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BANK OF AMERICA COLONIAL

May 19, 2004

Kenny Perry

FORT WORTH, TEXAS

KENNY PERRY: The course is playing very similar to last year. It's firm, it's fast. Great shape, as usual. To me, the greens seem a little faster than last year. I think it's very similar. The rough is down again, there's not a lot of rough. I think the guys are going to play well this year.

Q. About when your season got going last year?

KENNY PERRY: You know, I missed the cut at the Byron Nelson, so I was coming in here pretty low. It was a funny story, Eric, of PGA Tour Travel, booked a flight out of here Friday night this week. So I was kinda the joke of the locker room by everybody. 'Hey, K.P. booked his flight out of here, and he's leading the golf tournament!' So, it's a funny game. I don't know why it all of a sudden broke loose for me. These are two places I've always had a little history at, and I feel like I can play and be competitive at. I've always kinda geared my schedule for Colonial and Memorial. I feel like they're the two elite tournaments on the Tour. So, I finished second here to Nick (Price) the year before and I came in here with no expectations and I think that was the reason I played relaxed and was able to go out there and play some good golf. You know, Annika was here and she took all the pressure off me on Thursday and Friday. She had everybody following her, and I was an opposite tee time of her. I would kinda go play my round, and then go back to the hotel and watch her play. I was really anxious to see how she would perform. And then, the magical round on Saturday. It was probably the greatest round I've ever had in my life. To shoot 61, and have a very realistic chance to shoot 59. You know, I didn't miss a green and I don't think I hit it outside of 15 feet in 18 holes. It was a fun round of golf. To shoot 61, and have an eight-stroke lead coming in to Sunday, you know, it was nice, but I felt very uneasy Saturday night because I knew if I blew that lead, I was gonna be a choker, I was gonna be this. I would feel the wrath of the media. So I didn't get much sleep Saturday night. I was pondering that and wondering about that. But I knew the first hole on Sunday was gonna be huge for me. And I hit a great drive, and I hit a four-iron about 20 feet from the hole . And I two-putted for birdie, and I knew from then on that I would be OK for the rest of the day. So I felt very confident in what I was doing. And then I kinda made a pact with myself, every time I've won in my career, the next week I've played very poorly, celebrating too much. I don't know what it was, but I made a deal with myself that I wanted to be competitive at the Memorial. I never thought I was gonna win, but I wanted to get back in that mold, and get that energy I had and try to get out there and see what I could do. The next thing I know, I shoot 32 on the front nine on Sunday at the Memorial, and I've got a five-stroke lead with nine to play again. So it was a pretty incredible two weeks for me, knowing that you're playing against the best in the world and you've got an eight-stroke lead and a five-stroke lead. It's something that you don't year of much. You know Tiger had those stretches where he was winning by 15 or 12 strokes, but you know, usually it's a playoff or you win by one or two out here. It was just a magical two weeks.

Q. What about expectations and your mindset this year?

KENNY PERRY: The pressure's really not on me, because I don't expect to duplicate what I did last year. It was magical. So, I'm not really gonna put the pressure on myself to go out there and prove anything. I did what I did, and I'm enjoying this week. The guys here at Colonial are great. I'm looking forward to the Champions dinner tonight, and I spoke at Byron Nelson's church yesterday morning at the Men's Breakfast. That was exciting. There's more to life than just the golf and the feeling of what's going on. You know, I've played 18 years out here, and I'm not gonna beat myself up if I don't play well this week, because I'll always know I get to come back here for the rest of my life. My name is not ever coming off that wall, and I think that's pretty neat.

Q. Superstitious? Got a plane ticket booked out for Friday this year?

KENNY PERRY: I probably should go do that (laughter).

Q. Record numbers last year. Is the place becoming outdated?

KENNY PERRY: I think what people didn't realize last year is that we played four days with no wind. It was 80-something degrees, there was no wind, and they were having to water the greens to keep them alive from the heat and humidity. And the condition were just perfect for scoring. We're in Texas, and when you think of being in Texas you think of winds 15, 20, 25-mph winds blowing all the time. And I think the course was a little bit defenseless last year because of the weather. And the rough was down. And the rough is down this year. Last week at the Byron Nelson, the rough was brutal. If you hit it in the rough, you were struggling to make par. But it's a great old golf course. It's not lost to the test of time. It's as good as it is. You can compare this golf course to any of the new, modern golf courses of today. It doesn't hold a back seat to anything. And there's so much tradition and history here. When you hear Tiger Woods say he doesn't come here because the golf course is not modern enough, I just kinda wonder. I don't quite understand what he says, or what he means by that. He says it takes the driver out of his hands. Well, I hit driver everywhere out here. There's only, I think, one hole on the front nine that I don't hit a driver, and there's probably two on the back nine, I hit a two-iron off the tee. But other than that, I'm hitting driver everywhere. I'm just launching it, I'm trying to hit it as far as I can hit it.

KENNY PERRY: I'm not the longest, but I'm not the shortest. But I'm always in that category, Total Driving, that's distance and accuracy combined, and I'm always in the Top 10 in that category year after year. And that's where I think I have an advantage here, because there are a lot of tight holes here, you've got to hit the fairways. It's tree-lined, very difficult. But I've always been able to hit my driver and keep it in play. And that's where I think I get the advantage here.

Q. How do you feel about your game coming into this week?

KENNY PERRY: My game is good! The thing that always holds me back is my putting, and I missed the cut at the Byron last year. And all I did this week was change putters. I went back to an old putter I had, and I putted beautiful and was able to go on and shoot some low scores. My whole career has been based on how my putter is. My ball striking is really good, I hit it good in the practice round yesterday. So it's just a matter of me being able to put that ball in the hole. We're just have to see. I never know. Each week, to me, it's a flip of the coin. I'll know pretty soon whether I've got it or I don't.

Q. Any correspondence with Annika Sorenstam after last year's Colonial?

KENNY PERRY: I never have. Never have spoke to her.

Q. Did it feel good after that to win one on your own after Colonial?

KENNY PERRY: I didn't really think of it that way. It's just, winning, period, on the Tour. It's just incredible. Such a feeling, gives you such confidence. It's just hard to do. Golf is a game of handling defeat. It's just a game that you lose all the time, and don't hardly ever win. Finally, when your names up on top come Sunday afternoon, it's very gratifying. All the work you put into it has finally come through.

End of FastScripts.

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