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SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN OPEN

November 4, 2016

Pat Perez

Las Vegas, Nevada

Q. Guess who got his swagger back, 10-under par through two days; your thoughts?
PAT PEREZ: Yeah, it was a lot of good. There was some rust a little bit. I had it going. I hit it good. Made some good putts, missed some easy ones, but it's hard to do around this course. But just excited to get back. It's really nice. I played good on the weekend in Malaysia, and I carried it over here. I got nervous over here because it's a little different. You know you've got to shoot low, and I've played at home a lot, but it's just awesome to be back and see some putts go in and hit some shots where I think they should go and hit it long. I'm really excited by it.

Q. That begs the question, how is the shoulder doing, because when I last saw you midway through last season, you were really struggling.
PAT PEREZ: Yeah, it was terrible. I should have never started. It was really bad here, and I just kept going. I pretty much cost myself some tournaments. I feel great. I've put some new equipment in that's helped me hit it straighter and longer, and I feel great. Shoulder is 100 percent, and just really looking forward to having a good year. It was a nice break. My whole body just got rest, and I needed that after 18 years of doing this. It was a nice forced break, and I got to sit down and kind of go over a lot of things I want to do in the next 15 years and that kind of stuff, and it was a nice midway point for me to kind of really figure out what I want to do.

Q. Vegas is a happy hunting ground for you; thoughts on the weekend?
PAT PEREZ: You know, it's going to be a lot of everything else. Just normal. A lot of birdies. You've got to stay out of the rough here. The greens are going to be firm. You've got to really be in position to score here. But if you make some putts -- it'll be low. It'll be 20-, 22-under, so I've got to keep my foot on the gas.

Q. It's been a while since you've been in this position through two rounds at 10-under par. How have you been able to put it together?
PAT PEREZ: You know, I did a lot of work when I got cleared to play. I had about two and a half months to really focus on what I needed to. I went over all my weak areas in my game over the last few years, and I made a switch to some new clubs, and I got a lot longer once I was healthy. I'm actually hitting it solid, so much farther than I used to, and I'm in places that I have never been on this course. I hit 7-iron into 16 today and made eagle. I've never had anything less than hybrid in there. You know, length is everything on this course. Everything I saw this year, these guys are just hitting it a mile, and if you can hit it far, you're going to give yourself more birdie chances.

I'm finally healthy. My body feels great. I've had enough time to relax and kind of let it just all decompress and just -- I feel good. I feel good. I feel really refreshed. I feel like I'm hitting it great. I put a lot of work into getting myself to get back to where I think I should be.

Q. After having that shoulder injury, how hard was it to see the light at the end of the tunnel during the rehab process?
PAT PEREZ: It is hard, but I still looked at it as a break. Once you know that you're not going to play the FedEx, I knew that it was at least going to be until now, and if I wasn't ready to go now, I would wait until Hawai'i. I didn't really have this thought of where the light would come, but I just -- first I had to hit a shot first. The first shot I hit was like 40 yards with my L-wedge, and I didn't know what was going to happen because once you make contact with that ground, it's all up in the air. I hit one, I go, that feels pretty good, and then after about a few weeks I was able to hit like a half driver, so I was hitting it about 210. Then I started to work with some other clubs, and I started to get healthier and stronger, and I started working out more. After about another month and a half, I was about -- pretty close to full steam. I thought, God, if I can get that spot in Malaysia, I think I'm going to go, because that would be a perfect start. It's four days, and it counts in my four days on my medical and stuff. I can decide then if I want to continue. And I played pretty good. The first day I was rusty, really rusty. I was kind of nervous. I hit some bad shots, but I shot 67 the next day, and I got here and told Drew, I'm a little nervous. He goes, what are you nervous for? I go, well, it's different. Every day coming back from it -- I've never had such a long break. But once I got going, I was really confident in my game. We've done a lot of work, like I said, and I've got a lot of confidence in what I'm doing right now, so I feel great.

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