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STANFORD ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP

June 4, 2008

Kenny Perry

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

STEWART MOORE: Kenny Perry, thanks for spending a few moments with us at the Stanford St. Jude Championship. Coming off a fantastic win last week at Memorial. Great Major runner-up in Atlanta. Firing on all cylinders. Talk about expectations coming into this week and a hard week following a win to kind of come back down and refocus.
KENNY PERRY: It's been a whirlwind here the past couple days. I've been telling people I've been home two days in seven weeks. Got to go home yesterday for just a little bit of time and shot down here yesterday afternoon, and it's going to be tough. I mean, it's definitely tough coming off a win, but I was fortunate. Back in '03 after I won Colonial, won Memorial the next week, but back-to-back wins together.
So, I don't know. I'm very driven this year. I'm just -- everybody knows who knows my goal is to make that Ryder Cup team, and each week to me is a challenge, and I'm trying to earn as many points as I can earn to make that team. And, you know, this is another opportunity for me this week, and, you know, I'm going to have to somehow forget about last week. I'm still kind of living in the past a little bit about it, but I'm going to hopefully got a good night's rest. When I come out here tomorrow, I'll be fresh and mentally ready to go.

Q. Last week when you won, you were fifth on the Ryder Cup points list. Does that change for the summer, or how do you do it?
KENNY PERRY: It's totally changed everything for me. Now I'm getting Bridgestone, I'm getting in Majors. It's goings to open up a lot of doors for me. now, the FedEx Cup I'll probably be all the way to the finals now, make enough points probably to -- I probably can't get knocked out.
My schedule will definitely change. You know what? I pushed really hard this year. I played a lot of extra tournaments that I don't normally play in this year. This is already my 16th event, and I don't know -- I don't normally play this time in my career, getting ready to turn 48 here in two months. My last goal was to make the Ryder Cup team. Now my goals are going to change.
I didn't know if I was ever going to get in the mid 2000 when I was in the upper echelon, Top 30 on the money list. Got to play in all those elite fields and tournaments, and so I kind of set my schedule that away. But the last two years have been just mediocre. Had knee surgery in '06, and that really slowed me down and got me some bad swing habits. I just now kind of got back to where I can play golf again.
I'm going to have to sit down and look at our schedule and hopefully not wear myself out.
STEWART MOORE: Take some questions.

Q. The last three, four weeks you played great. Early in the year were you pretty steady. It looks like the spring factor. Obviously, even if you're tired, you've got to feel like "I'm playing great, I've got to keep playing."
KENNY PERRY: My dad always said, you know, you got to ride that train when it's going, you know. He told me to run it into the ground until I'm just mentally zapped and I just feel the game going.
I agree. It's going to be -- I think -- even though I'm tired mentally, I think I can get out there this week and play well. I love Memphis. It's close to home. I always have a lot of family and friends who come down here. I'm not great on bermuda grass, but, you know, it's another challenge for me, and it's another opportunity for me to earn as many points as I can earn and, you know, I'm approaching each week the same way to go out there and win.
I feel like I don't have a lot of time left out here, and I'm just -- it's all kind of coming in on me. Then it's been pretty neat to be able to have my back against the wall and perform as well as I have the past month.
You know, you wonder "Am I too old? Is my career gone? Am I done? Will I get the ten wins?" I want ten wins bad. I want double digits. You have a lot of things involved in your head.
Physically, knee surgery. I've had a lot of things come together, but, you know, I've just got a lot of heart and soul. I think when you have a lot of guts, lot of pride, it carries you a long way in this world, and I have a lot of determination.
I had people tell me my whole career I wasn't ever going to amount to anything in the game of golf, and it's just fuel for the fire, you know.
My whole life I've also proved people wrong. I just love the sport, and I'm going to keep pushing and keep trying and, you know, Fred Funk, Jay Haas are two guys I looked up to. They played well up into their '50s. They're tremendous players, still play out here equally as well. They're on the Champions Tour.
Those guys have motivated me. I'm going keep fighting. I'm going to start smelling the roses along the way and enjoying things. I've been under such pressure my whole career. Sandy was home raising three kids, and last week was the first time my family got to watch me win, got to see me in my element and see what I do. That was pretty special to have them all there to hug me and celebrate after the tournament.
It's been a great ride. I've enjoyed it all and just hope, you know, it's not over. I hope I can stay sharp mentally and keep my focus sharp. I think that's been the big difference.
My golf game has come back. I'm starting to hit draws. Coming off knee surgery, I was hitting a lot of pull hooks. My knee wouldn't fire to the target. Consequently, '06 and '07, I started the ball the left side of the fairway and hooked into the left rough or trouble, wherever.
Now, for whatever reason my knee feels great. Physically the ball is starting up the right side, catching it out of my eye where I used to see it a long time ago.
Now it's drawing back to the target like it used to. So it's given me a lot of confidence. That's why I've played the best.

Q. Having next week off in the Open, does that mean you have to push this week?
KENNY PERRY: Definitely. Definitely knowing I got a week off next week will definitely help me, for sure. Give me some time to kind of decompress and kind of relax and enjoy what I've accomplished this past month. But I will miss the Open. Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to do 36-hole qualifiers. They can say what they want to about me. I saw Jay has trying to qualify. Big Mac tried to qualify for the Open.
To me it's a schedule I've set up this year. It wasn't my time to try. I'm want to go make that Ryder Cup. I pick tournaments I had some success at. Hartford I played well. Buick in Flint I've won. They're the two weeks after the Open.
I just kind of set my schedule up to attack that one goal of mine this year, and you know what? It's good to me. I need to set goals. I never really set goals in my career. My first goal I wrote down was to make the Ryder Cup team. That's kind of something I keep in my wallet with me.
So, that's -- you know what? It proves the mind is a powerful thing and it's working.

Q. What do you think about Torrey?
KENNY PERRY: You know, it's a golf course you don't smile a lot at. I'll tell you that. It's a very demanding test. It's a test with the narrow fairways, the worse rough, and the fastest greens, normally.
But you know what? It's got to be the sweetest victory of all when you win a Major in the toughest conditions -- that's what it felt like to me last week. I felt like I won a U.S. Open at Muirfield because I won the golf tournament there. Very difficult test.
I kind of got a sense, the feel of what it might feel like because each day was a struggle. You struggle every day out there. Every time you miss a fairway, you're wedging up, having to get up and down from 150 yards and in.
There's no breather holes. There's no hole you can say "All right, I can hit it anywhere, don't matter. I can hit it farther out there. I'm going to make a par, you know. It's not that bad a hole."
You know, the U.S. Open tests every shot in your bag. Your short game is really tested, and it's just a very demanding test. I mean, it taxes you mentally from the first hole to the 18th hole. You're out there for five, five and a half hours under a lot of pressure.

Q. How are you after last week? What's your reaction to that?
KENNY PERRY: Tired. It doesn't change the way I feel. Actually it gives me a lot of patience because I know that in the Open, par is a good score. If you can make 18 pars out there, that's what I told the people last week on Saturday when I was getting ready to the interview room. I'll take 18 pars right now and not even play. I ended up shooting 74 on Saturday. But that's the kind of -- U.S. Open is kind of like that. If you can make a lot of pars and then if you can make a birdie here or there and hold on to them, you got a great shot of winning the National Open.

Q. Before this season what goals had you set? Why have you not played --
KENNY PERRY: The last couple of years I've tried to recover from surgery, from my injuries. How do you expect to do anything when you know your golf game is not there? You can't expect to be competitive or anything.
As soon as I got to where I started hitting the ball the was I used to hit it, you know, then -- and then being at Valhalla and being in my home state, that was a goal that it's very lofty goal. I didn't know if I could attain it or anything. It was a goal that I would like to try to a chief.
To me it was simple, and I put it up there and I started working towards it. I started practicing more. You know, I didn't -- last couple of years been hard for me to practice. Physically I just couldn't do it.
Now I'm up to strength, and I can hit all the golf balls I want to hit now. And so it was a goal that I shot out there, and I'm very close to obtaining it.
It's really got me driven.
STEWART MOORE: Any more questions?

Q. Will you watch the Open?
KENNY PERRY: Even if I'm not playing that week, I love watching the golf on TV. I enjoy watching my friends. We are a family out here. Like watching my buddies out there playing, and I hope they play well and it's just -- it's exciting. What are they going to do under -- when it's coming to scrunch time? You know, you got to make pars to win tournaments. Coming down the stretch, how are they going to react? To me it's just interesting to watch.

Q. Do you work with any psychologists?
KENNY PERRY: No, I don't work with psychologists. My only psychologist is the Lord. So, you know, my faith carries me through all this. It really does. It's pretty simple. I'm a pretty simple guy from a small town, and I don't need anybody telling me, you know, to be a positive person. I had great parents who lead me in the right direction, who taught me well, and I have a lot of confidence, and I have a lot of belief in myself. So it's pretty simple.
STEWART MOORE: Okay. Kenny, thanks so much. Good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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