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BELLSOUTH CLASSIC


March 30, 2000


Kenny Perry


DULUTH, GEORGIA

LEE PATTERSON: Good start to the tournament. Maybe just a couple of comments about your round today; then we will open it up for questions.

KENNY PERRY: Well, all and all I was real satisfied with the way I hit the ball today. Wasn't in any trouble all day. Drove the ball really well and that is the key to this golf course, you really got to drive it -- seem to drive it pretty long and I drove it long and straight and made a few putts. So I was never in really any danger out there to struggle on a hole except for one time on the-never seen it happen in my 14 years out there-it happened to me on the 5th hole. Hit a drive into the right fairway bunker. I hit a 9-iron that hit about eight feet in front of the hole. It spun back to the front of the green and it stopped. It stopped on the green so I threw my club to my caddie and I was walking down, I am feeling good, I have hit a good shot out of the fairway bunker as I am walking down there, the ball takes off and rolls into the hazard. I have never seen that, ever. Ended up making bogey. Other than that, my day was great all -- I never seen that ball come to rest and stop and five minutes later rolls off into the water. But that was interesting. Got off to a good start, birdied 2, 3 and 4. Then little mishap on 5, made bogey -- made a good bogey. So end up -- then I made a couple more bogeys, I bogeyed, let's see, bogeyed 7, 7 and 8 -- no, I parred 7. Bogeyed 8. End up shooting 1-under on the front nine. Then I shoot 4-under on the back. Pretty pleased.

Q. (inaudible)

KENNY PERRY: 252. Normally when it plays that distance they put us up on the up tee. Normally when the pin is middle to the middle back, they put us up on the -- I never played that distance before. We had helping winds. I hit 3-iron. Anybody who kind of hits a 2- or 3-iron, if it lands on the front of the green, it is going to trace back to the hole. It is not playing as far.

Q. Some of these holes out here, too, with all the areas that remind you a lot of what guys are going to face next week. Is that about as close as you have faced this year as far as firmness?

KENNY PERRY: The greens are very firm, but the ball was spinning -- it is a funny combination. I was talking to Grant Jobe in my group -- the ball seems to be taking a pretty good first hop, but yet it is still spinning a lot. Normally you see that ball take that big of a first skip, it will kind of set down. The balls are really running on those greens, really spinning back a lot of them -- the moisture this morning, maybe enough rain hit 'em to soften them up -- but I could tell the speed of the greens picked up probably six to eight inches, a foot. As I progressed through my round, the balls just -- the greens kept getting faster and faster and faster.

Q. (inaudible)

KENNY PERRY: Opened up with 70, pretty proud of that round in those heavy winds. But I stumbled the next day, I shoot 77. I ruined my good round, but I have been playing well. I played eight events this year; made eight cuts. I have been real steady finishing in that 20th to 25th range every week. I had one maybe 12th place finish at Tucson, I think. But I have been real consistent. I really like the way I am playing right now.

Q. Have you had a chance to play at Augusta since they made the changes to the course at all?

KENNY PERRY: No, I haven't. Last time I played Augusta was 1996, so I haven't been back. I haven't played well enough to get -- my last few years have not been very good years, so I haven't got back.

Q. Any sleepers in mind next week? Anybody we should keep an eye out for?

KENNY PERRY: Tiger Woods. (laughs).

Q. (inaudible)

KENNY PERRY: That is a tough question, because -- I always like Jose, I like guys who are such great -- that golf course is so much around the greens, so much chipping, putting, you got to have so much creativity and a lot of imagination, and got to have a lot of touch. The guys that seem to chip the ball and putt the ball the best, seem to always do well that week.

Q. Looking forward to a return at Valhalla this year?

KENNY PERRY: Very much so.

Q. Kind of mixed emotions?

KENNY PERRY: I haven't been back there since, yep, I am just waiting for the tournament to come back around and go back there and try it again.

LEE PATTERSON: Anything else?

End of FastScripts….

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