BUICK OPEN

July 30, 2003

Kenny Perry

TODD BUDNICK: You've been on quite a roll the last few weeks. Why don't you start off talking about what's going on with your game.

KENNY PERRY: That's the million dollar question. I really don't know. I've been asked that question a lot now and my only response is: It's just my time. Been out here 17 years, and I've had some good runs, but nothing like this by no means. I'm not hitting any differently. I'm not putting any differently. It's just things are going my way, that's all I can say. It's just been my time.

TODD BUDNICK: Are you enjoying it? Obviously it's got to be a lot of fun, three victories, three other Top 10s. To be able to play at this level, you're already a great player, to be able to play at this level, it has to be a lot of fun.

KENNY PERRY: It just makes you wonder how long it's going to last. To be successful in six straight weeks I guess is unusual. I don't know if Tiger plays at that level. It's kind of nice to finally get to another level. It's been a struggle for me. I mean, I've played well out here and I've been a consistent player, but I have not been able to get in that winner's circle. All of a sudden, I played eight weeks in a row there and I missed the cut at the Byron Nelson. All I did was switch putters. I switched to my old Rosco (ph) that I won at Colonial.

Funny story. I went to Eric, our travel agent on Wednesday, I said I booked my flight out Friday night. I had already booked reservations to leave Friday at Colonial. To shoot 2 under the first day and shoot 4 under, made the cut; and then I shoot the career round of my life, I shoot 61 on Saturday, and it was the easiest round of golf I played in my life. I hit everything ten feet or less. Actually had a good shot of shooting 59. The rest is history.

I kind of took the role and putted beautifully for the remainder of these past five tournaments, and was able to win Memorial just strictly off momentum from Colonial. Then had a good Open. Then I took three weeks off and figured I would come back to Milwaukee, which is a place I love. I had three Top 5s there the three previous years, so was able to win there.

Headed over to the British, and I actually was 2 down with 18 to play, had a very good shot of winning this golf tournament. If I could have got off to a good start than I did the first seven holes, I could have won the British Open, but was unable to make the putts.

Then I came back to Hartford and had not had a lot of sleep, had not been sleeping well and had another good shot, two behind Peter with about 18 to play. He played good. He was not going to let anybody catch him. You had to shoot a good round of golf to be able to catch him. I finished fourth or whatever.

Mentally, physically, I'm in good shape. I've got a lot of confidence and we're just enjoying the ride.

Q. There are others that share your success off the course; you donate some of your earnings to a university back home?

KENNY PERRY: Yeah, it's a pretty neat story. Back in '86, I was out of money, pretty much getting out of golf and I went to Qualifying School one more time. I missed it in '84 and '85. I went to an elder at my church, the Franklin Church of Christ. I said, "Ronnie, I would I like to go to Qualifying School one more time." He had two kids in college inaudible my wife graduated and I had a lot of connections there. And he said, "I'll give you $5,000." He said, "If you don't make the Tour, you don't owe me nothing." And that impressed a lot on my heart, the money that he did not have to give at the time and was willing to give it to me and said you don't owe me nothing. He said: If you do make the Tour we'll give five percent of your earnings to the university. I just breathed right through Qualifying School, made the Tour no problem.

So I've made over 13 million now, so the trust fund is over 600,000 and it's already allowed 15 kids to being inaudible from Thurston County (ph) to go to a school which is about $20,000 a year, it's a private Christian school. To me, they get a good Christian education along with a great school. So that meant a lot to us. It's been a pretty neat story to tell.

Q. Talk about your on course thinking.

KENNY PERRY: Well, I think the further along I've gone in this stretch, the less I'm starting to think. The less it's in my head. I don't have anything else to prove. I mean, all of these guys are probably trying to win it for the first time. The pressure is on them and I've got everything else to gain and nothing to lose. I'm probably a little more aggressive than they are.

But the biggest thing about this stretch has been I've been able to make all the 6 and 8 footers for par that I've needed to make. I don't think I've missed one, maybe one and I don't remember missing it.

Great example, last week at Hartford, I just played average on Sunday but I kept making 6 and 8 footers. I bet I made four of them on the front nine for pars to keep my round and keep the momentum going. That has been the biggest key. I made the birdie putt at the right time. I made the par putt at the right time.

Colonial, I just hit it great. I have never hit it like that in my life. Every ball was perfect flag distance.

Memorial was just momentum and I didn't hit it nearly as good but I putted well.

Milwaukee is very similar. I just putted my ball striking has gotten weaker and weaker every week, but yet somehow I've still been able to manage the short game, the chips and get up and down when I needed to and just everybody knows there is a crucial time in your round that you need to do something to keep momentum on your side, and I've been able to achieve that.

Q. Has this run been more taxing on you physically or emotionally? Have you found yourself emotionally or mentally kind of getting drained because you're always in the hunt; you've been in contention every week?

KENNY PERRY: Very much so. I've been with the media now for six straight tournaments. Every day, every day, every day, I'm answering questions. You know, that's just like work: When you're taxing your mind a little bits, it will wear on you physically.

But I had a good night's sleep last night and I didn't sleep I had not slept at all hardly at Hartford, then at the British I was on London time still.

I feel pretty good. I actually feel better than I have in two weeks. Maybe I'm finally just letting it all go and just going to relax and enjoy it. But I have been tired, very much more mentally than physically.

Q. There comes a time in a round where you have to do something to keep it going, where at the British Open was that time Sunday that you did not get something done that you needed to get done?

KENNY PERRY: It was the fourth hole. The fourth and seventh hole were two huge holes at Royal St. George's. They were both par 5s. I hit a beautiful drive on 4 and I hit a 5 iron left side of the green and the pin was back right; I was back left. I putted up there about four feet left of the hole and I missed it. So I made par on a hole you've got to make birdie, because from 8 on, there's no birdie holes at St. George's. The seventh hole was a par 5. I hit it 405 yards off the tee and I had 120 yards to the flag on the seventh hole, the par 5, and I hit a pitching wedge in there 15 feet right of the hole and I 3 putted again.

So the thing that I've been doing so well at and managing my game let me down those two holes, and then I had to face the toughest stretch out there and, I just made pars, I made all par, I could not make up any ground. That was the biggest difference. I did not get any momentum going. That killed me.

Q. We were talking earlier about the struggles that David Duval was having, can you tell us the fine line between playing well and not playing well, and is it as fine a line as I think it is?

KENNY PERRY: I don't know if it's even a line. You know what, you can play great golf and come off this golf course with a 72. I've done it many a times. When I played mediocre golf I won a golf tournament playing very average, but for some reason I made the putts.

None of us know why you get in those slumps. You know, you are never as far away as you think you are. You are never as close as you think you are. It is just it's pretty interesting to watch guys.

David Duval, I don't know what's wrong with him. Here's a guy that's a world class player, and I have seen they compared his swing when he won the Hope and shot the 59 and they put his swing up then and they put his swing up now and they did a side to side view of it. Well, he's changed his swing dramatically. He's changed his grip, he's lengthened his left and right hand, changed his posture; his body build, he's lost a lot of weight, and he's just totally revamped his golf game.

Now, was that intentional, I don't know. Did he go with a teacher to try this, to try to get even better, I don't know.

You know, I've had the kind of swing you don't mess with. It's very different and very unusual, but it works for me and I will not allow anybody to change it. I play one way of golf and that's the way I'm going to play for the rest of my life. It may work; it may not, but at least I know somewhat what's going on out there. I know pretty much the shape of my golf ball. I've always been a right to left player so, I've always been able to block the whole right side of the golf course out.

Q. You talk about David and his swing changes, isn't it tempting with all of the technology and equipment, you go on the practice tee, there's guys out there, "try this," "try that"?

KENNY PERRY: Very much so. Especially for the rookies, are the guys that will change. I mean, they take these clubs they make the Tour with, they go on TOUR, and next thing you know, they are with a new company because they throw a little money at them and they change immediately.

I've played the same set of irons since 2000. I've got the same set of irons I won the Buick here with in 2001. The only thing I've done, I sent them to Maltbie in Columbos, Ohio and regrooved the face. I play the 360 irons from TaylorMade and they have a machine, they re cut out the grooves and make them back to where they were had they were brand new.

Technology has been wonderful for me. I've got a TaylorMade driver that's pretty hot, but I had it tested, it's well within tolerance, it's like .820 or whatever, and with the TaylorMade driver and the golf ball, the new X ball, that was a big reason I went to the British. I had not played the British because I had to alter so much of my golf became. Now I have a golf ball that launches higher, spins left and turns left.

And what you see now is why the older guys are doing as well as they are is it brought the field closer together. The equipment did. Now we are able to compete and hit it just as far as the younger kids. They cannot outhit us anymore, and now we have a golf ball that you pretty much aim at the flag most of the time, even with pretty heavy crosswinds.

Technology has played a big role in what you see now; you see the older guys doing what they are doing. What I've seen, it has been my driver and the ball, it's been a huge difference of why I've been playing better and why I think the older guys are playing better.

Q. Is its possible that your wins notwithstanding, that the British Open might have been your most impressive showing so far this year? You play a course that you are completely unfamiliar with, an event that you've almost never played, and under conditions that are very dissimilar to the ones you've been winning in over here; how did you manage to make that change? A lot of guys talk about hitting the ball under the wind and getting used to bouncing it 40 or 50 yards into the greens; that must be a pleasant surprise to you to be able to go over there and adapt so quickly?

KENNY PERRY: Very much so. I just had a lot of confidence at the time, for one thing. It was a lot easier adjustment than I thought. The golf course, we were very fortunate on Tuesday. I had a northwest wind, or it was a north wind on Tuesday. So I had two views of the golf course and starting on Thursday the wind blew from the southwest I'm thinking, most of the week, so the wind stayed in one condition all week. So basically I had the same clubs off the tee. That was a huge help for me. I didn't have to really think a lot about club selection.

But it was pretty awkward to hit a 9 iron from 200 and hit a 5 iron from 100. There was only a couple holes that played dead into the wind that you had to really kind of hit a chip shot, but I didn't try to knock the ball down and I just tried to hit the golf ball the same as normally hit it.

But with the technology changes and the golf ball flying a lot better, I didn't have to make a lot of adjustments and that was huge for me. It was just a crash course. I had two days to figure out how to play it, play links golf, and I almost pulled it off.

But they always say St. George's is a golf course that it produces first time winners, but it always has a good leaderboard and it was a good leaderboard. Everybody had a shot at winning that tournament.

But, you know, I took a good buddy of mine. My normal caddie did not caddie for me. I took a real good friend of mine and we went just will had a good time, see the sights, see London, experience a little of it because I didn't know if I was going to play poorly, I was going to have a good time. Because the last time I was over there, it was 40 mile an hour I played Birkdale and it was just very difficult.

When I came back over here, I played Hartford the next week and I remember I could not get the ball over my knee. I worked so hard getting ahead of it, hitting it so low, that it took me probably two weeks to get over there. So that's another reason why I didn't change much, so I was able to jump back into Hartford and play pretty good.

Q. Throughout your career, it appears there's always been something that's kept you going every time, do you ever think about that? It just seems like the old saying, darkest before the dawn; you seem to be a classic example of that.

KENNY PERRY: I've always played better when my back has been against the wall. I've had a lot of people come on that. Whether it was when my kid were young, we needed financial money, I was able to succeed. When I borrowed $2 million from the bank, had huge loans building my golf course. I was able to succeed and pay it off and play well. I've always been able to meet the challenge.

As we spoke yesterday, that's what I thrive on. I thrive on the challenges. That's something that keeps me going, that motivates me a little bit. I work harder at it. I don't want to run at it; I attack it, and that's just been part of my life. That's just been what my dad taught me. He raised me and I don't believe in failure. I only believe in succeeding.

Q. Speaking of that golf course, has it become somewhat of a tourist attraction of late?

KENNY PERRY: Very much so.

Q. Like a "Field of Dreams," people travel across the state, can you talk a little bit about that?

KENNY PERRY: Well, the State put a sign out there on the Interstate. You'll see my sign, it says: "Kenny Perry's Golf Course," along with Wendy's or McDonald's. It's right there with them. It's a State attraction now. I've had people coming up to me all the time all over the United States when I'm playing in tour events saying: "I went and played your golf course. I was going through your area, I made sure I went out of the way just to play your golf course." There's been a direct correlation between my success and the number of rounds I play.

The better I play, the more people want to come out there and hang out and play my golf course.

That was a neat story. My brother and I did the whole project. We did the whole project and built the golf course and the town supported it. It's been pretty neat. I paid it off now, so it's something I pretty much did for the town. Because I was raised on a private golf course, we did not have a public facility there, never had to drive 30 miles from Nashville or wherever just to play golf. Now they have got something to do.

Q. Going back to when you said you played when your back was against the ball, is that something that now you feel is the challenge that's keeping you going?

KENNY PERRY: That's a good question. I'm going to have to find a little something else to get me focused. I don't have anything else to prove right now. I've played great for six straight weeks. So that's a challenge in itself to be able to play great for seven. That is something I'm going to have to try to get reset out in my mind and go out there this week and be competitive and not lay down and give up, go through the motions and put my two rounds in, four rounds in and go home.

I don't know how Tiger does it, to tell you the truth, to be so competitive week in and week out. But he plays less. I've played a lot of golf in a close period of time, and I may need to kind of rethink what I'm doing, get home a little bit more, get recharged and get back out here ready to go. Great question. I don't know. There's a lot of things, there's a lot of people I can help and a lot of people wanting something done; so I can use that as a motivational factor, I don't know. It's just a factor of me it's just a great challenge. I'm going to have to figure out a way to see if I can challenge myself enough to be competitive again this week.

Q. You brought up the thought of technology and how it's helped you. Tiger is struggling a little bit with technology. As we understand, he's gone back to a fourth generation driver. Could you talk a little bit about that, what you have to do to find the right technology for you?

KENNY PERRY: Well, I'm fortunate. I've been with TaylorMade for 13 years and we've got our own staff out there in our own trailer, our own truck and I can go get 20 drivers, all same swing weight, all with different shafts in them and I can take them up to the range, and I have the luxury that I can hit balls with each different club. I can sit there and look and we can look on the launch monitor, that tells me ball speed, trajectory, launch angle, tells me a lot of good information. I can sit there and hit all of these different drivers and we can look at all of the information and see if one driver is going to launch higher and spin the ball less. If you get one that launches higher and spins it is less, it's going to go further and that's how I came up with this driver I have now.

The public can't do that. They go to the pro shop and they buy a driver, they just buy it because it looks good. They go to the range, if the shaft is wrong, doesn't matter how good of a golfer they are, they are not going to hit it very well.

We have a little test center in Carlsbad. You can go out there and put your stuff on and watch them hit it. We can sit there on the range and hit all different types of stuff. It's quite nice to have that kind of resources at your hand.

Q. You talked about you don't know how Tiger does it, if you were Tiger, with the great year you're having, people will be saying you're in a slump. Has he been his own worst enemy of setting the bar too high, and what's your reaction when you hear people talk about that he's slumping?

KENNY PERRY: I think they are crazy. He's won four times this year. He just has not won a major. I guess if the media is basing it on majors, he's in a slump. As players, we look at him, he's, what, first on the Money List? He's No. 1 on the Money List, won four times. He doesn't have anything else to prove. We all know his talent, we all know what he can do. He's definitely head and shoulders in my opinion above most guys out here, so he's raised the bar and he's actually made me play better. I've watched what he's done and it's inspired me and I've raised the level of my game.

So I'd like to catch him on that Money List. That's one goal I just thought of that. I talked about that the other day; I would like to try to catch him on the Money List. I'm about 800,000 behind him. We've got a lot of tournaments left, with the majors, PGA, the NEC, the world tournament in Atlanta. There's a lot of good tournaments out there that if I can sneak in one or two wins, I've got a good shot at it. But he is by far not in a slump by no means.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you very much for spending some time with us.

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