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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY MORGAN STANLEY

May 30, 2008

Kenny Perry

DUBLIN, OHIO

DOUG MILNE: Kenny Perry in the interview room here at the Memorial Tournament. Obviously not quite the easy day that it was yesterday, but you held it together. There were obviously a couple of key moments. Just take us -- a couple comments on the round and obviously the highlight on 15.
KENNY PERRY: Well, it was a tough start on this back nine. 10 and 12 are very difficult holes right out of the chute. And I got behind the 8-ball early.
Then 14 is probably one of the toughest short holes in America. And so I bogeyed three of my first five and then I hit the shot of my life to kind of keep the ship from sinking. And I holed a beautiful pitch from the left of the green, pin's back right and it rolled 50 feet or whatever, rolled right in the hole like a putt. I made eagle there.
So that gave me some momentum, turned the round around and lifted my spirits and actually I hung in there and played okay from then on.
DOUG MILNE: Take a few questions.

Q. Talk about how much tougher it was today versus yesterday and that.
KENNY PERRY: It was brutal out there. You put slick conditions with 15-mile, 20-mile-an-hour winds, it's hard to pick a club. And then it's just hard to stop the ball from the wind just moving it all the time. On the greens too.
Just very -- you had to have a lot of patience today. It was a day where you knew all the scores were going to be high. And did anybody shoot in the 60s today?

Q. One guy. Two. 67 and 69. They quit after 17.
KENNY PERRY: Yeah. So that just shows we all were in the same boat. We were all scratching our heads out there trying to figure out how to make pars. It's the kind of golf course that you get out of position or out of shape on a hole you'll make double in a hurry. It doesn't matter which hole you're on out there. So I'm very tired. I'm mentally tired right now. That was a very stressful round to try to hang in there and keep it together. I hope that Saturday and Sunday the weather will cooperate a little bit and not be as dicey out there.

Q. Did you hear a lot of complaints in the locker room?
KENNY PERRY: No complaints on the golf course. About the golf course?

Q. Setup.
KENNY PERRY: No, no. It's very fair. It's just hard.

Q. How close -- how much more wind would it have taken to start moving balls around?
KENNY PERRY: Probably another five miles an hour. I had the ball oscillate. You would be down there watching, it would be sitting there oscillating. And that will make you -- that will unnerve you a little bit, because if you ground that putter and that thing takes off that's a penalty on you.

Q. Could you talk a little bit more about the chip in and what you thought your chances were from that position?
KENNY PERRY: It was a shot I had all the green, I was playing left, I had 265 to the hole, I hooked a 3-wood up the left up in the gallery over there. And I actually -- I was aiming that direction, somewhere over there, because if I would have missed it right in that bunker you're dead. You can't get up-and-down from that right bunker. So I was saying, let's just play left over there. And I knew I could chip the ball down there and get it within 15 feet. I knew I could keep it on the green and I had enough green to keep it to where I could have a realistic birdie putt and that was all I was trying for. And it just came out perfect. It landed on that green and it rolled and it went in just like on the last, just fell in. It was one of those kind of deals it was like a slow-motion deal.

Q. How do the dynamics of the tournament change if we get the rain we're supposed to overnight?
KENNY PERRY: I don't think it will. I think that Jack's got the ability out there to suck all the moisture right out of the greens with that SubAir System, and that -- it will slow the fairways down a little bit. I haven't hit hardly any drivers this week. I've been hitting a lot of 3-wood, 5-wood off the tee. So that might change where we have to hit driver off the tee a little bit more.
But I think he can still keep the greens as fast as he wants them unless it's like a four-inch rain or something, some kind of crazy flooding rain where they don't have time to get the moisture out. But if it's just like a light -- if it's a quarter inch, half inch or something, I don't think that will change anything to change the golf course at all.

Q. Is it going to slow the fairways down enough so that you're going to have to hit different clubs?
KENNY PERRY: Well, I think so. What I worry about is if the ball picks up mud. That would really be scary, playing into these kind of greens and the ball's got mud on it.

Q. I'm just wondering if the greens are the same and the fairways are slower?
KENNY PERRY: It's going to make it harder. You're going to be hitting a lot further back for one thing. You'll have to hit more club off the tee. I hit 5-wood off the first hole today. That used to be a driver tee shot and I hit 5-wood today down there and hit a 9-iron to about two foot, tapped in for birdie. So that just shows how it's running and everything's really rolling right now.

Q. What's the fastest your greens have ever Stimped out at your course at home?
KENNY PERRY: 12. I have them fast. I don't keep them that way now. I keep them around nine now. But when we first opened I had them moving. Found out my amateurs didn't like that.
(Laughter.)
DOUG MILNE: If you wouldn't mind running us through your birdies really quick. We talked about 15, your eagle there.
KENNY PERRY: Where else did I birdie?
DOUG MILNE: 1, 3 and --
KENNY PERRY: 1, I hit 5-wood, 9-iron to two foot.
3, I hit a 5-wood, 9-iron to about 8, 10 foot. Made that.
Then 8, I hit a beautiful 7-iron to about 10 foot. That pin's very front. You have wind howling in your fairways and that bunker, that was probably one of the best 7-irons I've hit in a long time. I hit it in there about eight feet and made that for birdie. So a good way to end the day.
DOUG MILNE: Kenny, thanks for your time and best of luck this weekend.
KENNY PERRY: All right.

End of FastScripts

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