SPRINT INTERNATIONAL

August 20, 1999

Chris Perry

CHRIS PERRY: That was a long day yesterday. Very long day yesterday. It was very -- I mean, I didn't get back to my -- I didn't get to McDonald's until 8:50. Had me a Quarter Pounder and some chicken nuggets, went to the room, watched a little Friends, and went to bed early. Got up at 4:30. Real short. It was tough. This course is tough to walk, it is very tough. I am in pretty good shape, but my dogs are barking right now. (pointing to his feet). No, it was a good day. Two good days. I don't like a lot of interruptions when I play. I like to keep it going and with the weather problems, it is difficult to warm up and difficult to have keep your momentum and your flow of your swing, it is very difficult. Yesterday was tough. Then we finished in the dark and then going out this morning, I had a nice warm-up this morning, and I had about a 9-footer on the 8th hole, was my first shot and I had missed some early on the front 9 yesterday. I think really that settled me down right away is to go ahead and make that putt. Then I hit a 4-wood and 7-iron into No. 9 to finish my first round. I made about probably 15-footer there to go from well 6 points, 8 points to 10 points, so starting off then we have another about 38 minutes before we teed off. Grabbed a little more breakfast; then warmed up a little bit more and hit it about 30 feet on the very No. 1 and 2, just off the edge of the green and left it about three and a half feet short and made that. Parred 2. Good par on 3, hit a 7-iron about 3 - two and a half feet on No. 4. They had the tee up on 5 yesterday, hit a drive and 3-iron. Today I hit a drive and sand wedge. They had the tee up 50 yards. It was into the wind. I hit it just, I don't know, about 16 feet, just missed that. 3-wood and a wedge to No. 6, just a wicked putt from above the hole, double-breakers, fast as you can imagine and it went in from about 20 feet. Lipped it out on No. 7 from the right edge of the green about another 20-, 25-footer, really nice putt. Hit it on -- driver, 3-iron to No. 8 on the new green just off the edge of the green and just a wicked putt, that green is a little bit slower. It probably had to break 10 or twelve feet from 30 feet, and I didn't hit it hard enough. It came down the ridge room coming almost straight sideways, but I had to make a 7 and a half-footer for a second putt. I made that. No. 9 good 2-putt from about 50 feet. Hit 4-wood and 5-iron on about 50-footer. 10, just the fairways are much faster than they normally are here, the ball is going along which even when it hits, it is running pretty good. I hit a 9-iron from converted yardage - my caddie and I convert the yardage back to sea level. I hit that about eight feet behind the hole, just missed that. No. 11, the pin the tees were up, figured on 155 yard hit a 9-iron to about ten inches. Landed two feet, it almost went in the hole. Hit it a foot. Made about a 50-footer on No. 12, after coming out of the fairway trap coming down the hill. The next hole I hit a real good 3-wood, missed the green from about 105 yards to the left and long. It is a new green. I chipped it all the way over the green. I was about 45 feet and chipped it past the hole, went off the green about 10 -- about 12-footer for par, missed that. Driver and 4-wood just short of the green on the par 5. Almost made eagle. Four feet by, birdie. 15, all the way through the fairway with a 3-wood, 80 yards about 18-footer. Knocked that four feet by and made it. Good 2-putt on 16 from 50 feet, made about a four, four and a half-footer. 17, a driver and a 6-iron just right of the green, about 3 steps hit a really nice putt, almost made eagle there. That was about a 25-footer. It went right over the edge, tap-in. 18, 3-wood and 6-iron to about 23 feet, knocked it two and a half feet past; made that. So it was really nice day. Swinging well, been playing really nice. Played okay here. I had a good tournament here last year. But got to get some rest this afternoon and get focused for the weekend.

CHRIS PERRY: Ball is going so far, you get it in the air 4-wood goes as far as 3-wood, the converted yardage is anywhere from 8 percent to 15 percent. What makes this course tough is the elevated tees, I mean, you can drive it -- I mean, I saw Scott McCarron wasn't playing well behind me, but he was hitting drives over 400 yards. He had to hit like 8-iron into that, into 14. You just really have to watch, you know, how high you hit it off a lot of the holes. The ball is running out so you can get away with hitting a little bit less. If you hit driver off No. 9 you bring the water into play. I just -- I prefer just to hit a 3- or 4-wood down there and knock something on the green make my 4 and move on. The par 5s I am playing very aggressive, just because I am hitting a 3- or 4-wood doesn't mean it is not aggressive. I am just hitting to the widest part of the fairway.

CHRIS PERRY: I lived in Minnesota. We lived close to a par 3 course. I used to ride my bike over there and dig for balls in the woods and we would take a couple of clubs over and we would sneak out on the park 3 course and play. Then when we moved from that house -- we had a big backyard, or when I was -- when I went to the par 3, we also had a big backyard. I took my dad's 9-iron in the backyard when we moved to the other side of town, went down just at the schoolyard, my buddies and I would go down there with one club and hit balls for four, five hours with one or two clubs. Used to hit at fire hydrants and swing sets, stuff like that.

CHRIS PERRY: Through ninth grade. But baseball, golf were in the spring in Minnesota, so I had to choose one or the other. My dad told me at a very young age, you know, I am going to have to make a choice of one or the other. I couldn't play both, there is no way. I would have liked to, so I went to with golf; then I was ice hockey player in the wintertime in Minnesota.

CHRIS PERRY: Pitch, centerfield, shortstop pretty much was my -- I enjoyed all of it. Pitching probably was the best because you had the ball all the time.

CHRIS PERRY: Yeah, my dad is about a 4.

CHRIS PERRY: Doesn't play. Probably played 15 times in his life.

CHRIS PERRY: You know the hockey players and the pitchers.

CHRIS PERRY: They play a lot of golf. Maddox, all those Atlanta Brave guys, they play a lot of golf. Those guys are nuts - a lot of golf. Roger Clemens plays a lot. Most of -- I mean, the pitchers because they have more days off, but a lot of baseball players play.

CHRIS PERRY: I think their work ethic that they had. My dad was -- didn't have all the talent in the world, but he didn't want anybody to work harder than he did. He was the type of guy that would take care of himself in the off-season by staying loose, working out a little bit; then he would always go to spring training about seven to ten days before everybody else to get his running in, just to have a little more edge than the guys coming in, or not so much an edge against his fellow guys on the team but he just really wanted to make sure that he was ready. Good fundamentals. Not everybody swings the same, throws the same, you just got to know what you can do and stick with that.

CHRIS PERRY: We have talked a little with it. Delsing's dad was a little -- I think they were a little older than mine.

CHRIS PERRY: Yeah, in the '50s. My dad started in '59, I think it was and played 'til 75. He played 17 years.

CHRIS PERRY: Yeah. Since -- when I had to go back when I lost my card in '92, '93 -- yeah, I had three and a half months before the first tournament -- it didn't start 'til late March and I didn't hire a trainer, I just did it on my own, just your normal stuff, running, this and that. I remember the first tournament was in March in California, we got rained out the first day. We had to play 36 holes on a course that was just billy goat just up-and-down, up-and-down. I played 36 holes. I was just ready to go. Didn't even get tired. Ever since that time I have really -- I mean, I am not in great, great shape, but my legs are pretty strong, even if I make a funny swing, I feel like my balance, I can fight off -- I am strong enough to fight off a poor shot. Walking this course has kind of gotten to me now because I got my kid's cold last week. I wasn't feeling too good Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and having the short night and all that, I do need a little rest. The last few years I have waited for this tournament because of how thin the air is and the elevation of walking down and up to some of the tees what my recovery time is before I hit my shot and it has been pretty good. This is kind of an indication of how what kind of condition I am in. But I have really worked hard in the last three years. I have hired a trainer. That is what I do in the off-season.

CHRIS PERRY: Yeah, that is a big part. Confidence has a lot to do with it, some good finishes, feeling that you belong out here again, making a lot of cuts, having a chance to win, this and that, I mean, I have played very, very consistent. I try to keep my mind as focused as I can when I play no matter where I am playing.

CHRIS PERRY: This is probably the toughest one. Used to be the old one down in Georgia, the old -- I forget the name of the course now.

CHRIS PERRY: No. Well, that one is pretty tough too. Green Island was pretty tough. That is the older one. On the Tour now Spyglass can be pretty tough because of the mushy green where the up-and-down -- my shins start to hurt a little bit here, but my feet are -- balls of my feet are a little sore. Kapalua, the Mercedes is way worse. That is just unbelievably brutal. I was hurting and I had trained for, you know, two months going up until then and by Tuesday, I mean, I was really, really hurting bad. That was because we were even using carts, only walked like nine holes, I used it in the Pro-Am. That one is worse than here, no doubt.

CHRIS PERRY: Right.

CHRIS PERRY: Going into the tournament I was 14th and had to finish tied for 6th with one guy, if nobody did anything that would have gotten me into the Top-10. So that was on my mind pretty much the whole week. I had never finished probably better than 16th in a major anyway. I have played in a lot of them. I just wanted to continue my play. The course set up well for me. I have been playing well. So that is pretty much what I was focused on doing. It was a difficult week to play because there was that. Once I am on the course, I am fine. It is not like I have this putt and this is for the Ryder Cup, don't play it that way. Shot a couple under the first day, 1-over. Had a 6:58 tee time on Friday. Greens were extremely fast; shot 1-over. But I saw him everyday, and he said: I want you to really have a good week for me. Each day, he was saying: You are very, very high up on my list. Just go out and play well for me. I knew going in since, really, about March, that has been my goal, was to make the Ryder Cup team. I mean, first of all, my goal was top-30, then my second goal was to win this year. Once I started playing well, through March, the outside chance of making the Ryder Cup team has been my goal. I saw him each and every day. He wanted to know how I played; told him fine, hitting it nice; played very well. The weekend was tough to play, because I briefly would talk to him, you know: How did you play? You know: Keep it up. Then I am going out on Sunday morning, just going out of the locker room going to hit some balls, and he pulls my caddie aside, Carl, really, you are very high on my list. So I kind of had that little high step coming out of the locker room knowing -- I didn't know what he really meant by -- does that mean go out and make 18 pars? That is not going to get me anywhere as far as putts, because I was in 18th place. I knew if I shoot 66, let's see, I was 2-under. I figure if I shot, yeah, 7- or 8-under, that was going to make it. Started off pretty well. So was playing just fine, and ended up bogeying, birdied 17. I had hit it about four feet. Made birdie there to go 4-under. Then 18, I pulled my 4-wood off the tee was downwind, played it to the front of the green. I just missed the green; chipped it to about six feet. If I had got to five or six feet -- teeing off, I thought I had to shoot 7 or 8. Once playing, I thought 5- or 6-under would have a chance doing that. I chipped it to six feet. I was very calm and it just kind of -- I don't know if I pulled it or what. I just missed it. I saw where Steve Pate was just in front of me, and I couldn't remember how many points it was. But if I had tied him, then he wouldn't have passed me on the points thing. Whether that would have made a difference, I don't know. I was doing some interviews afterwards, Bob Estes -- actually I was on the 16th fairway, and Bob Estes made a putt on No. 14 to go to 8-under. That quickly totally changed. Really made me play aggressive coming in, because he is going to pass me for sure if he stays at 8-under or 7-under. He bogeyed 16 and 17 and missed about a 15-footer at 18. So I saw him afterwards, and he was talking with someone. He said, I don't know what is going to happen. You are still up there. That is good playing; it is a great effort. At the time, I think I was in 12th place. Ended up finishing 10th, getting 4 points tied with a bunch of guys. So then Estes and Steve Pate ended up passing me as far as points. I did give him my cell phone number, because I knew he wanted to talk to me. I knew it was going to be close because of how I have played, because nobody has played more consistent or at that time I had -- I finished 15th at the Buick but I had 4 top-tens in a row -- I don't know how many I have had like the couple of second places as far as consistency and really being in the Top-20 nobody has done that except for maybe Tiger, I guess, so as far as I read the articles of that he was going to pick someone who was really hot. I knew the experience part was going to hurt me a little bit. But I didn't know at the time that -- until the tournament was over as far as -- I knew Steve passed me but I still thought it was going to be pretty much a toss-up either way because he hadn't really played, I saw some stats, best he had finished was 34th or 42nd in five -- he had missed a couple of -- two of his last six tournaments or something. So I said whatever you decide, obviously, I wanted to play. Do I deserve to be on the team? Maybe. But he can't go wrong with any of the guys who had a chance. He could have picked -- really came down to probably three our four right there depending on what Freddie was going to do. Lee Janzen was obviously another one, but hadn't played that well recently. I knew he was going to take Tom Lehman. I was hoping that Tom Lehman would get in on his own; that would have been interesting. Bob Estes would have made it, it would have knocked Maggert out. He is fifth on the money list. There are all kinds of scenarios. It really comes down to when you look at the whole thing for seven guys it comes down to one shot. And in any one tournament not in the PGA, Bob Estes, yes, for me, I finished second at Hilton Head -- excuse me, I finished one shot out of Hilton Head. I was leading, hit a piercing 5-iron, went over the flag; went over the green, bogeyed 18 to fall out of a playoff with three guys. So, there is 150 points, 90, 80. Then I got 70 or 60 points so there is another -- there is -- how many points I got 70, there is 1 -- there is 60 or 70 points right there that -- so I mean, that is there. I finished second in Hawaii, five guys only got 60 points. If I had finished second by myself, I would have got 90. Really comes down to one shot. Probably Jeff Sluman could have said that. Steve Stricker, John Huston, in which one tournamentt -- that is how close it was. Now as far as picking the guy, from what I have heard, Tom Pernice is a friend of mine, he talked with Ben - he said, like an hour on Sunday and he wasn't sure what Freddie was going to do. Wasn't really positive on that, but I think it was between Steve Pate and myself. He never told me that. I am just -- yeah, I am disappointed that I didn't make it, but I am still pulling for the guys to win. In fact I played in a Pro-Am, it was really ironic, I played in a Pro-Am at Ruffled Feathers, one of my Clear Eyes deals that I did on Monday. I am in a sand trap and you know the little divot repair jobs, they have little ball markers on it. Well, guess what it was? It was an old rusted out Ryder Cup from this year right next to my ball. I go, how ironic is that. So I have it in my yardage book, was a little reminder to keep me focused and to my goals. My goal right now is to make The Presidents Cup team. I mean, that is my goal. Sure, I want to play well every week, but that is my long range goal is to make that team. I don't mean to ramble here, but -- played well last couple of days and we will see.