BUICK OPEN

August 13, 2000

Chris Perry

CHRIS PERRY: Same guy got me, we all know his name now, we didn't know it then. Some guy from Pennsylvania. Rocco and I go way back. We are kind of good friends and I played him in the Sweet 16 of the Western Amateur back in, I don't know, early '80s sometime when we were in college and some guy never heard of putted with a little short little putter and had his dad follow him every little hole and he birdied five of the first six and added another 3 birdies on the other side and beat me like 6 and 5; just beat me up like a drum. I came up one shot short again today. That is the least he could do is give me the hubcap.

CHRIS PERRY: We both played great. Anybody could have -- either one of us could have won. He just made one more putt than I did. I had a one-shot lead and I played about as well as I could have played. I don't want to finish with a bogey on 18, but forced him to make a birdie and end up being a two-shot swing and cost me the tournament. He had a tough putt over there too. I kind of hit my second shot to the -- tried to get it on the front right of green from where I was, too risky going up over the tree, and I hit a good chip shot and it just kept rolling. I thought it was going to be up there within three feet of the hole. It kept running by about 8 and a half feet. He makes his putt. Now I got to make mine or if he misses his, then I have a putt to win, so it was really disappointing not to win, but I am proud of the effort that I did. I felt like I was in control and just came up one shot short. It became a Match Play situation probably about on the 13th, 14th hole, it was going to be between the two of us. I really didn't even watch the leaderboard because I could kind of sense that there wasn't a lot of huge roars out there that we were pretty much distancing ourselves from the field. So it became Match Play and had a few Michigan hecklers out there, but nothing that I couldn't handle.

CHRIS PERRY: Kind of let the crowd really settle down. I take my time anyway, but the crowd was pretty pumped up after he made the putt. Actually when I was four, five feet off the putter, I thought I made the putt. I think Tom Lehman had that same putt last year and I forgot, I think he missed it on the same side I did. I actually played a little more break. It still broke three or four inches. I hit a lot of great putts today - I made some, but missed one too many or two too many. But to shoot 19-under around here, the way I drove the ball this week was -- it was great. I hit it in the rough a few times, but I really did not miss-hit but about two golf shots all week.

CHRIS PERRY: Well, I mean, it is downwind, yeah, you could reach it where the pin was. I put myself in a position where -- I mean, he hit a great shot, driver off the fairway, knocked it on. He is two behind. He has got to take that and he pulled off the shot. If my ball doesn't go quite as far down to the left, I have a relatively more of an angle -- best I could have done from there was probably about eight or ten feet anyway slightly miss-hit the chip. Hung up in the rough; then I managed to make 5. I was pretty much giving him a 4 there with a possibility of a 3 the way he putt. He hit a superb shot on 17. 17 that pin placement, you miss it left or right pin-high, you are pretty much dead. I played to the middle of the green forcing him to -- I knew he had a big breaking putt that would have been tough to make. I had a nice 2-putt and, you know, he had to birdie 18 which he did. Unfortunately it was to win instead of -- you know, being a playoff.

CHRIS PERRY: And I think that is what Tiger does a lot. He has a lead; then he just goes ahead and goes after it the first nine holes and pretty much is 7, 8 ahead of everybody and it kind of deflates everybody, I think, as far as being able to catch up. I am not a leaderboard watcher anyway I play the golf course, but then it became Match Play, pretty much, from -- well, pretty much the whole day. I mean, I was firing them in there stiff, I mean, I lipped (sic) out a couple of shots out of the fairway so did Rocco. He missed one (inaudible) which gave me kind of an opening. I really felt like if I birdied 16, that was probably the turning point, really, when he knocked it on. Then I hit it just a little to the let. Hit a solid shot; just didn't cut enough. Got me down there where I really couldn't play aggressively to the pin. But hats off to him because -- I don't feel like I lost the golf tournament. I felt like he won. I shot 68 on Sunday playing in the last day and he just -- he shot 66.

CHRIS PERRY: It is not nerve-wracking because you are concentrating on what you are doing. I think you totally get into what you are doing and focused on -- I think if you are kind of all over the golf course and you don't know what is happening and you are spraying it, missing putts, that is when you kind of get a little disgruntled with yourself; you have no idea what is going on. Your heart races, all that, but I was in complete control. I have had this feeling a few times in my career where you feel like you are in control when I won Mexican Open in 1994; when I won at B.C. nobody was doing anything, I said: Well, guys nobody said you have to win by 1. I just went ahead and ended up winning by 3. With the year I had last year, 14 Top-10 finishes and finished in the top 4, nine times all I am interested is winning just like Tiger and a lot of guys out here. If I can't win, yeah, I want to finish second. If I can't finish second, I want to finish third. I want to do the best I can every time I go out. I might not have my best stuff, but that is part of the pride that we all take and play in this great game that we have is to do your best no matter how you are playing. Jack Nicklaus is my hero, he never laid down for everybody no matter what he was doing, if he was shooting 85.

CHRIS PERRY: He just made one more putt than I did. I save my superstition -- only starts with my right sock in the morning. That is pretty much it. I just make sure I put the right on -- if I have start with the left, I pull it off and start over. (laughs).

CHRIS PERRY: He birdied 16. 17, he hit a good shot. Then we both made par. I actually made a pretty good two and a half-footer for a par there. That was a wicked pin placement. And the hole sets up pretty good for Rocco, he hits a big high kind of draw with the wind little left-to-right. I have always played the ball straight to -- a little left-to-right, but when I come here, I seem to drive it really well because I make sure I stay back on my right side and I really release the club. I just drive the ball super when I come to this golf course for some reason and I just kind of -- I thought I hit it perfect. It just kind of got over it a little bit. It rolled into the rough and it rolled over to -- I could hit the ball, but the grass was -- it was laying over the top of it, so it going to be tough -- it is going to come out with a lot of knuckle kind of spin; it is going to be flying all over the place. So I just played to try to maybe get it -- a little low draw 9-iron. I had about 150 yards to the front, to just kind of roll it on the front or if it doesn't get on, I have a relatively simple pitch. I didn't want to be in that left bunker and have a tough bunker shot. I wanted to force him -- I really thought I was going to make a 4; if not even chip it in. I mean, stranger things have happened. I hit a really good pitch. I thought I had a chance. It just kept rolling, rolling, rolling, and you know, I tried to chip it in and if it didn't, make him make the putt, and he made a great putt. He had to come over a little crest, downhill, left-to-right, toughest putt to make and he poured it right in the middle and I hit a good putt. I would have hit the same putt again if I had had it over. It is not just on 18 because he made birdies -- there was a couple of other chances he made a few longer putts and I was inside of him and missed, or I was just outside of him and I missed; then he made it. Back on 6, 7 we both birdied. 8, he made a putt from outside of mine. I hit a good putt. No. 9, he made a putt from outside of mine. I was in. Hit the hole and missed. So kind of the whole combination of the whole day. And you are driving -- the first hole is just as important as your one on the last hole. They add them all up. The first day I shot 5-under, but I left at last four shots on the golf course the way I putted the first day. I missed a lot of very makeable putts. But I am playing well going into the PGA, and yeah, I didn't win, but I am putting a little damper on that Presidents Cup, I think, I don't know where I stand. I have no idea when you go -- because you double the money, so -- I don't know where I stand on that, so I will probably have to have a good week -- I came up one shot short for the Ryder Cup from what Mr. Crenshaw told me on several occasion. He says, you don't know how close you were to being on that team. He says, it was just like a pinky fingernail from being chosen to play. So I set my goals pretty high, winning, Presidents Cup, top-30, and I am 38 years old getting ready to go on 39 in September and feel like I have got good years. I have got a lot of experience, but just Rocco just played better; that is all I can say.