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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 9, 2008

Kenny Perry

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

Q. Sergio just knocked it on the cart path, and he's going to play from there.
KENNY PERRY: 17, I hit the prettiest shot I hit all day. It could have been either a hole-in-one or a birdie or an 8, and it hit just on stop, took a couple bounces and they said it lipped-out and it was just rolling and rolling. You just don't know on the tee if it's going to go, whoop, disappear or stop, and it stayed about eight feet past the hole. I was only about four foot from going over there.
LAURA NEAL: So two pars in two days, pretty happy with that on 17.
KENNY PERRY: I'll take two pars and stroll. That hole, just you never know, with all that wind, you never know what's going to happen on that hole today. It really takes a committed golf shot today. You have to stick to your guns and play a shot there today. There's no free-wheeling taking a pitching wedge and hitting it hard. You have to flight a 9-iron into that crosswind into the wind and you know try to make it skip up and back there.

Q. From the right?
KENNY PERRY: It's from the left. Left and in there today.

Q. The tee is toward the left today; right?
KENNY PERRY: A little bit, not much.

Q. Can you just hold, your ball flight is a draw anyway?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, my shot worked pretty good on it today.

Q. You're one of three or four guys in their late 40s playing well. How much is experience a key out here?
KENNY PERRY: I think it's a lot. I was talking to my wife, and I think this is probably my 18th -- I've been out here 22 years. It's got to be either 18 to 20 events I've played here tournament-wise, not counting all the practice rounds.
With the redo and all, they have not changed the layout but they have changed the surfaces, the Champion bermuda really changed the complexion of the golf course. You have to have a lot of experience. I was patient out there. I knew where to hit it, knew where to miss it and when you have that much swirling wind and that much trouble out there, you've really got to pick a club and make sure you're not going to short-side yourself or make sure it's enough to get over the water or trouble or whatever, so you can play on.

Q. You were mentioning yesterday that the trouble reading the greens -- is that easier when it's broad daylight to read them? I imagine tomorrow you're going to be if not the last guy or the second-to-last group off, you may get some shadows; is it more difficult?
KENNY PERRY: I see better with a lot of light. Like I can't read this paper right now but if you put like a flashlight or something real bright on it, I could read it fine. So it will be the same with the green. I don't know how it will be teeing off -- if I tee off at 2:45 tomorrow, I don't know if come 7:00 when the sun starts setting, it might be kind of tough on me.

Q. Did seeing Langer's name way up there at the top of the leaderboard make you feel kind of young and spry and sprightly?
KENNY PERRY: You know what I did, I went to Fred Funk's on Wednesday night to the Bible study and I got a good look at his trophy. That guy inspired me. He's something else, that little guy. How old was he when he won, 49? That's two years away for me, or a year and a half.
Anyway, you know, I've been playing okay this year. I think this is my 10th cut in a row I've made. Just haven't been able to put four rounds together, basically. My golf swing feels really good this week, and I'm putting beautifully for a change, so I've actually got good touch on the greens. All my lag putts were good today. So you know, if I can somehow fight that wind and pick the correct shot, it's going to be fun this weekend I think.

Q. Following up on the experience thing, how much does it help with the course or on a day like today when you have pretty windy condition?
KENNY PERRY: Both. But I tell you, we might play in these conditions here a lot under that much wind, with these firm surfaces. When we had the old bentgrass greens here, they used to hold pretty good. They always take a big plug out of the green; you can't find a pitchmark now. The it's very hard to find a pitchmark when it hits the green the. It's a totally different golf course to where you have to play front yardages and let the ball release up.
On the 8th hole, I had 243 to the flag and I had 215 to the front, landed it on the front of the green with a 5-iron and it rolled all the way over in the back bunker dead. So how do you prepare for that shot? How do you play, learn -- I don't know, there's a lot of those situations out there where you are kind of at the mercy of the golf course and the wind a little bit, and it's just tough.

Q. It was a pretty good shot.
KENNY PERRY: I hit a great shot. That's the only bogey I made today ask it was from a good golf shot. There was a lot of that going on out there.

Q. Was it just the veteranness of accepting that things like that will happen?
KENNY PERRY: Definitely, yeah. I think this is probably -- I've played almost 600 tournaments out here, I've got 560 I think, 550, 560, somewhere around there. I've always said you can't put a price on experience; that price tag is priceless.

Q. Experience-wise, the golf course, timeless, it allows guys like yourself to still compete out here.
KENNY PERRY: It's definitely probably one of the shorter courses we play all year. What is it, 6,900 now, or did they make it longer? With the redo, it's 7,200 now, okay.

Q. You're not a short hitter.
KENNY PERRY: No, I'm still -- I think when I looked, my last time I saw, I was 18th on the TOUR in distance. So I've never had any trouble with power. It's always been putting with me. And I've always been fairly accurate.
What I've been off this year has been my iron play. Proximity to the hole, I hate that shot -- they all call me and asked to tell me my stats now, it drives me nuts. They said, oh, your proximity to the hole now is not as close as it used to be. I said, "Oh, thanks." (Laughter).
That just tells me my iron game is not as good as it used to be. Time still driving it long and fairly straight and fairways, but I'm hitting my irons better the last couple weeks. You get in the rough out here at all, you're struggling to keep it on those greens.

Q. Throw one more at you good making The Ryder Cup. I think if you finished probably top three or four here, you would pick up massive points and be right up that list.
KENNY PERRY: It's a big week for me.

Q. Goal No. 1 for you for the year?
KENNY PERRY: That's my only goal. It's not about winning for me. This would be huge to win this tournament, to win PLAYERS. It would be, by far, my biggest win. I'm not trying to downgrade Memorial or Colonial or the Hope or any of those tournaments I've won. With the quality of the field here, accept Tiger is not here this week, but still, everybody else is.
So, you know, beating the best is what we are all out here to do, and that would be pretty sweet, you know, plus at my age, and still be able to know that I can still do it, that would be a lot of confidence boost for me, and that may be would perk Azinger's ears up a bit to see that I'm playing okay. I've been needling him a lot and playing practice rounds with him (laughing) staying in his eyesight a little bit. He's got four picks this year. I've still got to play well. I want to earn my way on that team, I don't want to be picked.

Q. The lead was at 6 yesterday and probably will be 6 today; where do you think it will be come Sunday night?
KENNY PERRY: That all depends on the wind. If the wind lays down, I think it will get to ten or more, no problem.
But if that wind continues to do what it's doing out here, it could be anything. I mean, it really could. That is a very -- I mean, you know, I want to shoot people when they say, "I want to do your job, you're so lucky playing golf" on a day like today. That is just work out there today. You've really got to stay in it mentally and physically and really stay committed to what you're doing out there, and there's really no slack holes to where you can just take a breather and relax out there, because there's trouble everywhere out there.
LAURA NEAL: Kenny, thank you so much.

End of FastScripts

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