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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 3, 2005

Kenny Perry

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Kenny Perry, thanks for joining us. First round 65, three shots off the lead of Bart Bryant. A lot of low scores out there, and you had a good day. If you could make some opening comments, we'll go right to questions.

KENNY PERRY: Well, drove it great, didn't hit it in the rough until about the 15th or 16th hole, so I was in the fairway all day. I hit my irons close, and it seemed like I had three kick ins.

I can't remember when I had them within four inches of the hole three times. Then I made one bomb on 16, probably made a 40 footer up over the ridge and then I three putted the last two holes, but all in all, it was a great day. I drove it great, and that's the secret to this golf course. You can't play out of that rough. But I looked at the scores, everybody must have drove it in the fairway. I guess high was 73, low was 62. Great weather, thank goodness. Last year it was so bad. There wasn't any wind, so the scores were low. Good day.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You're paired with Sergio Garcia tomorrow. Maybe talk a little bit about his game, as well.

KENNY PERRY: Well, I haven't played with Sergio any this year, I don't think, maybe once. I can't remember too much.

Q. Bay Hill.

KENNY PERRY: Bay Hill we played together? That's a good sign (laughter). I like playing with him. I'm probably old enough to be his dad, I don't know.

I tease him all the time. We have a good time out there. I like having fun with all of them. It'll be fun. He played right in front of me today, so I saw him hitting a lot of good shots and holing putts. Hopefully we'll kind of motivate each other and just go out there and shoot another good round tomorrow.

Q. What would this mean to you if you could win the TOUR Championship?

KENNY PERRY: Well, I mean, it's an honor obviously. It's just an honor to get here. You know, I've got to win a major, so that's just kind of what that would be something that would really mean something to me at this stage of my life and in my career. Most of my wins have been against top ranked players, so it's no different. We just probably have them all here this week but Phil. But it's just neat for me.

I've had the last three weeks off, actually been selling greens fees at my golf course. My partner and I split up, so now I'm the sole owner of my golf course, so I've kind of been working real hard the last three weeks. I didn't play a lot of golf, so I didn't really have any expectations coming in. I hit it really great today, kind of refreshing.

Q. So many guys talk about building their year around the majors. How much do you do that, also?

KENNY PERRY: Well, I changed the last three years of my approach. Actually I'm trying to get in earlier into the major sites and play practice rounds and prepare more thoroughly. I've just tried to make it a better effort for me.

Obviously to win a tournament of any caliber is awesome on the PGA TOUR, but my last goal is somehow to get one, just to one win. I've been close, lost in that one playoff, but never really competed to where I felt like I was right there down the stretch much, and that's kind of been my goal is to somehow get in there and get in the hunt a little quicker.

Q. So are you telling us you are actually behind the counter taking cash and making change and handing out cart keys?

KENNY PERRY: I was. That's what I did for three weeks. You know, I'm not good at firing people. I found that out. It's hard hiring and firing. I kind of hired my own staff in there, got rid of my partner's staff, so that was kind of interesting. So we'll see.

Q. Maybe you could get Jim Richards to sell greens fees.

KENNY PERRY: He'll scare them away (laughing).

Q. Do the people there know who you are when they go wandering in?

KENNY PERRY: I would say 95 percent of the people do, but once in a while some of them don't have a clue who I am. It's hilarious. I love it. They'll come in and say "How's Kenny Perry doing?" I'm looking straight at them saying, "He's doing okay. (Laughter)".

Q. What's it say about the PGA TOUR, you have the TOUR Championship, Olin Browne in this tournament for the first time

KENNY PERRY: The old guys are hanging in there, that's all I can say.

Q. But the opportunity is out there for these guys.

KENNY PERRY: Very much so.

Q. It's not just built for the top players, is it?

KENNY PERRY: Well, to make the Top 30 it's not like lightning in the bottle. You've got to play good all year. To make $2 million I guess it took $1.9 or something, almost $2 million, and then for the guys who make the Top 30, they played pretty consistently the whole year. You've seen a few, I guess, a couple who just missed out. It usually takes a win and three or four Top 5 finishes and a lot of consistent play to get here. So the guys that all made it here played great. Olin played awesome this year. I was proud of him. I went in there and high fived him, and I'm glad to see him here this week. It's pretty neat, they were talking five months ago, they were wondering if they could compete anymore out here, and the next thing you know they're in the TOUR Championship. They get hot, win a couple tournaments and the next thing you know they're here.

Q. You mentioned at Bay Hill you played the mini tours down there in Florida.

KENNY PERRY: Five years.

Q. Did you go to Q school a whole bunch?

KENNY PERRY: Three times.

Q. Did you have any of those white knuckle, frightful, horrible, near miss experiences?

KENNY PERRY: Yeah, I missed by one my first time.

Q. What happened?

KENNY PERRY: Well, I didn't have a certain hole that just killed me, my number was just I don't know what I shot on the sixth round, but I ended up missing it by one. Then I made it my son was born during the fourth round the second year, so I was like I didn't even have my mind in the game there. I missed the cut, so I ended up getting back to see the birth of my son.

Then the next year I rolled right through. I won a bunch of mini Tour events, won 10 out of 11 weeks which led right into qualifying school and just rolled right through it so didn't have any trouble the third time.

Q. Are there many guys from that are still out here managing around that you grew up

KENNY PERRY: Paul Azinger played, Olin Browne played. Actually I'd have to sit and look at the list, but there are a lot of guys out here who played J.C. Goosie, that mini Tour.

End of FastScripts.

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