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U.S. BANK CHAMPIONSHIP IN MILWAUKEE

July 16, 2008

Kenny Perry

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome Kenny Perry to the U.S. Bank Championship, on quite a tear, three wins in your last five starts, a playoff win last week at the John Deere Classic, you played on Monday at Rockford and drove up here. Talk about life for Kenny Perry right now.
KENNY PERRY: It's a whirlwind, everybody wanting to know what I'm doing, where I'm going, what I'm eating. People want to criticize me, all these articles in the golf world, it's pretty incredible what they are writing because I'm here instead of the British Open. Interesting how life, what things are thrown at you in this world.
It's been great. If I had not played this well and had not won three times, nobody would have cared what I did, so if they never cared in the past, they never would have cared in the future, so it's pretty funny how things happen.

Q. Do you kind of feel that like you said, all the criticism and stuff, do you feel that what you've done, you've kind of proven the doubters wrong so to speak?
KENNY PERRY: I guess the criticism is warranted a little bit but to carry on and carry on every day, every day, every day is kind of redundant and over the top. I'm always the guy that you tell me I can't do something, I'm going to do it, so it makes you stronger mentally more than anything.
I don't know. You know, the British Open is a great tournament but so is this one, even though they say it's a lesser field. The things I was reading in golf world today -- but I love this tournament. I enjoy coming here and that's why I'm here.

Q. Talking about the run that you're on, at any point, were you tempted to go to the British Open?
KENNY PERRY: No. Never interested me. Played seven of those and my stroke average is like 76.whatever. I think I've only made one cut, maybe two. You know what, my only goal was to make The Ryder Cup team, that was it this year. Winning a major would be the greatest thing I could ever accomplish, but I fought that; for 22 years I've been trying to win majors and looking at the stats, nobody has ever won a major at my age.
I thought I had an opportunity to make The Ryder Cup Team if I got hot, and it's in Valhalla in my home state where I lost the '96 PGA to Mark Brooks and wanted to go there and end my career there and celebrate with my friends and my fans and my family, and that's kind of the way I set my schedule up. They criticized me for that.

Q. Now that you have hit that goal, you have to set some new goals, and with Tiger out of the picture, out realistic are some of the other things out there like Player of the Year, FedExCup, all that stuff?
KENNY PERRY: Well, I don't think Player of the Year is realistic. I think Tiger will win that anyway. And I think whoever wins the $10 million will have an asterisk by it because here is a man who played six events and won five times. So it doesn't matter what any of us do.
I have to win the PGA and probably win the FedExCup and win a couple more times just to even have a chance to compare and to me that's a little unrealistic and a high goal. I set a goal of making The Ryder Cup team and it was an extreme goal, I was so far out there and probably 100-something in the world in the rankings when I set this goal and next thing you know I win three times and shot right up to the time and I think I'm 16th now in the world in rankings.
So we'll just have to wait and see. The PGA is a tournament where I was on the 2004 Ryder Cup Team where we got beaten bad and that's a tough golf course. There's a lot of holes left-to-right and it's not my shot, so it will be tough for me to win a major there and it's my only chance at a major this year. It would be a great goal but I don't really think it's a realistic goal.

Q. You've had some success here on this golf course. Talk about what it's like coming back here after you've had the success of being here in Milwaukee?
KENNY PERRY: I think I've had eight Top-10s here and a win, so it's been probably one of my better tournaments of my career here. Usually got real high rough, a driver's dream and that's usually the best club in my bag and I'm usually pretty accurate.
So I hit the lots of greens, and the greens are always great. It's always in great shape, and I just like coming here. It's a municipal golf course and I own a municipal course at home that we built in 1995. I borrowed all the money from the bank and I built the place myself, and it's kind of neat for me to play public facilities. So it's got a special place in my heart.

Q. What is it like going into this tournament being the favorite?
KENNY PERRY: I was the favorite last week. I was the favorite here in 2003 they told me when I won. It doesn't really change anything. I still have to go out and play good golf.

Q. I know you went through a knee problem and surgery and it took you a long time to come back from that, and that was your right knee and Tiger obviously has the left knee, but can you talk about your struggle to come back from that, and what Tiger might look forward to as he rehabs?
KENNY PERRY: Well, that was in March of 2006, and in 2005 I won Bay Hill, which I couldn't defend because I had my surgery that week, and I tried to get back and defend at Colonial, which I did because that was my first tournament back and that was about three months later and I came back too soon.
I got into some terrible swing habits of trying to protect the knee and it started killing me. It was funny how my knee just forgot what to do. My whole life it did one thing and now all of a sudden it lost its memory.
I kept staying back on my right side and I couldn't get through the golf ball and so consequently, I just rolled my hands at it and every shot was a pull hook. So the rest of 2006 and the beginning of 2007, I was just struggling. I just could not get out of the pull-hook.
Finally at the end of '07, I started hitting a little better. Kind of took me a year and a half to get my knee to where I could actually get my old golf swing back and the beginning of this year, I think I made 18 out of 19 cuts or 19 out of 20, however many I've played. My knee is strong and I feel good.
It's just taken me a long time to recover from it. My advice to Tiger is don't come back until he's ready, physically ready. I know he puts a lot of pressure on that left knee from swinging at it and you kind of push off the right knee and push forward; I couldn't push off. The left knee is for balance and you're turning on top of it. It was amazing what he did playing with that much pain because you know it hurt every time he swung a club. I'm sure he'll still be a dominant player when he shows backup.

Q. Do you feel like the hottest player on TOUR right now? Does it feel like that, that you're not going to miss a shot or a green or you're going to make every putt?
KENNY PERRY: No, not really. You know, I've just got a lot of confidence. I don't hit the ball as well as I used to hit it and I am putting great and I think that's the difference. My putter has saved me. I told them last week, I won a golf tournament on Sunday because I putted well. If I had been ten years younger and hit it like I did on Sunday, I would have shot 78; where I shot 70 last week to win the golf tournament and win in a playoff.
I made probably four putts outside of 15 feet for par. I made about a 7-footer for bogey on the last hole to get me in a playoff. So that's been the big difference this whole year, I've putted great.
I think I just kind of got in a rhythm. I've kind of been building up to this and when I finally broke through, lost in the playoff in AT&T, hit a tree and finally won Memorial, my confidence is strong each and every week.

Q. I hope this isn't repeating yourself, but in a day and age where we hear so often athletes making a commitment and then backing out of it, are you surprised at all that instead of celebrating the fact that you made a commitment here and you came here, people criticized that you didn't go to the British?
KENNY PERRY: I guess. You know what's funny, the tournaments get mad at a lot of pros for backing out of a lot of tournaments, I think we had 23 withdrawals at Memphis because of the 36-hole qualifier.
You know what, I don't understand, they should support my decision. If I didn't want to go to the British, I would be home with my kids. They are all out of school and I could be home on the water skiing with them, but I chose to be here and support this event. It's been good to me. I've had a lot of success here and it's helped my career and I just don't understand. I don't know why they are ripping me for making a commitment. I made this commitment early in the year, and then all of a sudden now I'm supposed to dump you guys and go to the British Open.
So, I don't know. Y'all answer that question.

Q. You're the oldest guy to win three times on the PGA TOUR --
KENNY PERRY: I just read that in the paper today. I didn't know nothing about that. Well I got something out here, anyway, that they can remember me by besides skipping the British. (Laughter).
You know they criticized me for not going to our open. I wasn't in our Open. After I won Memorial, the Monday after Memorial, I had to go to a 36-hole qualifier. You know what, criticizing me for not playing in my Open, you know what, I'm not going to play 36 holes after I won and try to get in our Open. I'm going to celebrate my win. It's hard enough to win one time.
I had my family, my whole family was there at Memorial. We all celebrated that night. We had a great time. So, I don't know, the world's crazy.

Q. Do you think more people will follow suit and maybe guys that are your age, maybe see what you've done and maybe follow suit down the road?
KENNY PERRY: Well, you know, I looked up to Fred Funk and Jay Haas. They played great well up into their 50s and they still are. So that was a motivational factor for me. I went to a Bible study at Fred Funk's house this year during the TPC, PLAYERS and I went in his trophy room and I grabbed that PLAYERS trophy. That's a neat trophy. He won that at 48 or whatever, and that gave him five more years out here.
He's always been a huge influence on me. You know, I still want to play. I'm a competitive person and I just like playing golf. That's what I was born to do. It's what I like doing. I have a few more year's exemption now so I'll play out here until I'm 53 or 54. I have exemptions out here on this TOUR, so I'll keep coming and I'll keep trying.

Q. Because of the fact that they are ripping you for playing here and not playing elsewhere, do you feel more pressure now that you have to win a tournament while you're here?
KENNY PERRY: No, not really. I try not to let anything get in my head. I'm just going to do what I've been doing. I want to stay focused, try to earn as many points as I can earn, and that's just my goal.
I'm still not on that Ryder Cup Team until I put red, white and blue on and until Paul announces the team and the team is not announced until -- I think it's two weeks after the PGA. Both of the majors are double points, and if certain guys happen to win the majors, they will shoot right by me and push me down. You know what, I'm still sticking to my goal, still staying focused.
STEWART MOORE: Kenny, thanks so much. Good luck.

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