KEMPER OPEN

June 4, 1998

Chris Perry

CHRIS PERRY: Comments, I was at home last week in Deerfield, had a pretty good tournament. I finished 16th last week. I thought I played pretty well, so I had a little bit of confidence coming in. Didn't play so hot in the Pro-Am yesterday. The course -- I've had a little bit of success here. The first year they had it, I believe, was about 1987. Is that right? Second to Kite, he ran away with it that year. I finished seven behind, and then I finished second. Couple of other top 20 finishes. I feel like I know how to play the golf course. We've obviously had a lot of rain this year. The fairways are a little bit thinner than what -- it was in decent shape. This is actually the first time I've been in the first group this year. I think I was in the second group one time, as far as the tee times go. You've got nine perfect greens on your front nine, so, you know, you don't have any spike marks to deal with or hill prints, so you feel like you can make pretty good putts. I feel really soft too. Started off on 10, hit it about eight feet. I left it short, hit an awful putt there. Number 11, I hit a 7-iron. Hit three inches, almost made a hole-in-one. 12, I made a good two-putt from the front of the green. Par 5, I hit it on the green with a 3-wood -- the ball was about 8 to 10 inches above my feet on the right side of the fairway. Hit a heck of a shot -- my caddie, we just discussed it, he said hit it solid, I can get it there. 242 yards to the front of the green and knocked it on about ten, ten feet. I had about a 30-footer for eagle and left it a couple feet short and made that. Next hole, 2 iron up the tee and 90 yards, hit it a foot. And then 15 was a good -- I missed the fairway to the left, hit in front of the green and chipped it way bye, coming down that big hill. I probably made about a 14-foot putt for par coming back so that kind of kept the momentum going. I hadn't really missed too many shots so far. 16, about 20 feet. Didn't hit a very good putt par there. Made a good two-putt on 17, hit it about 18 feet. I had about a 6-footer coming back and I made that. When you do that, you just kind of, you know, you had a birdie opportunity and let it go. Now you're looking at you got to save par here, and did I that. 18, I hit it about 10 or 12 feet with a 5-iron and missed that, ran that 2 feet bye and made that one coming back. Number 1, I made about a 14-footer for birdie, driving a 7-iron. Number 2, hit the right bunker off the tee, that's kind of a tough shot 'cause you got it over the lip. I hit a 4-iron back to the fairway. 7-iron, I believe it was about a 20 -- I'll say 25-foot putt coming down the hill. It was moving pretty good. It was a big swing right to left, I made that. Then it was really slow on the front nine. We caught up to the last group, and I think we played the front nine in an hour and 50 minutes. It took us two hours and 35 minutes to play the front. Because you come up, you know, to the last tee time, we caught right up to them. It really started slowing down. You kind of lost a little bit of your rhythm because you had to wait so much. Three was pretty tough, a 200-yard hole today, the tee was up. I hit a 4-iron about 18 feet, actually knocked that down by a couple of feet. Pretty aggressive putting today. Number 4, I think is pretty tough hole. The wind was really swirling around there, and I left my approach shot about 10 or 12 yards short of the green, chipped it to about six or seven feet and made that putt for par. Number 5, I hit my 1-iron off the tee and had 120 yards left, and left it way short. I had about -- that was probably about a 27-foot putt, I would guess, and I made that one. So I made a couple real good putts. Made all the real short ones, and that's when you're gonna score well. The number 6, the group in front of us was on the tee, big wait. You know, you're playing well, 6 under, whatever, I'm just trying to keep going, shoot as low as I can. You've got a very eagleable hole. It's probably going to rank as one of the easier ones because it's real short. But there is a lot of danger on the hole because of the creek and water. I ripped a drive and I had 214 yards to the hole. I was right in the middle, but there's that huge tree. I had to go around it or over it. I'm not a real, real high ball hitter. I had a lie where I could get it up there. I stayed real aggressive, just a great swing, took the 4-iron up over the tree. Looked like the wind was going to bring it in. Actually flew down into a swell behind the green. And it was fine. I had to putt up the hill. I was off the green, putt up the hill probably 35, 40 feet for the pin. I looked down on my ball and it's got this white mark, about half the size of a dime, right where I have to hit it. It's not mud and it's not geese doo-doo. It was something that was like some sap or something, really, on the ball right where I had to hit it. I kind of putted -- it went halfway. I barely got it out of the green. I kind of looked, I looked at Wayne Grady and started laughing. I go yeah, it was on my putter. Almost one of those things, it was kind of a bad break. I felt I made a pretty good stroke. I left it, I don't know, 14 feet short, and then I hit a good putt and it didn't go in. So after hitting such a great shot, I made par on a hole that I really thought I was going to make birdie. 7 drive and 5-iron to the front. Again, I hit my putt too hard, ran it four-and-a-half feet by from 35 feet and made that one. Number 8 I hit a drive and an 8-iron to about 18 feet. Ran that by three-and-a-half feet. Just hit it too aggressive and made it. Then the tee shot on 9 is kind of tough because it's downwind. It's so much down hill, 170 yards, but probably playing only 145 or 150. I hit a 9-iron and pulled it kind of to the left of the green. I guess it was a 45 or 50-footer, putted it 2 a half feet past, just to the left of the hole. I made all my short ones. Anytime you do that, I kept the ball in play. And I'm comfortable playing this course, you know, you've got to watch it going into the greens. You've got to stay out of these deep bunkers that they have. I think that's the toughest thing. The thing that we learned playing here over the last ten years is that you can't short side yourself where you have a really difficult up-and-down. But playing that first group is really, really nice. Bobby Watkins is a pretty fast player. He actually played fairly well; he just kept lipping his putts out, just putting them over the edge. Wayne Grady was kind of the same way. I believe he shot even or so. But, you know, I made a lot of putts. That's what you have to do. But I didn't get myself into trouble too much either. So I'm hoping for good things. And I'm going to go visit my brother-in-law in Baltimore. Anybody have questions?

CHRIS PERRY: Pretty much the same. You know, I've kind of got a good swing thought going here. My whole key is to keep my head as still as possible, get my left shoulder -- just a good turn is really what I've been working on lately. As I said, I played fairly well last week. I felt like I was hitting the ball real solid. I like this golf course because I've played decent here. The wind, now and this afternoon, is going to be a little bit tricky. You knew it was downwind, you're walking down the fairway and then a big gust would hit you in the face. That's when a play is tough, because now you don't know if your shaft is downwind or into the wind, you can't hit it close. You're guessing out there. You're going to see some good scores because the greens are holding. The fairways aren't real, real fast. And whenever the greens are soft, guys can shoot at the pins. If the greens got really hard here, it would be really tough to shoot low scores because it's hard to get to the pins.

CHRIS PERRY: These greens, they're pretty much poa. I think they're pretty much poa. I played at 1 o'clock yesterday in the afternoon. They didn't really track up too bad. They were just a little bit spotty. I know they've had a lot of rain here. I live in Columbus, Ohio, we've had the same thing. So that's kind of the problem that the fairways have had. First group out, like I said, they've rolled them and cut them, you can't have them any purer than that. You have to take advantage when you get lucky enough to get the draw of the early tee time. This is, like I said, this is the first time that I've had it all year. I've been in the second group once, and five weeks in a row I was late early. Late early is fine, but 128, some of the other tournaments, and it's really a -- it's really a -- you can really benefit off of an early tee time because of the smoother greens.

CHRIS PERRY: I think it's a big edge. The thing is you have to get up at 4:30 in the morning. You know, but I think it's an edge, because I like to play early. Obviously there's a bit less wind usually in the morning. The wind didn't really kick up until our 6th or 7th hole. The guys an hour tee time behind me, when the greens are soft, it's not so much of a factor. But most definitely, you'd rather be in the first part of the draw than the last part of the draw because there's, what, three categories, is that what it is?

CHRIS PERRY: Consistent money winners, tournament winner, then the qualifying school guys. It used to be four categories, now there's three. They say it's all computer -- people always ask, why don't you ever get paired with Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods and Freddy are in the winners category, I'm in the consistent money, so I would never get paired with them in the first two rounds. They're always in the -- they're like the first three groups.

CHRIS PERRY: Second three are winners, then third three. People don't see that side.

CHRIS PERRY: It depends on the field. It depends on who's here. Consistent money winners and whatever, like the first three, three or four groups, then the tournament winners are the last two --

CHRIS PERRY: Qualifiers. And sometimes even the consistent money winners are at the bottom too, right?

CHRIS PERRY: Sure. I think a lot of times they say over the course of the year, it probably evens out that you have what we call early and then a late time versus late-early. They say that kind of evens out. If you play 30 tournaments, you're going to be between 15 or 17, one side or the other. I don't know if they actually follow that.

CHRIS PERRY: Supposedly it was done by cards at first.

CHRIS PERRY: It's interesting. If you -- I would love to have this tee time, obviously, the first one. Or, actually, the first tee time in the afternoon and then Friday early would be the ultimate because there's less guys on the green.

CHRIS PERRY: By how much money they've won?

CHRIS PERRY: But it's -- the reason that it should -- one of the reasons why I shot 65 was the fact that I had an early tee time. There's been times when I played awful too, when the shadows are still out there.

CHRIS PERRY: Oh, yeah.

CHRIS PERRY: I don't know so much if it's soft. It's easier to score. And you have the fresher green. Some guys don't putt as well because you can't see as many breaks. You almost need some spike marks and stuff to get a little better perception on putts. But it definitely helps when you have the greens, and obviously less wind.

CHRIS PERRY: Yeah. Well, I was Player of the Year in '94 on the Nike Tour, and before I went out there I started a pretty good workout program where I started getting myself in shape and working out. I've been doing it ever since. This last winter -- last two years I've hired, actually, different trainers. But I've worked out quite a bit. I had my best year last year in '97, finished 48th on the money list. Had a bunch of top 25s, a few top 10s, was close to winning, had a real consistent year. This year I played kind of okay, nothing fantastic, close to playing well, but I just missed -- I think I missed six cuts so far this year. If I miss it, it's been one or two, nothing big. But I -- November and December I was pretty much home and hired a trainer, and actually lost -- I was around 200 pounds, now I'm about 186. So I lost a little bit of fat and got my legs good and strong. In fact, that's kind of what got me through last week. I wasn't feeling well, had a case of the flu that's going around on Wednesday night. I think my body strength kind of got me through the first couple days there where I played decent. So, this is a tough course to walk. There's a lot of up-and-down in this course. So it's going to be nice if the weather is going to be fairly cool from what I hear.

CHRIS PERRY: Anything else?

CHRIS PERRY: Yeah, a lot of mornings I kick myself, I wish I played baseball. But, I was a hockey player in high school as well. I'm a huge hockey fan. I've just -- I just love it. This time of year is just a lot of fun. In fact, last night I had a late time in the Pro-Am and picked up some Chinese food last night and just turned on both televisions, watched some of the hockey, Detroit and Dallas, part of the Bulls. I didn't stay up for the whole thing. The baseball, sometimes I wish I would have played. And others, I just chose it at a very young age, about 12 or 13, I knew I wanted to be a pro golfer. So I pretty much -- and golf and baseball in my high school were in the spring. I couldn't play both, but I had to choose one or the other. I did play hockey through high school.

CHRIS PERRY: Yeah, you know, I've been around. This is my 13th year on tour. I've had a decent career. I've played fairly consistent. I haven't won on this tour. I've won the Nike and Mexican Open, U.S. Open qualifiers, I've won a couple times. But, I haven't been fortunate enough to win out here yet. But if I just stay patient and keep playing like I am, I'm not worried about it. I think it will happen some time. If it doesn't happen here or next week, it might happen another ten years from now, who knows?

CHRIS PERRY: Definitely. My dad played 17 years in the Majors and my uncle played 23. Obviously, golf you play a lot longer than you do in those other sports. Hockey is about a 4 or 5-year career. I knew I wasn't going to do that.

CHRIS PERRY: I was a pitcher. I played through 9th grade. Pitcher and centerfield is what I liked.

CHRIS PERRY: I just -- in fact, talking about hockey, I just sent in my personal seat license on Tuesday for the Columbus Blue Jackets. I'm pumped for that. Dudley Hart is a big hockey guy. In fact, we're kind of pulling for the Sabers tonight to win, so we can go to the game on Saturday night here. So it looks like Mr. Fred Funk is ready.

FRED FUNK: Get out of there!

CHRIS PERRY: Must have been those passes I gave you, right? Guys on tour, you know, how you get all those passes, Freddy gave me four last week, I gave him four this week. Then he goes and shoots eight under par, nice guy. You still owe me a dinner.

FRED FUNK: Yeah, I do.

CHRIS PERRY: Okay. Thank you.