upcoming PTCQ.
Funk:  Thank you for having me, the re-telling of the story is humbling and it can only contribute to the spiritual growth one needs to call themselves a champion.