	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

THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY MORGAN STANLEY

May 29, 2008

Kenny Perry

DUBLIN, OHIO

LAURA NEAL: Kenny, thanks for joining us here in the media room. Yesterday, I think everything you were working on and planning on seems to have worked out. Nice start for this tournament.
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, a great round of golf for me. Just was a day where I made a lot of putts. Putter was unbelievable today.
I was telling them out there I missed three fairways, I made three bogeys from the three fairways I missed. So it's -- there's such a premium on hitting the fairways out there. And the ones I hit, I made nine birdies. So I chipped in one time on 12 a par-3, I was only about 15 feet from the hole, but all in all I just kept pouring them in from 20 feet like they were two footers. So quite an exciting day for me. I'm a guy not known for making putts, to see a lot of putts go in the hole, so a great day for me.
LAURA NEAL: Questions?

Q. Obviously it looks like the greens are fast today, but are they pure enough when you're feeling it and if you get it on the right line?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, there's not a blade of grass out of place out there. The greens are the fastest I've seen them in a long time. Actually they have had the weather I guess dry out the golf course a little bit. We're not playing in rain this year. It is just -- I just kept lagging the putts. And my lags just kept going in the hole. I didn't really -- I was not playing aggressive putting. I was not thinking about making any of those putts. And I was just kind of easing them down there and they just kept finding the middle of the hole.
My speed was tremendous today. I had a great touch around the greens with the putter. And that was nice. That was one of the reasons why I got on that six in a row there on the back nine. I made six birdies. But I made a nice putt on No. 2 to get me going, kind of loosen up the round a little bit. And I missed the fairway on 5, struggled to make bogey on 5, and then I hit the fairway on 6 and hit it to make birdie there also.
So it's just a round where just things went my way today. You don't usually make six birdies in a row on any TOUR event. That was probably a first for me. I don't know if I've ever done that in my 22 years out here.
I've had stretches where I make two or three, make a couple pars and make two or three more. But never make six in a row. So that was a huge bonus.

Q. You start to get almost giddy when you start out like that. I don't know if it's one after another after another? I don't know what you're feeling right there.
KENNY PERRY: I hit it close on 11 and then I chipped in on 12. But I wasn't far from the hole. It wasn't a hard chip. And then I made a bomb on 13. I made a tough one on 14. I made bomb on 15. And they were all 20 feet plus. All three of those putts.
You just don't make putts like that. I'm sure the guys in my group are scratching their heads. But -- and then that -- I probably made a putt on 16 that probably broke two and a half feet. And I was above the hole, I hit a 6-iron, it landed a foot from the hole and rolled long and to the left and had a lot of break coming back and it went right in the middle of the hole. I was shocked when the one on 17 didn't go in. That was my closest putt I hit it to five feet right below the hole, a perfect up-the-hole putt, and it broke more than I thought it would and missed. But awesome day though. Good start.

Q. Is this an entirely different course when it's dry? Is this unlike what it is?
KENNY PERRY: Very much so. It plays totally different. I'm hitting -- I'm having to -- and it's playing a lot longer. I know they changed the tee box on 10 and it just seems like these holes are playing so much longer now than I remember in the past. I had to hit -- I hit driver on 10 and still had 200 yards into the hole and I hit a good tee shot. You used to carry that left bunker or up the right side, it was no problem.
There's just so many holes just seems like they play so much firmer and faster. Just seems like you're a little bit off of the fairway, it runs out of the fairway into the rough, when in the past it would be so wet if you had one going down the right or left side it would plug in the fairway and you would still be in the fairway. Where now you're not getting that luxury. You better hit it down the middle or down the slope and play the slope or it's going to be off in that thick rough.

Q. Robert Allenby said this was the fastest greens he's ever seen anywhere in the world. Is that why you could lag a putt and it would carry into the hole?
KENNY PERRY: Probably so. Yeah. They're the truest, fastest greens I've ever seen. They have always been fast here, but normally we play it under wet conditions that we have never really been able to get them firmed up. But I guess they got that SubAir System under greens now they can really pull the moisture out of them. But they're pure.

Q. That was what I was going to ask you about, they have put -- you guys have always come in here and lavished praise on the conditions of this golf course. But they have put a lot of drainage work in this place the last three or four years. And you've been coming here for a long time. Is this the best you've ever seen this golf course?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah. I said that before we teed off. I said, it's the best condition I've ever seen the golf course. Best weather I've seen here.
Just a lot of best of everything. Jack should be proud. This place is -- it's beautiful out there.

Q. I'm wondering, you have great victories here, I don't know if this feels almost like a second home or you've had great success here?
KENNY PERRY: Well, it does feel like my home. I do feel very comfortable here. I don't know if this is probably my 20th event here at this tournament. So I've had a lot of rounds around here. And I had a lot of success and just felt a lot of good memories, a lot of good vibes when I set up here.
The golf course optically looks great to me when I'm setting up on the tee box. I feel very comfortable hitting the driver, 3-wood or 5-wood or whatever I'm trying to get in that fairway. And I just know where to play, I just know where to hit it, and hopefully I'm playing well enough to put it in those spots.

Q. When you're in the middle of one of those birdie runs, do you know in your head that that's three in a row or five in a row?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, I knew I was on a good run. When I chipped in on 12 and made that bomb on 13 I was like, oh no, and then I made another one on 14 or 15 and I was like, you know, this is pretty cool. So, yeah, I was paying attention.

Q. When you said that it plays longer than you remember because the fairways are running and --
KENNY PERRY: Well, they lengthened the course.

Q. Well, I know that. But because the fairways are running and you have to be concerned about --
KENNY PERRY: Where the ball is running out. Yeah.

Q. Do you hang back a little bit off the tee?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, I do. I'm playing less off the tee just to stay away from those fairway bunkers and just stay away from where it narrows up. These fairways narrow up into a neck and you got to play to -- try to keep it in the fat area.

Q. Is that what happened on 18? You were yelling for your tee shot to stop.
KENNY PERRY: That was a beautiful tee shot. Just killed a 3-wood right down the middle and it went 30 yards too far. It just hit that fairway like it was on the interstate. And it ran right over there into the first cut of rough.

Q. And even in the first cut how difficult was that?
KENNY PERRY: Well, it hung my club up. I caught it a little thick. It didn't come out very good. So that's why it came up short.

Q. How many drivers did you hit today?
KENNY PERRY: Let's see, three on the front nine, 10, 14, 15 -- no, I'm sorry, 10, 13, 15. And that was it. So six. Three and three.

Q. Can you remember doing that here?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah. Always a lot of position holes out here.

Q. You've talked in recent weeks about kind of auditioning for the Ryder Cup team. You want to get on that thing?
KENNY PERRY: I read the paper this morning Paul says if you don't win you're not getting on it. So that's, that kind of bummed me out a little bit.
(Laughter.)

Q. Well I was wondering, with the captain here this week, is this kind of more important than if he's not here for you?
KENNY PERRY: No. No, not really. I've got to play well. I've got to somehow get in the winners circle again and if that's the way he's going to do it -- I mean, I was -- just the way it was quoted in the paper this morning, that hurt me losing that playoff in Atlanta a couple weeks ago. So I just got to play consistent, and somehow keep making lots of points and if I don't win, figure out a way to get in the Top-8 so I earn my way on the squad.

Q. You don't think you ever made six in a row. Do you remember anything even close to this magical?
KENNY PERRY: I shot 63 here the year I won back in '91. I made a hole-in-one on 16, I remember. I shot 63. I've shot 63 here Sunday last year in my final round. So I've had some good low rounds here. I just feel very comfortable. If you get the ball in the fairway, you got a good shot at trying to play position on that green to where you can make -- if you get a putt on line it's going in. That's what I love about these greens. You're rewarded for great putts. They go in every time. You don't see them deflecting or scooting or hitting ball marks, they're just perfect.
LAURA NEAL: All right, Kenny, thanks so much. We'll see you back here.
KENNY PERRY: All right.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297