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FARMERS INSURANCE OPENFebruary 3, 2015Pat PerezSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA ALEX URBAN: We would like to welcome Pat Perez to the media center. Local guy, Pat. You went to school at Torrey Pines High School and you're coming off your career best finish here an T-2 last year. Talk about coming back to where you played in my school and also your finish last year and the momentum leading into this year. PAT PEREZ: Yeah, last year was a fun year. One short, but it was fun all the way around. Finally to be in contention to come down 18 there, with a shot to win it, obviously I've been around this course a long time and I worked here, I played this course a million times and it's just good to be home. ALEX URBAN: Great. Open it up to questions. Q. Charley Hoffman cuts his hair and you're growing it long. What's going on? PAT PEREZ: Don't worry about that. Q. Can't worry about it? PAT PEREZ: We don't have to worry about it. I hear it all day every day. That's why it's still going. Q. Is your dad getting on you about it? PAT PEREZ: No, everybody does, I think that's why I'm continuing to grow it. Q. Why don't you dye it blond. PAT PEREZ: Actually, I might do something like that one day. Q. They called it a mullet last week on TV. PAT PEREZ: A mullet is shaved here (Indicating) and the Tennessee water falls straight down and like a flat top. They kept calling it a mullet. This is more -- see people have it as either a flow, or hockey hair. I prefer either one of those. Not a mullet. It's not a mullet. Q. Have you ever played hockey? PAT PEREZ: I've been on the ice once. Well, not once, couples time in the lockout in 2004 with the Coyotes, that was an interesting couple months. But it was fun. Q. Same stick, right? PAT PEREZ: No, I actually shoot left. I couldn't do it right, so I went the other way. It was quite a work out, too, I tell you. Q. How long did it take you to get over to second place? Like I know you were pretty devastated by it? PAT PEREZ: I wasn't devastated. I wanted to win, but, you know, I wasn't like it was devastating. I mean, I had a great week. It was fun and it was nice to be in that position again and I wanted to win, but I bogeyed 16 and I didn't make the putt on 17 and that was pretty much -- I got most everything I could out of that four days. That course is long for me, so I'm not necessarily a favorite with the length on that course. So I was happy, I putted great, I got a lot of up-and-downs, and I was happy to be in that position. Yeah, it was one short and I had my chance coming down the stretch and I just didn't close it. Q. You local guys got a little jobbed with the redesign of the South, what's been your feeling about the redo of the North Course, fairly significantly? PAT PEREZ: I heard that Phil's deal is not going to go through. The funding is not going to happen for it. It's actually -- I really wish it would. I talked to Phil at length about what he was going to done an I think it sounded like it was going to be amazing. That North Course, they don't bring enough of the canyons in and some of the ideas like he wanted to do, like 8, he wanted to make it like 18 at Pebble, I think that's incredible. 11, you bring it over, make 9 a par-4, bring the canyon all the way up. I think some of those changes would have been awesome and hopefully it can still go through, but I would really like to see, I would like to see the changes, for sure. Q. And why? Is it just -- PAT PEREZ: I don't know. Q. Is it too tired the way it is now? PAT PEREZ: No, no. It doesn't match the South. If you're going to have two courses -- I'm not saying they have to be identical. They wouldn't be identical because there would be so many more holes on the cliff. There's really what, 14 and 15's not really on the cliff over there. 16, they could have moved it over. 17's a little bit. 17 is in play. But that's about it. There's not really a whole lot. I think the North you could really bring in that canyon the way I think it was supposed to be designed and I think it would be pretty awesome. Q. You're 18th year on TOUR, what have you learned from, what do you think your biggest lesson has been on TOUR? Where are you at right now in your game compared to where you were when you came out? PAT PEREZ: I would hate to use the word patience, but I think I've just kind of gotten over, I don't know, I guess I get over things a little easier than I used to. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's time I don't know if it is lessons, I don't know if it's getting worn out by people. I don't know what it is. But I just look at things a little different. Bad shots and missed putts and all this kind of stuff. I don't know, I just I guess that would be it more than anything what I've learned. Balance in life, I guess in general would be another one. That I tried to really do. And just keep working on it every day. Q. There's a group of 80-odd caddies filed a federal lawsuit. PAT PEREZ: We were talking about that. Q. Yeah, wanted to see if you had any thoughts on it. PAT PEREZ: I have some thoughts on it. I don't know how deep I want to go without getting in trouble. But my caddie's like my brother. I have known him a long, long time. And I want the best for him. I try to take care of him like a brother. I've always looked out for him and tried to do everything I can for him. He's not involved with it and he didn't want to get involved with it, because he didn't want to be a distraction for me. So, but I think that there's a case there -- we were just talking about it even at lunch, why do those guys have to pay for lunch? Why, what does that caddie wagon cost to run a week? Nothing. With all the money the TOUR has? Why do they have to pay for lunch? You can't give them a $3 sandwich? They're not allowed in the clubhouse. They're forced to wear these bibs for sponsors. What do they get out of the sponsors? What do they get out of wearing it? Nothing. It's one thing if they choose, if there's a choice to wear a bib. But they're told they have to wear the bib. And a lot of them don't want to wear them. You know what, I think they kind of have a case here where, if the TOUR's going to force them to do it, then maybe they should pay them something every week to do it or the sponsor pay them something. I guess what their gripe is that -- they said, because the purses have gone up, that we're paying them more, so that covers it. Well, you know, if I miss the cut, they don't make anything that week. So, I don't know. I'm pretty much on the side of the caddies, because mine is so great and I would always be on his side. I know he's a little upset about it, would never talk about it to anybody, but I'm on their side. I know a lot of the caddies now have been out a long time and I think that they have a legitimate gripe and I think they should get a little more out here. I don't know. But, see, the other thing is, I don't know how you structure it. I don't know how -- there's got to be a certain amount of time, do you put it into a pension plan, what if you're only out a year, what if you're only out a week, what if you're out this and that. I don't know if you just pay them cash each week you give them 200 bucks or whatever it is each week to wear the bin and then it will go away. Q. Is there any part of you that is surprised that there wasn't any type of a compromise reached instead of it getting to this point? PAT PEREZ: Once I talked about it to a number of caddies I'm surprised this hasn't been addressed a long time ago. I can kind of see the TOUR's side, where they work for us, they don't work for the TOUR. I can kind of see that, but also the other side of that coin is that they're being forced to wear that bib and all they really wanted was just to get another sponsor on the bib. They wanted to just like a little patch or something to go on the bib as well. So it wasn't just like get rid of the sponsor thing all together, they wanted to have someone else come in and maybe sponsor all the caddies to have something else there, so they were getting a little bit of grease. And I guess that wasn't, they weren't allowed to do it. So I think that's where the whole thing started and I think once they started challenging a little bit, they didn't get the answers they liked and I think that's where we're at. But I'm on the caddies' side on this deal. I know the TOUR has a lot of money and they paid out a lot of money in court causes and stuff like that, I think they can take care of the guys that are taking care of us, from my honest opinion. Q. So have you been approached by the TOUR in regards to this at all? PAT PEREZ: I was just telling Doug. I just heard about it in the caddie, I was in the caddie wagon eating lunch and some guys were talking about it. That's where I just heard about it. Q. You're okay with the fact that they should be, you feel like they could be adequately compensated. They seem to only want money for health insurance and retirement and you would be in favor of that as a player for the TOUR to do something for them? PAT PEREZ: Yeah, I'm a hundred percent for that. I don't know if it's 50 million or whatever the number is that they're going for. I think they should be compensated a little bit. I think there should be some type of health plan, but once again, there's it's not just that easy. It's how long you been out here, who do you work for, how much time have you put in, there's a lot of things that go into that. So the health plan thing, I don't really know about. Because I don't know how you could structure it. What if a guy gets on and is fired in three weeks and goes down to the WEB.COM TOUR and comes back two years later. I don't know how you can do all that. I think if they just compensated them enough for either the bibs or something else, that might take of it a little bit. I don't really have all the answers, I don't have a lot of the detail on it. Just from what I've heard. But I'm definitely in favor of them getting something, even down to just even you know free food every week would be a start. Q. Did you buy lunch today? PAT PEREZ: No. My caddie actually bought me lunch. (Laughter.) It was fantastic. He's always giving. Q. Have you been out on the South Course? PAT PEREZ: I played the North. I saw a long time friend out there, Coop, and we were going over when they were going to me and how much they were going to me and the greens are lightning over there on the North right now. They have been rolling but they hadn't cut the fairway yet so I'm hoping they will do that. The rough is long. I heard the South is, greens are firm, rough is long, but I heard it's in good shape. Everything is going to be pretty good this week. The weather the courses and everything. Q. Thoughts on what Tiger's going through right now? Are you looking at him like the rest of us and just can't believe what's happening? PAT PEREZ: No, I can't believe it, I haven't really talked to him about it. I don't really have any opinions that I would share on it. I just hope that he, you know, I'm sure I'm like a lot of people, they want him to find it and -- I want to see him back on top of his game again. He is golf. I don't care where he is, if he finishes last or first or whatever, he is, he is the game of golf and until he leaves, he will be that guy. Everybody's always going to question him and go after him. I don't watch the Golf Channel, but I'm sure they have all the answers for him there on that as well. I hope he turns it around. I don't think a guy with his talent can really be off his game too long. I think it should be an easy fix. He might have something else going on that we don't know about. He could have some things at home. I don't know. He could have something else that's just bugging him and it could be a mental thing for a couple weeks. I don't think that's going to continue. I don't really have an answer for it, really. Q. Did you ever think there would have been a day, say 10 years ago, that you would have said that? PAT PEREZ: No. Q. Words like I hope Tiger can turn his game around? PAT PEREZ: I thought -- I hoped he would still be playing this day. I thought he would have 25 Majors by now and he would be thinking about retirement, going into his 40th year on this earth. Hoping he would stay around to 45 so that I could keep riding that wave, so to speak. But, yeah, I don't know. There's a lot of questions in the air. I'm sure everybody homes he turns it around and gets it going. But talking to these young kids today, I played with a bunch of them lately and the way the game's going, it's different. These kids, played with Koepka last week and Finau the week before that and Burley the week before that. And these guys are hitting it 50 yards by me. It's incredible. The distance, the youth, the fearlessness, it's a different group. I don't know, it's a different game than when I came out, too. We had Tiger, but it just wasn't the same. These kids are hitting it a mile. They're taking -- it doesn't matter what they do to the courses, they're still hitting it as far as ever. They're just taking advantage of it. I'm hitting 6-iron and Koepka is hit hitting wedge. Who is going to win that contest? Q. Koepka. PAT PEREZ: He did. (Laughter.) But I did inspire him for two days. (Laughter.) Q. Who do you got this week? Did you ever look at a tee sheet and hope you get Brian Gay or Justin Leonard? PAT PEREZ: God, who do I have? I just saw it. I don't even know. Oh, yeah, Paul Casey, that's all I saw. Paul Casey. He'll hit it by me. But that's fine. But these kids, Finau hits it two miles. It's incredible. It's high and it's soft. It's long. I'm not surprised at all when he found, when he got all this game together he was going to have a good year. And he started off great. Koepka, there's no -- I told him when we got done, I said, don't change anything, you're going to be fine for a long time. And sure as hell he wins two days later. I mean, you can just see it. You can see it. These kids today, they're really good. They're really good. But I hope Tiger can turn it around and get back to where he's been. Q. These guys don't know who Tiger is, do they? PAT PEREZ: They didn't have to compete against him week in and week out like us when he was, when you knew you couldn't beat him. There was a five year stretch there when he was there and it was happening. There was nothing you could do about it. He was just there. But it's just -- it's just different now. Q. So are you saying that somebody like Rory doesn't have that kind of out here as Tiger did? PAT PEREZ: I think he could. There's no question in my mind he's the best in the world right now. For sure. But I don't know. I don't want to say anything wrong. Rory's incredible. He's absolutely incredible. But Tiger did it so long. Was so completely dominant for so long. I'm sure Rory could do it. If anybody is going to do it, it's going to be him. He's going to take over the sport. He is the guy. There's no doubt in my mind. He can win Augusta, no problem this year. He's got plenty of length, he's an incredible player, he could be the next Tiger. But when you put Tiger like with Jack and then Arnie, I mean those names, those don't just get tossed around. Those are great players, in my eyes. Tiger was the guy for a long time. I'm sure Rory's well on his way to being that guy, and he's had an incredible start, but Tiger did it for a really long time, just being that dominant and I think that Rory would be the next guy to do it. Q. Not to step on yourself here, but do you think Tiger could come even close to where he was? PAT PEREZ: Would Tiger ever shoot 82? Who knows. I don't have the answer to that. I'm sure -- I don't know. I don't know. I know it would be good for the game if he was the next guy. I think that he could be as dominant as anybody that he's ever played. He's got every tool there is to be the most dominant for sure. But time will tell. I quit guessing all this stuff now. I've seen so much go on out here now that I can't make predictions anymore. I never thought we would see Tiger in this position and here we are with him and all I can say is Rory is definitely No. 1 right now and it's in his hands to become the next dominant player over the next 10 years. ALEX URBAN: Great. Thank you, everyone. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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