PGA TOUR MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 6, 2003

Kenny Perry

KENNY PERRY: Well, it's always an honor to represent your country. But, you know, I had such a great experience in '96 with Mr. Palmer as my captain, and I was able to score -- I was 2-2 in my matches. It was just the camaraderie, the excitement, watching Fred Couples make that bomb on the 17th hole to clinch the match and the victory for all of us, was just a thrill for me. Now to have the opportunity to play for Mr. Nicklaus, which I think is pretty special, to have Palmer as your one captain, now Mr. Nicklaus as your other captain, that's just an honor for me to get to be able to spend a little time with him and learn more about him. I always idolized him growing up as a kid, watching him play. Now to get to be a part of his team is pretty neat. I enjoyed the meeting we had at Muirfield this year, I think it was either Tuesday or Wednesday night. He got all the guys together that were potential candidates to making the team. He told us -- he just gave us some good tips, some nice points for the week down in South Africa. He's going to make it real enjoyable. He said, "We're going to have fun." I thought that meant a lot when I heard him say that. So I think we're going to have a good time and I think it's going to be great matches. I think it's going to be very competitive. They're going to have a tough team and I think we're going to have a tough team. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

KENNY PERRY: Well, you know, I've said many times it's hard to explain why after 17 years of pushing, pushing, pushing, why all of a sudden am I pushing the right buttons this year? It's hard for me to explain. I just keep saying it's my time. People don't understand that. But it could be a lot of things that's caused it. My family life at home is real good. The kids are good and happy. It's been able for me to refocus on my golf. My kids are 19, 17 and 15. I got one in college, one getting ready to start college, so they're kind of getting set in their ways, in their life. That's kind of allowed me to refocus in on my golf. But, you know, it was funny, I missed the cut at the Byron Nelson right before the Colonial. I didn't have too much good feelings about going into Colonial. But I had finished second there the previous year, so I knew I play well at Colonial. I always set my schedule around Colonial, Memorial, always have a lot of success there, always been two of my favorite tournaments. And I always set my schedule for Milwaukee. That's another reason why I hadn't played the British Open a lot, because I enjoy Milwaukee and Hartford. The British has always been right there in between them. You always had to miss a week or two if you wanted to go over early and play and kind of get acclimated over there. But this year I decided to focus in on Milwaukee and Hartford and just go on over to Hartford and try not to adjust and stay on my time zone and just play, with the success I've been having, and just see what I could do over there. It's just all turned out great for me. I mean, I felt like I could do well at Colonial because I finished second the year before, I felt like there was a little unfinished business there. I was able to go in there. I switched putters. I hadn't switched any equipment. But the only thing I had made from missing the cut at the Byron to Colonial was a putter switch, went back to my old Rossi I. The next thing I know, I started making putts again. It kind of gave me confidence. Then I shoot 61 on Saturday, which is one of the career rounds on my life. I just hit it so close every time, I didn't really need a putter that day. Then that momentum after winning that kind of carried me right into Memorial. I just always had a lot of success there, just always played well there. Then Milwaukee, I had Top 5 there the three previous years. Just continuing still on a high streak. I felt like I could do well there. You know, it was a pretty neat situation for me. I had big leads at Colonial and Memorial, then when I went to Milwaukee, I had a pretty good lead again. I played great on the Front 9, but then I bogeyed 12 and doubled 13 to fall three behind immediately. I mean, I went from the lead to three behind. It was kind of neat to come from behind. I looked up when [] Steven had bogeyed 17. I said, "Well, heck, if I birdie 17, 18, I got a chance to win." That was pretty special for me to birdie the last two holes to win the golf tournament. It's always neat to make a putt to win. In all my other previous wins, I never had a putt to win. You know, I always had a 2-putt or whatever to win, or I had a big lead. So it was neat to have that pressure situation, to feel -- know, to have that 3- and 4-footer straight uphill to see if I could make it. And it went in. You know, it's just been neat. I Top 10'ed at the British and US Open, and then I finished eighth last week at Buick, I guess fourth at Hartford. So, you know, seven weeks, seven Top 10s, it's just a good roll. I mean, I've got a lot of confidence, a lot of good thoughts in my head. You know, I'm just taking it one day at a time. Whatever happens happens. I'm just very relaxed. I think that's been a big key part of my success.

KENNY PERRY: Well, you know, I have a little history with this tournament. Everybody has felt like I screwed that one up in '96, which I think they're totally wrong in how they printed that scenario out, which has hurt my feelings a little bit. But I did everything right there, in my opinion. Everybody says I did everything wrong. But, you know, that's me versus the world it seems like. Maybe that PGA owes me one, I don't know. Maybe I did blow it, but I don't think I did. But it's kind of nice to go into a major playing well. It's nice to have good feelings, good thoughts. I'm hitting the ball well. I'm putting well. I don't have a lot of history at Oak Hill. That bothers me a little bit. But I do have a lot of confidence and a lot of persistence and a lot of patience. I think, you know, in a major championship you need a lot of that. I'm looking forward to the challenge. I think, you know, everything is set good for me to go in there and be competitive now. For me to win, I don't know. A lot of things have to happen your way to win a golf tournament. But I think I'll be very competitive and I'll be right there at the end. I don't know if I'll win, but I think I can do real well.

KENNY PERRY: They all said I set in the booth too long and didn't go down and practice. Now, if I would have went out on the extra playoff hole and hit a horrendous tee shot, you know... But, you know, what people don't understand in Kentucky, this is my home, in August, it's a hundred degrees with a hundred percent humidity. You know, you do not get stiff. That's just impossible to get stiff. I guess they thought I set in the booth too long and I wasn't prepared for the playoff. I was very prepared. I hit a great drive off the first tee. If you look back, I played the tape over a few times, immediately when I hit the ball, I reach over to pick my tee up off the ground. That's always a signal for most players that they hit a pretty good drive. What had happened, that fairway bunker juts out there at 292 yards, and I've aimed at it all week with a driver, and I could not get to it. I couldn't hit it far enough to it. I guess in the playoff I guess I had a little adrenaline. I hit it five yards further than I normally hit it. And there was a about foot and a half, two foot section of bluegrass before it went into the bunker rough. And the ball did not go in the bunker, and it rolled through the fairway into the bluegrass. It was in a horrendous lie. From there, I couldn't recover. It was just a bad break, in my opinion.

KENNY PERRY: Well, I think it stayed with me longer than it would because everybody kept asking me about it. I mean, I couldn't shake it. I'm still asked about it today. It's something I'll live with for the rest of my life. That bothers me a lot. I mean, let's get over it. Let's go on to the future. I mean, that's in the past. I have been a person who has never lived in the past. I've always lived in the present and in the future. I look forward to my next challenge, to my next event. I think that's one of the reasons why I've played so well. I mean, I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing, and been able to get through that. I think the biggest problem with that whole deal was all the questions and people. You know, I think it got to me a little mentally because everybody kept putting it into my head that way. Where all along, I kept saying, "You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong." But they kept saying that I was wrong. I mean, there's a little anger there.

KENNY PERRY: Well, for one thing, guys are obviously trying to stay in better shape. That is a fact. You can watch all the older players. We're watching what we eat. We're being a little more focused in our careers. But I think the biggest reason is the equipment, technology. My driver, that [] TaylorMade 510, which somebody has said is hot, I think y'all know who I'm talk about, I had mine tested. It's point 820. It's well within the legal limits of the USGA, or PGA, whoever sets that trampoline effect off the face. You know, I'm hitting it a lot further with that driver, a lot straighter. It's a high-launch, less-spin driver. The wind does not affect it that much. That's another reason why I had a big success at the British Open. I always struggled over there with the high winds and stuff. Now I've got a driver that takes spin off of it and beats the wind up. Then I've switched to this Pro-VX golf ball, the Titleist golf ball, which has been a huge help to me because it's a less-spin ball. I create a lot of club head speed so I put a lot of spin on the ball. It's a high-launch ball. So I have a combination of a golf ball going very far with a driver that fits me now. I have a driver that actually fits my golf swing. It's not that the equipment is that much more superior, it's just that finally it fits my golf swing because I've always spun the ball a lot with the driver, with irons, and now I have a driver that spins it less, I have a golf ball that spins less, so now I'm not having all that backspin on the green, so my irons are staying closer to the hole. I think that's been the biggest reason for me and a lot of older players because now we've got equipment, you know, that matches up to the younger kids, and it's kind of got us all closer together. Where tighter now. You don't see one guy jumping way out ahead in superiority. The whole field -- it's brought the whole field closer together, so you've got to -- when you win now, you've really played well.

KENNY PERRY: Well, I'm definitely ready to win. I mean, I definitely know how to win and I'm not afraid to win. I think that's huge with some guys. Some guys run from it, and I enjoy the challenge of it. But like I said before, a lot's got to go your way to win golf tournaments. When you go to venues you don't know very well... I've got a lot of history at Colonial, Memorial, Milwaukee. These places I do real well at, I've got history at. I didn't have much history at the British Open, but I almost pulled it off. That was pretty neat. I told everybody I had a crash course in two days of learning how to play links-style golf. My physical game is real good. My mental game is real good. It's just a matter of me getting in there, my course management being exceptional next week, to where it puts me in position to win the golf tournament. You know, not make any stupid mistakes. You just got always to be patient in majors. You're going make bogeys. It's just a matter of you taking advantage of all your good shots. Yeah, I think I can win. It's just a matter of me putting it together and doing it. I think I have just as good a shot as anybody else.

KENNY PERRY: That's a big factor. That's very much a true statement in my opinion. When you got golf equipment that fits your style of play, it breeds a lot of confidence into you, when you're seeing a lot of good golf shots. You know, when you got 20, 30, 40 mile-an-hour winds, you got golf balls that aren't moving nearly as much as they used to, it makes your pattern a lot tighter. You can -- you know, you can hit those 20, 25-yard fairways now, whereas before you were hitting it into the weeds and stuff. You were really having to work on low shots, bump-n-runs. I didn't go over there and I didn't change my game. I was still launching it high in the air. I mean, it was howling over there. It was tough conditions. I was able to compete and be very successful at it. So that's, you know, been a big factor for me.

KENNY PERRY: I bogeyed 18.

KENNY PERRY: Yeah. I hit it in the left rough, then I tried to hit an 8-iron out of it. It didn't come out. It went in the left rough again. Then I hit it left of the green, and I chipped it up to about three feet in front of the hole. I had a beautiful little three foot up-hiller, four foot, whatever, just about a ball outside right to win. At the time I didn't know it was to win because Brooks was still three holes behind me, I guess. There were three groups behind me. I guess they were about on the 17 tee box at the time.

KENNY PERRY: No. Driver's the best club in my bag, always has been. I'm never afraid to hit it. I always hit driver. If it's between a driver, 3-wood, the driver will come out every time. Sometimes I'll hit a 2-iron, you know, in certain situations, but most of the time the driver is always in my hand.

KENNY PERRY: That would be unbelievable for me. That would probably be the highlight of my career by far. But for me to win Player of the Year, I've either got to win the PGA or I've got to win probably two more times, maybe like an NEC or a World Championship tournament, maybe THE TOUR Championship at the end of the year. So, you know, I'm right there. I'm not going to count myself out if I don't win the PGA next week. So I still got time to actually put a little heat on. Unless Jim Furyk or Mike Weir or somebody wins the PGA. If they win two majors, they deserve it, they've earned it. You know, it's just going to be see how it all pans out. But definitely that would be an incredible honor to win that. You know, that is something, you know, at my age, 42, 17 years out there on tour TOUR, never ever being close, now to be even considered for it, it's been pretty neat for me to think about it. It's a goal of mine and I would love to win it, and we're going to shoot for it. That's why I've been working so hard here lately to get it.

KENNY PERRY: No. You know, last year was the year of the rookies, 18 first-time winners. This year is the year of the older fellas who are winning multiple times. So, you know, that's golf. It's just going to be different scenarios every year. It just happens to be our time this year.