THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

November 6, 2003

Kenny Perry

TODD BUDNICK: Kenny Perry, 4-under 67 today. The only bogey-free round of Thursday. It doesn't look too easy out there.

KENNY PERRY: Very difficult. I love this golf course. It requires a lot of accuracy off the tee. And then you got to be pretty precise with your iron shots in these big greens. You can actually have three or four clubs a day. One day a wedge, one day a 7-iron. I was fortunate, I drove the ball great. I hit a lot of fairways. I hit my irons great on the back nine. They were all going at the flag and I was able to hit my number. So that told me my rhythm was good, I was in sync, confident. If I could have just rolled a few putts in, from 14 in.

TODD BUDNICK: Like everybody else, it looked like you made your move on the back nine. Is that where you have to make your move on this golf course?

KENNY PERRY: Well, it's very difficult. Every hole is so tough if you don't drive it in the fairway, and I hit a lot of 3-woods off the tee today and was able to hit fairways and I was able to attack pins. The greens were very receptive. They're beautiful. I think the TOUR set this course up perfectly. You're rewarded for your good shots. And it's very tough if you hit it in the rough. So it's a very tough test.

Q. You mentioned that you drove the ball beautifully. I remember during a four-week stretch in the summer that was the key to how you played so well. Talk about how you're playing in regards to that time period.

LKENNY PERRY: Well, I'm not playing quite as good as then. My swing doesn't feel all quite in sync. But it's pretty good. My rhythm was good, tempo was good, my timing was pretty good. I was reminiscing, I kind of had those feelings coming in because all my irons kept flying right at the flag. So hopefully that's kind of the way it happened at the Colonial. Thursday and Friday were so-so and then all of a sudden it fell right in the slot, and Saturday and Sunday were unbelievable. It's a good way to start a tournament. There's a lot of golf left out there. And I'm going to work on the range here a little bit and hopefully I'll be ready to fire it up again tomorrow.

Q. You mentioned you really like this course. Any thoughts about taking this course out of the rotation for the foreseeable future for this event?

KENNY PERRY: That would be a shame if they did that. I love this place. I think it's a perfect venue for this tournament. It's very fair. That's what I like. We played that world event in Atlanta a few weeks ago, I thought that was very unfair. Because your good shots, you weren't rewarded for your good shots. I don't mind growing the fairways, growing the rough up, narrowing the fairways, fine, do that. But at least let the greens be very receptive to our shots. That's the way these are. They putt very true, very smooth.

Two years ago I had the lead going into Sunday. I had a good chance of winning here two years ago. So I got a lot of good feelings about this place. I got a lot of confidence.

Q. If that had been the case, having won now this year, do you think two years ago you would have known enough or been mature and experienced enough to close that out? If you're in the same position this year, do you feel better about that?

KENNY PERRY: I don't know about that. But I just had more things go my way this year. I've had a lot of momentum. It just seems like it's carried over week in and week out. And that's stuff I can draw on come Sunday if I'm in the hunt. Hopefully that ball will keep flying at the flag and I keep making putts and I'm able to put pressure on those guys. Instead of trying to play catchup. It was kind of nice to have an 8-stroke lead on Sunday. That was kind of sweet.

Q. Do you think a big week here could kind of allow you to resurface more in the Player of the Year talk?

KENNY PERRY: I just said a minute ago, why can't there be co-players of the year. Why does it have to be one guy. It's been a great year for about five players. So Tiger going to win the Vardon Trophy, he's won five times. If I win here, I've only won four. Vijay is going to win the money title probably, and Mike Weir's won the Masters and Davis has won four times. So it's just an honor for me to be associated with those guys, my name even brought up with those fellows. So I said I'm probably the more feel good story of the year for the over 40 clan and playing so well.

But it's pretty neat if it's -- it's voted on by the players. I'm pretty good friends with all the players. And if they vote for me, I know why. So I try not to make any enemies out there. I try to be everybody's buddy. And I just kind of stroll along out there and try to help everybody as much as possible. So I don't know. It's up to them to vote. It's just a phenomenal year for Kenny Perry. I've done so much than I ever dreamed I thought I would ever do in one year. Why after 17 years, why this year's been so magical? I don't know. So maybe it's just I've been overdue.

Q. Could you talk about the time you spent coaching the high school golf team this year, how that came about?

KENNY PERRY: Yeah, I have done that for five years now. I take all of September and most of October off. My son is a senior this year. He was an 8th grader at the time. I coached the high school team for the past five years.

Q. Which high school?

KENNY PERRY: Franklin Simpson High School. And my daughter's a sophomore on the girls team so I coached the girls team too. I've got a lot of video equipment, very high tech, V1 produces all this stuff. And I can put them on video. I can critique their swings and really get technical with our golf swings. And I teach them a lot about golf. It's paid off. We finished 5th this year at state. Actually I thought we finished first, because we can't beat the private schools. Our school system, public and private, are all together. So it's unfair to play against -- we have to say the Catholic schools, they're all private schools who all their kids are on scholarship, they're not even from the state of Kentucky. For us, for public schools, being the smallest county in the state, Kentucky, I thought it was quite an honor for us to even finish fifth in that deal.

Q. Going back to the Player of the Year, have you thought about kind of campaign? Have you put some fliers out?

KENNY PERRY: No. No.

Q. Anything on the lockers?

KENNY PERRY: Oh, that is funny. But, no, I don't want to do that.

Q. How do you think that would go over if some guy tried that some year? Have all these fliers in the locker room?

KENNY PERRY: I would wad it up and throw it away. I don't know.

Q. What's the routine back at your golf course in Kentucky when you're playing in a tournament?

KENNY PERRY: Well, definitely there's a direct correlation between number of rounds played when I'm playing good in a tournament than when I'm not. They definitely come out, they love to hang out at the golf course. They love to watch it on TV. I got a big old TV right there inside the pro shop. So it's pretty neat. We have talked about that many a time and how the rounds definitely go up when I'm playing well.

Q. How important is this event versus the other events you won this year?

KENNY PERRY: Well, I don't think it's any more important, in my opinion. I think those three wins were huge. Colonial, Memorial speak for themselves. They're great tournaments. Great fields. Just like this week. Milwaukee, I always play good at Milwaukee. That was kind of neat to put three in a row in one year. That was a special feeling for me to come from behind. I had a five stroke lead going on the back nine and then the next thing I know I was two behind. So that tournament has special meaning in my heart. This would just be phenomenal. It would be four wins for me this year. This same field I would have to assume was at Colonial and Memorial pretty much, pretty close. And so great fields, I know I can do it, it's just a matter of me zeroing in, staying focused and going out there and making it happen.

Q. That period of time when you were coaching, A, did you have a chance to reflect at all on this year and B, at the same time are you thinking about the fact that next year how do you follow it up?

KENNY PERRY: I definitely didn't reflect. I was, it was a get away period for me. I needed to refresh my mind. I needed to get away, recoup and reenergize. And it was a great time for me just to get away from golf. I was burned out. I played 8 straight weeks in a row or whatever. That whole thing, winning tournaments and top-10ing every week and everybody was talking about it, I had interviews. And it was a time for me to get away. And it was perfect timing for me, in my opinion. And it was awesome. I was able just to relax and enjoy the kids. And get into that. Getting ready for next year, this is going to be a crazy off season for me because I'm playing Shark Shoot-out and then I go two weeks in South Africa, Presidents Cup and play the Million Dollar Challenge. And then I come and play Tiger's tournament in California. And then I'm home for a week and a half. And then I'm out to Maui. I'm taking the whole family. Taking all my brothers, my sisters, everybody. I told everybody if I won one tournament I was going to take everybody to Maui. So there's going to be about 20 of us going over there. We're going early, we're going to enjoy that time, and it's just been special. A lot of opportunities, a lot of things have been able to come from all of this for me. And I've been able to help a lot of people.

Q. So you need to win this week just to pay for that trip.

KENNY PERRY: You got that right. That's going to be expensive. That's going to take basically the whole check that I'll win at Mercedes.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go ahead through those birdies, Kenny. Starting with one on nine.

KENNY PERRY: Nine, I hit a 3-wood and 3-iron. 20 feet. Two putt birdie.

11, I hit a driver and a 6-iron. And made a great putt there. Made about a 25 footer. Breaking about a foot and a half.

12, I hit the best 3-iron of the day there. I hit a 3-iron straight. I had 226 to the hole, tucked right. That's usually a hard pin for me because I'm a hooker. And I laced it right at the flag, it drew just a little bit and came up 15 feet left of the hole and I was able to role that in.

Then 18, I hit 3-wood, 7-iron. About a foot and a half. So a good way to end the day.

TODD BUDNICK: Okay. Thank you, Kenny.

KENNY PERRY: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.