	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BUICK OPEN

June 29, 2007

Kenny Perry

GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

KENNY PERRY: The first hole, No. 10, I hit it about 30 feet past the hole downhill left to right to six feet and poured it right in there. That set the tone for the day. And the next thing you know I'm making them all over the place.
Great day for me. I drove it beautifully, had a lot of opportunities and took advantage of them. It was a fun round. It reminded me a lot of Memorial 63.

Q. When we spoke yesterday you didn't sound like a man who was ready to shoot the kind of number you shot. Was it just all in the putting?
KENNY PERRY: Definitely. I hit it great yesterday, I just didn't get nothing out of it. It's been an interesting week. My wife, Sandy, we were in the hospital with her, she had food poisoning. She was in the hospital from 7:00 to 2:00 on Wednesday.
I broke a lady's nose yesterday with a 3-wood, going into 16. It hit her flush. She didn't even see it and it just shattered her nose. Then I hit another guy on the 13th hole off the tee, hit him in the shoulder. And then today, to make all those putts, I don't know what to make of it. It's been a pretty interesting week so far.

Q. What were your expectations going out today, and did you ever fathom you would be in the lead after starting at 1 under?
KENNY PERRY: No, I had no expectations. That's probably why I played so well. I wasn't nervous. I just wanted to try this new putter, basically. I wanted to go out there and see if this thing might work. I'd like to put a TaylorMade putter in the bag, and it was magical today. I hit my lines I was looking at and just made everything. It was a TaylorMade putter.

Q. With you and Jim Furyk and Scott Verplank and Rocco, there are a lot of guys at the top of the leaderboard who have had a lot of success here over the years. Jim Furyk was just talking about you and he don't play the same style, but you both play well here. What do you think it is that the same people seem to have a lot of success here every year?
KENNY PERRY: This golf course, you need to drive the ball really well here. That's always been the strength of my game and the strength of Jim's game, he's a very controlled player. The fairways are generous out there, but you need to find the fairway. The rough is a situation, you can't really stop it near the hole if you hit it in the rough. That's where I've been able to, you know, leap ahead of some of these guys. I hit a lot of fairways. I have a lot of opportunities to get short irons on the golf ball and put some spin on it to where I can control it around the green.
Jim and I do play similar. I've always been very good total driving every year, that's distance and accuracy combined every year I'm in the top 10 with that stat usually every year. That's the strength of my game. So this golf course comes to the strength of my game.

Q. Talk about the eagle, and did you know at that point it would give you the lead?
KENNY PERRY: Actually, when I looked at the leaderboard, Quigley was 11 under, and I was only on -- I started on the back nine, I was on 13 when I saw that. I never saw a leaderboard. I never paid much attention to it there.
I hit the prettiest 3-wood. I had 259 to the front, 277 to the hole, landed it right on the front of the green, it rolled right up to 15 feet left of the hole dead pin-high. I couldn't have asked for a better place to have a little downhill left-to-right putt to make eagle and was able to get it in. That was another added bonus.

Q. With the tremendous start making all those birdies, making the turn at 31 and then the eagle, do you start thinking about 59? You only had a couple holes left.
KENNY PERRY: No, 59 never entered my mind. When I got to 10-under, I only had a couple of holes left so I knew I couldn't -- I would have to do something spectacular, make a hole-in-one on No. 8 or hole a shot on No. 9, which 8 and 9 are two very difficult holes on this golf course. 9 is probably the tightest driving hole on the golf course. So no, 59 was never -- I just wanted to shoot somewhere in the low 60s. That's what I was after when I got to that many under.

Q. Was there ever a point out there when you said, hey, this could be a pretty special day?
KENNY PERRY: I was proud of myself, I didn't get ahead of myself. I played each hole as it stood before me. I forgot what I was doing behind me. And then when I got done, Steve Sands, I asked him, I said, "Who is winning the golf tournament?" I didn't even know who was winning the golf tournament. So that was good.
I know you all hate that cliche, one shot at a time, but I was playing each hole as it came before me and was focused in on hitting that good tee shot and giving myself a birdie run. I was having fun. I just told myself, get it on the green, anywhere on these greens, I've got radar on this putter today. I had a good shot of making a birdie. And sure enough, if I made it on the green, it was either going in or it was going to lip out, that was kind of exciting.

Q. You have a reputation of being one of the streakiest, hottest players out here. When you get it rolling, nobody rolls it any better or gets any hotter. How do you explain that? What is it about you or your game that allows you to go on those tears?
KENNY PERRY: I'm not afraid to go low. A lot of guys, they get 3 or 4-under and they want to hang on to 3 or 4-under. I'm not satisfied with that. I want to go 5-under then I want to go 6, and then I want to get to 10. I'm ultimately trying to shoot 59. I would love to do that one time out here on Tour. I've done it at a pro event. It was a par 70, but it was mini tour days when I shot a 59, so it was 11-under.
But I have had some really great streaks out here where I've one three out of four weeks in a row in '03. I led three weeks in a row back in like '95 or '96, and won one of those. I just get on these streaks and it's just fun for me. I'm able to get into a rhythm on my golf swing and I'm able to repeat it and I'm able to hit the same shot every time and I can rely on it. All that matters is if I make putts. It just seems like when I get really hot, I'm making putts. And that's the difference when I'm just playing average golf or playing great golf.

Q. Talking about the people you were hitting left and right yesterday, what do you do for them? Do you give them a glove or a ball?
KENNY PERRY: They sent me her name and address in my locker this morning, so when I get home next week, I'll send her flowers. We'll send her something, an autographed picture. I'll definitely make sure I send something to her. And the gentleman I hit in the shoulder, he said it didn't hurt, no big deal. They weren't that far off the fairway. They were standing just on the left edge of the rough. They were kind of crowding us there. That was a bad deal.
Eric actually almost threw up. She had so much blood all over. I've never seen anything like that in my 21 years. It really shook me up, because I only had 70 yards to the hole, with a sand wedge, and I yanked it dead left into the bunker on 16. I was able to get it up and down and par the last two holes, but I couldn't get her out of my head. That was really a good deal for me.

Q. I don't know if you're superstitious, with your wife's condition with the food poisoning and hitting people, does that make you think, this is just is not my week?
KENNY PERRY: At first I told Sandy, let's just go home, it ain't worth it, with her feeling the way she was feeling, and with the way yesterday went, I felt like the guy -- everybody was staying away from me. They said, we're going to get away from you. And then to have this happen, you never know. It may be my week. It may be destiny.

Q. One of the highlights of yesterday outside of that was the eagle at 4, holing out.
KENNY PERRY: Hit a beautiful drive, had 93 yards and hit a normal 60-degree sand wedge. It took two hops and went right in the hole. Pretty cool.
DOUG MILNE: Kenny, thanks for joining us, and best of luck on the weekend.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297