	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 10, 2008

Kenny Perry

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

DOUG MILNE: We'd like to thank Kenny Perry for joining us here for a few minutes here at the John Deere Classic. Kenny, no backing down, three birdies right out of the gate to start the round today. Just a couple comments on -- we talked to you earlier in the week so we kind of know where you are as you started the week, so let's jump into a couple comments on the round and how you're feeling.
KENNY PERRY: Just a little bit worried coming into this week. I didn't play hardly any last week preparing for this week. My kids were home from college. With 4th of July we spent time on the lake, and it was so nice to start out birdie, birdie, birdie right out of the gate. Just kind of refreshed, told me -- kind of got me back in the flow of the Buick, Flint, the tournaments I've been playing great at, and it just kind of got my mind set.
It really made the day a lot more enjoyable. That was a good wake-up call. I was tired this morning (laughter).

Q. Are you that kind of energy player? Do you feed off one birdie to another?
KENNY PERRY: No, I don't think so. I don't think after I make one birdie I'm going to birdie the next two. I'm a shot-by-shot guy. I just try to stay in the moment, in the present. I don't look too far ahead and I don't say I'm going to birdie the next three or four after I make one birdie. No, the calmer and more relaxed I am, the more birdies it seems like I make.

Q. You described yourself as a streaky player. What do you mean by that?
KENNY PERRY: Well, I've had runs. I've won three out of four weeks, Colonial, Memorial, third at the Open, then I won Milwaukee there in '03. I had a chance to win three in a row where Corey beat me at Riviera, Peter Jacobsen beat me at the AT&T and I won the Hope. It just seems like when I get things going and I get in a little groove and I get into courses I like, I seem to play well every week.

Q. The last two months you played THE PLAYERS, you had the runner up at AT&T and the two wins. Is this the longest sustained streak you've had?
KENNY PERRY: Definitely the longest. I've held this for two months. Normally I can only hold it for three to four weeks. I've held this for six to eight weeks.

Q. What's happened that's different than those previous times that you can tell?
KENNY PERRY: Well, it's lasted longer. Courses are coming up quicker that I've had a lot of success at basically, the way they rechanged the schedule. I love Colonial, Memorial, Buick, all these tournaments right here in a row. They're all lined up one after another, and I think that's the reason why.

Q. You realize if you keep playing like this this week, you're going to get more and more and more questions about the British Open.
KENNY PERRY: That's okay.

Q. Are you ready to deal with that?
KENNY PERRY: I've been dealing with it. I've been getting hammered for it. I'm proud of myself to be able to push that aside and go out there and shoot good scores.

Q. Is that an example of the chip that you told us you have on your shoulder, and is that going to help you if you get --
KENNY PERRY: Definitely, yeah.

Q. How often is it that you go an off week without really playing that much?
KENNY PERRY: You know, when I go home, I usually don't -- I'll play a little with my son. My son is a senior at Western Kentucky. He's on the team and he'll aggravate me a little to go play with him. But I don't really practice and play a lot at home. I'll go to my golf course and end up working behind the counter a little bit or helping my sister and a good friend who runs it, get carts out, do whatever.

Q. Did you do that last week?
KENNY PERRY: Uh-huh, I sure did.

Q. Is that kind of --
KENNY PERRY: To me that's relaxing. That kind of gets my mind away from golf, competitive golf. I did a lot of handshaking, a lot of autograph signing. She always brings me a big tub of balls I have to autograph so when people come in if they want to buy an autographed ball or whatever.

Q. What's the name of the course?
KENNY PERRY: Country Creek, Franklin, Kentucky. My hometown.

Q. You said you were tired at the start of today's round. How were you able to push through that? Now it seems like you have a lot of energy after today's round. How do you keep that energy and move it into tomorrow?
KENNY PERRY: Well, I played at 1:30 yesterday and we got done at 7:10 in the Pro-Am. Then we had a fire alarm at 3:30 this morning at my hotel. It just interrupted me, got me out of bed, and I didn't do much sleeping after that. I was just kind of dragging around on the range, and everybody looked at me, "Did you stay here all night or what?" But when I made that first birdie, it kind of energized me and charged me a little bit.

Q. After the alarm was there ever a point where you got maybe an hour of sleep after that or did you just kind of stay up and about?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, I was just laying there, but then I was worried about missing -- I had a 5:00 o'clock alarm set, so then I was just thinking the whole time, I don't want to go back to sleep.

Q. The fact that this course which you said you've liked and then next week at Milwaukee you said you like, how much did that affect your decision to play these two tournaments instead of the British?
KENNY PERRY: Easy. Easy. I just feel very comfortable here. It's kind of in my element here, in my wheelhouse. I understand how to play these kind of courses. I won at Milwaukee back in '03 and I've had, I believe, eight Top 10 finishes there. I hate they stuck that right opposite the British. It lost its own date; that's sad.
Anyway, that's how I chose my schedule this year. I stuck to my guns. I picked all the courses I thought I was going to do the best at for me to get me on that Ryder Cup team. That's the only goal I've got. I'm not really focusing toward the majors or nothing. I'll get to play the PGA here in a few weeks and looking forward to that.

Q. Are you finding it to be different things or the same every week, what's clicking for you, or are you responding to different --
KENNY PERRY: Both times were different. This year I was three shots behind coming into Sunday on both of them, where my other nine wins I had the lead going into Sunday.

Q. What does that say about how strong you are mentally this year?
KENNY PERRY: I just had things go my way on Sunday, that's all. I'm not very nervous. I'm very relaxed. I'm just playing golf, and things are happening for me.

Q. How do guys like you and Fred Funk and Jay Haas find your game, rediscover your game?
KENNY PERRY: Well, for me, my kids -- we're empty-nesters now. My youngest is a junior at SMU. So Sandy has been traveling with me every week, and I told her, "We're either going to get a divorce or we're going to fall in love again."
We've had a blast. For her whole life she raised the kids while I was out on the road trying to make a living for them. Now she's getting to enjoy life on the road, getting to go sightseeing, go shopping, whatever she wants to do. She's a member of the Wives' Association, she's on the board of the -- she's taken -- she set up all the email for the wives, getting them tee times or whatever, meetings for them. She likes taking all the younger gals and kind of showing them around. She's like a little den mother, I guess.

Q. So it's not a second wind, it's a second honeymoon?
KENNY PERRY: I think so. We've had a blast. I think for me, my kids are gone, I know they're doing great, and it's not like I'm worrying about them all the time now. There's nothing for us to do at home, so might as well go play golf.

Q. Could you talk about three of your birdies, 2, 4 and 5, a little more in depth for me?
KENNY PERRY: Okay. 2 is a par-5. I hit a driver, 5-wood to about ten feet. I had a great eagle shot there and missed it on the high side.
4, I hit a beautiful drive and a 9-iron, banked it off the flagpole. It hit two inches in front of the flag, happened into the flag and then kicked it left to about ten feet and made that.
5, the chip-in, I hit it too far -- I hit 3-wood straight down the middle of the fairway too far, straight into the rough. The fairway ends, and I had a pretty bad lie. I hit a sand wedge over the green right and then holed a nice little chip shot. It was back up the hill, breaking a little right to left, and it just fell right in. That was pretty cool.

Q. Is this rough a little thicker given the rain we had?
KENNY PERRY: Definitely. It's a mean little rough. You know, you can really get some bad lies. The fairways are generous and they're soft, so the ball is not trying to chase to the rough. If you hit any part of the fairway, it stops. That's why the guys are getting away with kind of off-center drives a little bit. They're all staying in the fairway.

Q. 6-under 65, obviously you enjoyed the course. How much are you enjoying this course now? We know you used to love Coal Valley.
KENNY PERRY: It's just beautiful to me. It's very scenic. It's very pretty with all the trees and the water and the way D.A. did the bunkering. It's just to me optically when I set up on each hole, I feel very comfortable. To me it's not awkward feeling like Memphis. Memphis is a golf course there's really not a lot of trouble out there, there's only that little three-inch Bermuda rough or whatever, but all the holes kind of swing a little bit and the ball is always going in the rough. It doesn't matter what you do, I could never fit it in the fairway in that tournament.
It just seems like it's a lot easier to pick a shot and let it fly. It's very comforting to pick your target and be able to shoot it right at it.

Q. Pretty well-rounded test?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, it's a good test. You use all your clubs here.

Q. Kenny, you mentioned the bunkering. Have you been in the bunkers?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, I don't like the sand. It's new sand. They definitely -- you can't really spin the ball out of it. And there's a lot of sand. They've got a lot of sand in these bunkers. You've got to really watch it if you get in those things. I got in the front bunker on 17 and got up-and-down for birdie. I hit my 5-wood in the front bunker. But I was kind of on an upslope and I had a decent lie.
But I hit it in a fairway bunker on 8 and I kind of chunked it out of it because it had a lot of sand in the middle of that bunker where I was. It's tough to get any kind of spin on it and have any kind of ball control out of that stuff.

Q. Just curious, because they just finished --
KENNY PERRY: They're definitely playing like hazards, which Jack likes them -- at Memorial he likes to put the furrows in there, which is very tough. Well, this sand is just tough, there's so much of it. It's hard to really control the ball out of it.
DOUG MILNE: You went through the birdies on the front side. If you wouldn't mind just giving us some clubs and descriptions of the birdies on the back, which was your front nine.
KENNY PERRY: 10, I hit driver, 5-iron, hit an 80-yard sand wedge to about 15 feet.
11, I hit 5-wood, 9-iron to about eight feet left.
12, I hit a 5-iron from 225 to about ten feet in front of the hole and made that.
DOUG MILNE: You talked to us about 17.
KENNY PERRY: 17, driver, 5-wood, front bunker, got up-and-down. I hit it to about six feet.
DOUG MILNE: Kenny, thank you very much, and good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297