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BAY HILL INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 20, 2005

Kenny Perry

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: I'd like to begin by congratulating Kenny Perry, winner of the 2005 Bay Hill Invitational.

KENNY PERRY: Boy, that sounds good.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Good day out there for you, but you were being pushed all day long by Vijay Singh. Why don't you talk about that a little bit.

KENNY PERRY: You know what, going out I knew that was going to be the case. There's a man who dedicates his whole life to the game and practices so much, I just knew he was going to be there at the end.

I had a target score of 70 going out, that was kind of my score, and I didn't hit the ball as good these 18 holes as I did all week. Maybe I was a little off, maybe I was a little nervous, I don't know. I hit the shots when I needed to hit shots. I was proud of how I hit some shots in some situations. And to be able to -- I thank Vijay at the end for giving me that tournament; that was kind of a nice way to win one, knowing I could play left and 3-putt to win the golf tournament. That was a nice way to win.

I just knew the last three holes was the tournament. I made a great par on 15 to still stay one up on him. And then I hit a beautiful drive on 16 and he's in the rough, he's laid up and I'm thinking, man, this is a good chance to get away and separate myself and not have so much pressure on the last couple of holes. I hit a beautiful 3-iron. I didn't see where it landed on the green. I don't know how it got over the green there in the back muff. Hit a poor chip and he hit it stiff. Next thing I know, we're even, or I'm still one up.

And then I bogey the next hole. I saw him hit it left; so I kind of matched him, I played left. I didn't want to get too aggressive on that shot of 17. Chipped it a little long, hit a nice little putt, didn't go in and there we have it, we're even with one to play. It's amazing. I didn't make many bogeys all week, and then to play my heart out and know there's somebody playing just as good that's tied me.

I was shocked. I was left over there, thank goodness I had to hit last, he was going at the stick and the wind had kind of switched right-to-left and into, and when I was watching his ball, it looked like it was just going to fly right next to the hole. And I guess it just upshot just a little and caught the rocks and came back in which was a huge break for me. I was able to play left and knew I could 3-putt to win the golf tournament. I played smart and played it out left and 3-putted. So it was a great victory.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions, please.

Q. Were you surprised at the aggressive line he took at the pin?

KENNY PERRY: No. You know, that's just the way he plays golf. He has no fear. He's fearless. He attacks the pin on just about every hole. He hits -- it was fun to watch him play. He it's hits a lot of fades, he hits a lot of draws, he hits all types of shots there. I just knew if I played my game plan, just kept hitting fairways and greens and a few birdies -- I was proud of myself. The first hole, I pulled an 8-iron left and long and made bogey, but then I was able to make four birdies all the way up to 17 until I made my bogey again. So I was pretty tickled with that 70.

Q. Was there a part of you walking to the 18 tee that said, "I can't believe this is happening?"

KENNY PERRY: You know, I never got nervous. I was never stressing it. I was actually enjoying it. You know, I don't know why I -- 44, you know what, I don't know if it's just genetics or what. I've been very fortunate. I've been very healthy and I'm very confident about my game and I'm very relaxed now. I don't really stress like I did back when I was in my 20s when I was playing out here, you know, and it shows. When he was making his charge at me, I just stayed steady, stayed to the course and was able to make him have to do something so that was kind of nice. You keep forcing guys to do something, sometimes every once in a while, they make a mistake.

Q. How long was that putt on 18?

KENNY PERRY: Probably 70 feet, guessing. I didn't walk it off. I mean I walked around it but was at least a 70- or 80-footer. That was awesome to putt it up there 12 inches from the hole.

Q. Are you still invited to the party tomorrow?

KENNY PERRY: That's the first thing he says. He says, "I'll see you tomorrow night."

Q. Had Vijay put it on the green, what type of shot did you have there?

KENNY PERRY: Well, I had to go flag I think. You've got to try to win the golf tournament. It would have been a totally different shot. I'd have had to go with more club and aim more at the stick, but when I saw him go in the water, I went left. I played short and left. I just didn't see any reason to put it in those back bunkers back there. I was just trying to get it on the green anywhere.

But if he had -- I would have taken a 6-iron and tried to go at the flag then. I would have hit a totally different shot then. I would have hit 6-iron at the flag. I would have gone at the stick. I think it was a great break on my part. Thank goodness I was able to hit it by him. That was huge in that situation.

Q. Can you speak to the difficulty of those closing holes and just trying to hang on, or in the other case, trying to make up shots? It can go either way.

KENNY PERRY: Well, 17 and 18 are great holes. They test every shot you've got. Today it was tough for me. The wind was working hard right-to-left, it was 223, and I'm a drawer as it is anyway; and any time I start at the flag it's just going to hook to the middle of the green, and that's exactly what it did and went a little long into the fringe and then I chipped it a little long and made bogey.

18, I actually pulled my drive a little bit. I was trying to go down the left side and I pulled it a little bit which actually gave it a little bit more yardage and was table to scoot on out there a little bit further. So that was actually a good break for me.

Q. Seemed like both of you guys were talking a lot during the round together; can you just talk about the vibe?

KENNY PERRY: Vijay is a good friend. I think a lot of Vijay. He's always been really good to me. He's always come up and talked to me. He's always asked me how my family is doing; in the locker room; he's always been good to me, and I think the world of him. I think he's a super guy. I enjoy playing with him. I mean, he always keeps you loose. He's very loose out there and he's very relaxed. He enjoys playing and competing. It made it easy for me. It was nice to have somebody to talk to to try to get the tension off, and that I enjoy.

Q. Did you guys talk much on 18?

KENNY PERRY: Well, we talked for a real long time on 16, talking about his party. There was two groups on the tee and we were there, for, what, 30 minutes before we hit our shots.

Yeah, he really congratulated me, told me "great job" and I thought that was pretty neat there on 18.

Q. You had a couple lipouts early in the day, did you feel like you had a couple chances to put some distance, more distance between you?

KENNY PERRY: Well, always. It's nice to get it out there as far as you can get it, because you never know what's going to happen. You never know if they are going to make a run or going to hit one bad shot somewhere that's going to kill you. I was very fortunate, I played very smart and very calculating I guess and I always play away from the water and made sure I had enough club to carry the water and just try to hit some solid golf shots.

Q. Why are you more comfortable now in the last few years than maybe early in your career? Maybe some guys as they get older might feel desperation to try to prove something?

KENNY PERRY: Well, I don't think I have anything to prove. I mean, I keep telling people, it's not about the money. To me it's about a little piece of history. And I had a big thing on my mind this week, winning at Muirfield, winning at Colonial, I really wanted to win here because I really wanted to make my trifecta there with those three great men.

Not because I won this week, but I've had this goal for ten years ever since I won those tournaments and at Colonial a couple years ago, and now to finally do it, I'm excited. I didn't play Honda, and I'm playing all the way through Hilton Head. And I told my wife and kids, I said, "I'm going to play as hard as I can right until Augusta." I said, "I really want to make something happen at Augusta." That course has beat me up, I've never played very well this for whatever reason, I feel like I hit it high enough and I drive it far enough, but as y'all know, my short game, my putting is always what's held me back. It proved this week it was a ball-striker's golf course. Somebody who could hit fairways and hit greens had a big advantage this week.

Q. But why more comfortable now than when you were in your 20s?

KENNY PERRY: I just don't have any pressure. I have kids, two in college, and one, she's a junior in high school, they are great, they are going great, their lives are good. We're just happy. I don't have to stress on my kids really tugging at me anymore. They are doing great and they are all rooting for me. They are all coming down to Jacksonville, so it will be a nice reunion there at TPC and I'm enjoying the game. I mean, I'm having fun out there now, where I used to -- I stressed out, I had mortgages and bills, and you know it was just stressful. And kids were young, they were telling me to come home: "We want you home; we don't want you gone."

You know, it's really been a nice ride. It makes me really appreciate those times, my times now, as opposed to where I was then and how much I've grown as a person and as a player. You know, I've just changed and I just enjoy it now. I think that's been the biggest difference of my play is because I'm having fun out there.

Q. This is along the same lines, but you've had your best years in your 40s, is that any surprise to you to be playing so well at this point?

KENNY PERRY: Yeah, personally, I mean, you could always look in the records that most guys, they kind of fade away in their 40s. You still have a few, you have your Jay Haas', Loren Roberts is doing good, Jeff Sluman. You have guys that are still performing very well, but not many. You kind of lose your desire I guess. Nine years of grinding out here trying to make cuts will wear on you. I don't know, I'm still strong, I'm still healthy, I still hit it a long ways, and I'm able to keep up with most people, so, you know what, I've been fortunate. I'm very blessed.

Q. Today you kind of stared down the guy who is now the No. 1 player in the world again, and I'm just wondering, if, you know, where that ranks as far as satisfaction and wins that you've had?

KENNY PERRY: Well, I don't look at it -- as great that I beat the No. 1 player in the world. You know, Vijay is a friend. I just like competing against the best.

I've always -- my dad instilled a lot of competitiveness in me, he was such a competitor. I just like winning. I don't know if it's playing cards, playing dice, whatever. To me it doesn't matter what we do; I beat my kids bad and laugh at 'em. (Laughter.) You know, they hate me. That's just the way I am. I don't know for whatever reason, just like winning, like competing and I like being the best, you know, and it shows out there. Even though things weren't going great, they were going okay today, but I was enjoying the challenge.

Q. Do you want to elaborate on those beatings of your kids?

KENNY PERRY: Well, my dad used do it to me. My dad, he would just kill ME, and I would get mad throw the cards the games, whatever, I would throw them across the room. He beat me in golf so bad and then he would laugh. He would get me to where I would be crying, I would be so mad at him. I think he had a reason behind all that, I don't know, maybe that made me mentally tough. Even though I'm a pretty quiet laid back kind of guy, I'm really hungry inside. I really want to win.

Q. Besides winning the tournament, you won yourself a very unique trophy with that Scottish claymore, where is that going to go? Beat your kids with it.

KENNY PERRY: Over at our house we have a nice trophy room there right now. It will fit beautiful in the trophy case with all my other ones.

Q. What would be some advice you would give to young players that are just starting now?

KENNY PERRY: Don't lose sight of your dreams, because you know what, I'm a guy who nobody thought would ever do anything in playing golf; that I should go to college and get a job. I said I'm going to make it on the PGA TOUR and I believed in my heart I was going to make it, I really did. When I do clinics or whatever and talk to the kids, I just tell them, don't lose sight of your dreams. If you want it bad enough and you work at it hard enough, good things are going to happen.

Q. You can't play 72 holes and be handed a victory, some people might look at this and say that Vijay did not play close out for two weeks in a row, what's your thought?

KENNY PERRY: Well, he's playing great. He missed a little short putt against Padraig there at Honda and then hit it in the water. I mean, he's going to be a little bit frustrated, which will probably make him hungrier and make him work harder and probably get him ready for TPC next week. So, you know what, he's had a great run, he's still playing great. He's No. 1 in the world I just heard y'all say. So, you know we're all chasing him and he's the man. We're going to chase him and I'm going to try to -- I'll never get up to No. 1 but I sure would like to.

Q. From your standpoint certainly no apologies for the way it finishes?

KENNY PERRY: No. It's just golf. You hit good shots, you hit bad shots. You know what, it's a game most of your life you're a loser. And very seldom do you win. He's won, what, 20-something times? That's amazing.

Q. How does this set you up for next week now? Is it a similar kind of, I guess, test?

KENNY PERRY: Very similar. You know, I finished third there last year, my son caddied for me. That was the first week he had been on the bag and that was neat for me to play hard for my son. He was 18 at the time. I really didn't have a chance to win. But we were hanging in there the whole time. You know, I was one or two back, I never could seem to make the birdies to catch Adam Scott but it was a fun week. That's the kind of golf course I've done real well at, so, you know, we went back-to-back Colonial, Memorial, it would be nice to go back-to-back here.

Q. What did you pay him last year, anyway?

KENNY PERRY: Ten percent. I wrote him two checks. He made $58,000. That's pretty good for an 18-year-old.

Q. He had to file a tax form,

KENNY PERRY: He did. He had to pay taxes.

Q. Looking ahead to next week and there's a lot made of the 16, 17 ask 18th hole there --

KENNY PERRY: They are very similar to these three.

Q. Which do you think is the sterner test? One of them has a lot of bells and whistles, and the other one is just, what is this one?

KENNY PERRY: I would say TPC is more optically challenging. That 17th hole is an 8-iron, it's an 8-iron, it's a 9-iron. But man, come tournament time, that thing looks like a thimble out there in the middle of that lake. It's not that hard a shot. It's not that hard a hole but man, it just -- every time I think about that hole all day when I'm playing that tournament.

Q. Is this one almost more dramatic conclusion?

KENNY PERRY: I think it's a harder test here, I really do. 18, I usually hit at TPC, like last year I was hitting 3-wood, 8-iron, 3-wood 9-iron and I could hit 3-wood out to the right. You've got to hit driver at 18 here. Still, I was hitting 7-iron in. So this 18 is a lot longer and 17 here is a whole lot longer and 16s are very similar. They are both par 5s that you can reach and get on in two; so with water, with trouble, and so you know they are very similar three holes.

Q. If you had a two-shot lead, which one would you feel more comfortable on?

KENNY PERRY: Here, yeah. I don't like that 17th. (Laughter.)

Q. You had mentioned yesterday that you had kind of a pedigree in the mini-tours around the Florida area?

KENNY PERRY: Five years down here, the Jaycee Goosy (ph) in Orlando.

Q. Old Space Coast Tour?

KENNY PERRY: That's it.

Q. How old were you?

KENNY PERRY: I was 21. From '82 to '85 I played down here. I got my card in '86.

Q. You said you think of 17 when you play TPC; is there any part of you going into the last round you envision the tournament coming down the 18th hole today?

KENNY PERRY: You know what, I didn't get ahead of myself today which I was very proud of. I stayed in the moment. I stayed in the present and I just tried to hit every shot, play each hole as it came to me. I didn't think about winning, I didn't think about losing. I just thought about hitting quality golf shots and I thought that was a good way to look at it today.

Q. Out there you said -- you spoke to your coach and you said he was on your heart and your mind today. Just expand on that a little bit.

KENNY PERRY: Norman Head, when I went to my freshman year at Western Kentucky University, he was the head pro at Bolner Country Club (ph), and he was the only man I had been to for 23 or 24 years now, he was my only coach. He's the only guy I've ever seen and then he acquired that terrible disease. He doesn't know anybody. I don't even know if he realized if he was even watching TV today if he even knew that was me out there, I don't know. He can't talk, can't communicate. So it's a pretty sad disease.

And I've struggled, I don't really have a coach. I've kind of done it a lot on my own. I've looked at a lot of old tapes and films. I've gone to a couple guys, I actually went to Leadbetter for a couple of times last year.

Q. Now that you've got the Palmer-Nicklaus-Hogan trifecta, what's next? What's your next one?

KENNY PERRY: I don't know. Hadn't thought about it to tell you the truth. The Masters would be nice, the green jacket. All of these tournament I get jackets, like this, Colonial -- (Laughter.) I'm a jacket guy.

Q. Are you going to play in the Nelson this year?

KENNY PERRY: Oh, yeah. You know, Byron always calls me he calls me every year. I hold the phone out and tell Sandy, "It's Byron Nelson." He always calls me and asks me if I'm going play in his tournament. That's the craziest thing, I love that guy.

Q. Speaking of legends, you've already got the Hope.

KENNY PERRY: Yeah, that's true. Man, if there's a name associated with it, look out, I'm coming. (Laughter.)

Q. Is there something with you and MasterCard? You've got something going there.

KENNY PERRY: Well, looks like it, doesn't it? (Laughs). No, not that I know of.

Q. You've kind of already addressed this but, I'm just tying to put myself in your shoes, you're watching Vijay's ball --

KENNY PERRY: I'm watching it going, man, that's close, that's close, that's in the water.

Q. Can you just talk about that? Were you utterly shocked?

KENNY PERRY: Well, yeah. When you're looking at it from my angle, you're thinking, man, that looks perfect. And then to just see it -- I was like stunned all of a sudden. I was like, man, I've got to hit it left here.

You know when you play safe sometimes you can really hit a poor shot. I've always found myself when I play it too safe, I really hit crazy golf shots. And I'm thinking, wow, I've got to get it over here left somewhere. If I hit it in the water they are going to think I'm a dummy. (Laughter). So I just aimed it right over there to the left and hit it as hard as I can hit it and hope it didn't go in that back bunker back there.

Q. I notice you were wearing a red, white and blue wristband; is there any significance to that?

KENNY PERRY: Well, this company -- you know what it's funny, it was pretty ironic. In '03 this group came to me and gave me some wristbands just like these in '03. I put them on and I played great and I took them off after '03 and didn't do good. So they came to me and put them in my locker this week and I put them on and I win. It's kind of weird.

Q. Are they coming off next week?

KENNY PERRY: No. (Laughter.)

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Kenny, and congratulations.

End of FastScripts.

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