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JOHN DEERE CLASSICJuly 9, 2008Kenny PerrySILVIS, ILLINOIS STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome Kenny Perry to the interview room here at the John Deere Classic after a week off last week, coming off the win at the Buick Open, your second one of the year, arguably the hottest player in the world right now. It must have been nice just to finally get home and relax last week, take some time with the family. Why don't you talk about the last eight or nine days coming into this week. KENNY PERRY: Well, I didn't do a lot. Got a lake house, my three kids are home from college, and we just spent a little time on the boat, watched the fireworks and just kind of laid back and took it easy. Didn't do a lot of practicing. It's been kind of a pretty exciting run here these past two months so I just wanted to recharge the batteries and get ready for this week. STEWART MOORE: You played a lot of years at the John Deere but from '99 until last year you didn't play at all. You played last year and finished tied for 11th. Is this a golf course that suits your eye? KENNY PERRY: I was pleasantly surprised when I came here. I loved Coal Valley. That was a place where I felt like I could win. I lost on the last hole there to Mark McCumber there. We were tied one year. Just played beautifully. Then when they switched venues on me, I set out some time. Then Clair Peterson talked me into coming, and I probably won't miss it from now on. I love it. D.A. did a great job with this golf course, it's very fair, it's a driver's dream and the strength of my game is usually my driver. And the greens are good. I had a blast here last year, so yeah, it was a fun place to come play. Q. I saw you in Atlanta. You had just played that first round where I think it was six and a half hours and it rained the whole time -- KENNY PERRY: Eight hours. 12:30, and I came off at 8:00. Q. And you said that one of your goals this year was obviously the Ryder Cup, to win again, to show that someone at 47 can win on this TOUR. Since then you've won twice, another Top 10, and two close ones, AT&T -- KENNY PERRY: One tree got me in the way. Q. And you were in the final group at THE PLAYERS. Has anyone asked you when you're going to start acting your age, or have you proved your point? KENNY PERRY: You know what, I've got one thing in mind and that's to make the Ryder Cup team. I'm not going to let anything deter from that. I've just been very focused this year, trying to get back to Valhalla where Mark Brooks beat me in the PGA in '96 in a playoff, and just felt like there's some unfinished business there, and I just want to go back there to kind of close a chapter in my life there, at that golf course. I want to celebrate in front of my home folks. We don't have a TOUR event in Kentucky. We've had two PGAs and it was a thrill for me to be a part of those two tournaments. You know what, I've just been very focused. If the Ryder Cup would have been anywhere else, I probably wouldn't have this had kind of year because I wouldn't have been that motivated to make that team. But being at home, I've got so many friends and family there, it's just where I was raised, it's just too much going on there that it has really made me re-look at how I set goals. I've really never set a lot of goals in my life, and January 1st of this year, I set a goal of making the Ryder Cup team. That was it. I wrote it down, and you know what, I made it happen. Q. Are you in a zone right now, A; and B, if all your family and friends are coming out to see Kenny at the Ryder Cup, will that affect the zone you're in? KENNY PERRY: It might. I told my wife, you've got to be careful what you ask for. It could be the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me; it could be a very devastating week if I play poorly, if I can't handle the pressure. But I think with my age and my experience, I think I'm going to enjoy it. I think the crowd is going to be on my side, and I think I'll have all the momentum, I really do. I really believe it's going to be a great week. Q. You said you wrote down that reminder. Where do you keep that reminder, anyplace special? KENNY PERRY: It's back at home, yeah. Q. On the refrigerator? KENNY PERRY: No, in my room, in the bedroom. Q. The pundits are always telling you what you should do. You should have not been in the TV booth at Valhalla at the PGA, you were supposed to play the British Open next week. Are you a contrary guy and do you get tired of people telling you how to run your business? KENNY PERRY: Well, you know what, I'm not going to lie; it kind of bothers me a little bit. But you know what, I'm an independent contractor. I can do whatever I want, and I like that. I like being able to make the decisions I want to make, and I think it's best for me and my family, and that's the way I want to live my life. If they don't like it, that's fine. They can say all they want to. But my only goal was to make that Ryder Cup team, and if they're going to -- for me if I was going to play the British Open, I'd have to miss this week, and this is a week I love playing. I was going to have to miss Milwaukee next week, which is a tournament I've won. I've had eight Top 10 finishes there. I mean, the British Open is a great tournament, don't get me wrong. If you win, you know, a major, everybody looks at all the people in the world when they win majors on your résumé. That is the ultimate. But at this stage in my career, I fought all that for 22 years. In the past I've always tried to win a major and I couldn't do it. You know, now I don't really worry too much about it anymore. I don't care too much about winning a major. I would love to, don't get me wrong. I've got a chance to play in the PGA coming up, and I'll play all the majors next year. So it may happen. But it's just at this stage in my career it's just not a goal of mine. I love my family, and I want to play the golf at the courses I enjoy playing at these last couple years, and I'm going to go out on my terms, not on their terms. Q. If you win this week and get a spot in the British Open, you'd pass it up? KENNY PERRY: I'm already in the British Open, and I'm still not going. Q. How hard is that -- how different would your perspective have been 20 years ago making the same decision? KENNY PERRY: I wouldn't have made the same decision 20 years ago. Q. Thinking about yourself as an independent contractor, talk about your mindset how you would have approached this 20 years ago versus now and how much experience plays into that? KENNY PERRY: Well, 20 years ago it was all about winning for me, winning everything and anything I could get into. That was it. I was out there to do the best I could do. And now at this stage in my career it's just enjoying -- it's enjoying the road. It's enjoying the ride. I mean, I've worked hard and I've put myself under a lot of pressure all these years. You know what, I just don't care to be in that situation. I just want to enjoy it, you know? To me, I'm going to play where I like to play and what gives me the best opportunity to win. And all these courses I've had great success at, and I feel like I can win golf tournaments, and that's why I go. Q. Do you kind of share the -- do you enjoy playing British Open style of golf? KENNY PERRY: I mean, I've played six times over there, and I had a great chance to win at Royal St. Georges, Ben Curtis'. I finished eighth. Actually I was one or two off the lead going into. The back nine, I think, and didn't get it done. To me, I tell everybody it's like being on the moon. It's such a different kind of golf. An American player, we play out of the air. Over there it's low, playing into the wind, the fairways are firm and you're always trying to run the ball up, which is a style of golf I'm not accustomed to playing. I thoroughly enjoyed the Open at the Old Course. I got to play with Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Mike Weir the year that Jack -- it was his last year to play in the Open, and I got to play Tuesday with him in a practice round. That was probably one of the most memorable rounds -- Tom and Jack the whole day reminisced the whole time of tournaments they competed against each other, British Opens they've played against each other. They were telling stories the whole time. Tom and I were partners, and we played them, and if we won, if we beat them, I got a five-pound note with Jack's signature -- remember they made all those five-pound notes with Jack? So I got one of those; that was pretty special. The fans are great over there, and they love their golf. But it's just -- you know, this year just wasn't the time and the place for me I felt like. That's the only reason I'm not going. Q. Can you kind of take us through your thought process when you went down and looked at the schedule? They say horses for courses. Can you take us through -- KENNY PERRY: It's pretty simple. You can kind of look back at my last ten years. I've pretty much played the same schedule the last ten years, pretty much played the same golf courses. You know, I like playing tournaments where 10- to 15-under wins. I don't like the 20-something-under shootouts, putting contests. I like it where driver is a very important club in the bag. I like it when there's a lot of rough. So that's kind of how I pick my schedule. I always go to the courses I've won at and I've had success at. You know, that's just the way I look at it. Being out here so long, it's been very easy for me to pick and choose the courses I knew I'd be successful at and ones I knew I wouldn't be. Q. Augusta, did you qualify for it? KENNY PERRY: Not this year, no. Q. And you just chose not to go to Torrey? KENNY PERRY: Well, I would have had to go -- the Monday after I won Memorial I would have had to do a 36-hole qualifier, and I just wasn't going to do that. That just wasn't the time and place for me right now. Q. Do you look at the John Deere Classic as I'm able to -- a tournament where you can enhance that? You have a lot more to gain by being here? KENNY PERRY: Probably got a lot more to lose. I mean, you know what, there's a lot of expectations on me to do real well this week. But I came here because I enjoy the people. Corky and Cheryl Kress -- Corky passed away, he's a dear friend of mine here, from cancer, real close to that family. They're here, they live here. I stayed with them early in my career in this tournament. So I kind of keep in touch with that family, and I come back and -- they have the Corky Kress Foundation. I guess you know the tournament there, they raise money for us. So I come back for them. And then when the golf course changed to here, I was -- it's been a great change for me, too, because I enjoy this place, as well. So it was pretty easy for me to come here and play. Q. Were the Kresses the reason you put this tournament back on your schedule? KENNY PERRY: Corky just passed away not too long ago. No, I just came to play that one year to see what D.A.'s golf course was all about, and I loved it. I thought it was a great golf course. It's pretty easy for me to come back here now. Q. What is it about this -- you talked about enjoying the ride. What is it about this community and this event that you enjoy so much? It seems like this event is really integrated with the community more than most. Do you feel that, also? KENNY PERRY: Yeah, you know, I like the small-market tournaments. It just seems to me that it's more intimate. You're treated -- everybody is very appreciative in coming and supporting the tournament. I didn't go to the "Big Dig" last night, but I went last year, and that was a pretty cool experience. I mean, they just do a lot of neat things here. I've always enjoyed the smaller -- a little bit smaller atmosphere, not the media frenzy at a major, people all over you all the time, not giving you space and time. To me I just feel more at home. To me I just feel more comfortable in this environment. Q. What have your impressions been of the course this week maybe in comparison to past years here? KENNY PERRY: Well, last year it played very firm and fast. We had a huge rain a couple nights ago, and yesterday the golf course was very soft. It played a whole lot longer than I remember last year. It's in great shape; the greens were great, fairways were nice. They weren't rolling yesterday, but I don't think we're expecting much rain the rest of the week, so I'm sure they'll dry it out and firm it up and get it very similar to how it played last year. It's a very fun golf course to play. There's so many different style of holes out there. The look changes a lot, and it keeps you entertained. Q. Have you amended your goals at all now with the success you've had, now that you're three in the FedExCup standings? Have you taken a look at that? KENNY PERRY: No, I'm not going to change my goals until the Ryder Cup is over with. That's it. Until I have the red, white and blue on my back and I'm back home, I'm not going to change the way I approach the season. I'm going to play the tournaments I've picked. I play well in Akron. I played in the last group with Tiger last year. And the PGA and then the three FedEx and then right to the Ryder Cup and hopefully the TOUR Championship. They're all good courses for me. Q. With Tiger not around, you don't want to be the man? KENNY PERRY: No, because it's always going to have an asterisk by my name if I win the $10 million. With him not in the field, it doesn't matter who wins because the asterisk will be on that guy's name. I'll never be the man. Never have been, never will be. It doesn't bother me. I don't like being the man. I like being the simple guy from Franklin, Kentucky. That's just the way I am. Q. Back to your game, technically, Xs and Os, why are you playing so well? KENNY PERRY: I think my knee is heeled basically. I had knee surgery in '06, middle the season. It killed me. Tried to come back too early. I got in some terrible swing habits, and it's now taken me this long, taken me a year to get out of a couple swing flaws that I could not recover from. Knee feels good, and shoot, I'm ready to go now. Q. I don't know if you took the time to watch the Open, but knowing what you know about knee injuries and then watching Tiger do what he did, what were your thoughts on that? KENNY PERRY: Incredible, amazing. Well, mine was the right knee. I don't know that if I had my left knee in the same situation -- to me it looked like it would be more painful with the left knee because you could just see how much pressure he was putting on it through impact. What I struggled with, my right leg completely stopped moving. As I was coming down it would lock in the ground, my knee would straighten up, and then I could not physically get my weight to move toward to the target. In turn I would hang back and flip my hands. I put a pull hook every shot. It didn't matter what I did, it was going left of left. So I struggled there for those two years, but for him to just know that every shot at impact it was going to hurt, that's a pretty gritty performance, pretty tough. Q. Back to the Ryder Cup, is there any particular American you'd like to play with there and any Europeans you'd like to play against? KENNY PERRY: No Europeans, not really. I've played against all those guys my whole career and I've enjoyed it each and every time I've competed against them. But as for teammates, I think it would be kind of cool if I could get J.B. as my partner. He's not on the team yet. I've been kind of getting in his ear a little bit, two Kentuckians going out there. I thought that would kind of roust the gallery a little bit. But I played with Stewart Cink in the Ryder Cup in '04. He was my partner one match. He's great. I don't know if Jerry Kelly will make it, but we had a great time at the Presidents Cup when he was my teammate. He'd be an awesome teammate for me. I don't know, I'd like to play with Anthony Kim. I've played a lot with Anthony in practice rounds this year and gotten to know him a little bit. He's a tremendous kid and a tremendous talent. It really doesn't matter. It's just going to be a great experience for me just to step up on the first tee and be able to represent my country right there in Valhalla. Q. You mentioned the practice round that you played with Tom and Jack and they were reminiscing. Have you noticed anybody else that you've played practice rounds with come up to you and start asking you questions now about what it's going to be like? KENNY PERRY: What I've gotten I've noticed this year is some of the rookies coming up to me wanting to play practice rounds, Chris Stroud wanting to play this week, and ended up playing with Webb Simpson, another young kid from Wake Forest, wanted to play. That's been pretty special for me to take the young kids aside and get to share my experiences over the years and kind of show them around this year. That's been kind of neat for me. Q. Was there a moment that you consider the turning point to your recent success, whether it's the final round of THE PLAYERS or the tree at AT&T or the win at Memorial? KENNY PERRY: Well, I think it's just kind of an ongoing process to tell you the truth. I knew I was playing great at TPC, and I throw the 81 out the window on Sunday because we played in 30- to 35-mile-an-hour winds, and I don't know about you guys, but I've never been able to play wind on a putt. That's the hardest thing I've ever tried to do in my life. I got caught in a couple situations out there and I couldn't recover, but I kind of threw that right out the window because I knew I was hitting the ball great. Shooting right into Atlanta, I proved to myself I was playing good, shoot the scores I shot there and then just unfortunate to hit the only tree to the right there that exists and to come back into the water was bad luck. But I still felt that the turning point was when Paul -- I had just done that, and the next day in the paper Paul Azinger says, "You're going to have to win to be on my team." That was a quote in USA Today. Jerry Potter put that in USA Today. When I read that, I was like, Man, that just stabbed me in the heart because to come so close and not win, I was thinking, dang, I'm going to have to get in the winner's circle somehow. That kind of changed my way of thinking and how I was going to approach Colonial and Memorial. I've had a lot of great success there at those two venues. To come from three behind at the Memorial to win on Sunday was pretty great. I've never done that in my career. All my wins have always come from the lead. And then to back it up again at the Buick, pretty similar scenario, three behind going into Sunday, shoot a good low round, post a number and was able to win there, too. It was pretty neat to have a couple situations change along the way, so to get to experience it a different way has been pretty neat. Q. Can it be harder to deal with success than adversity? You just said you came back from that comment and the toughness at AT&T. KENNY PERRY: Well, I've always played better when my back was against the wall. Whenever I've had to do something, I've always been able to do it. Needed the -- I needed one year to -- I had to finish 5th or 6th or better at Tampa at the end of the year to take the TOUR Championship, and I did. It just seems like I've always liked to prove people wrong my whole career. Even when I first started to play pro, I've had people tell me you're crazy for turning pro, you'll never make it. They told me I'd never make it. That has always been in my heart and I've always wanted to prove people wrong my whole life. Whatever, it fires me up. When people say negative comments about me, it actually makes me play better. Q. Now that's not happening. Now people are patting you on the back and you're the hottest player. KENNY PERRY: Not really. I know John Hawkins and those guys have said some pretty rude things about me for not going to the British Open and stuff like that. I've had some people pat me on the back and tell me, "job well done," but there's always another side to that story. Q. The chip on the shoulder helps a little bit? KENNY PERRY: It does. It makes me play better. Q. Is the youngster still your coach? KENNY PERRY: Matt, yes, he's here this week. Q. How much has that had to do with -- KENNY PERRY: Matt is -- my teacher passed away about six years ago. He was the only guy I ever want to. All Matt has done -- we've got the V1 system and we have all my swings data logged on the computer. He's just another set of eyes for me. He's not trying to change my swing or my style. We've always tried to get to the Norman head style, the way I've always learned to play golf. Matt has been great in just picking out little things that I used to do that I wouldn't be doing now that would help get me back on track. Q. Speaking of your swing, you almost exclusively play a draw. Can you hit a fade when the shot demands it? KENNY PERRY: Very much so. Q. Are you comfortable with that shot? KENNY PERRY: Mm-hmm, I can hit it most of the time but I just choose not to. Q. There are veteran players who have said when they got in the Ryder Cup the first time, standing on the first tee, they weren't sure they could bring the club back. Do you remember what it was like for you that first time? KENNY PERRY: Yeah, I was nervous at Oakland Hills. That's where we're going back to play the PGA. That first hole is pretty tight, it's about 440 or 450. I remember it tree-lined and heavy rough. Yeah, I was very nervous. Those are good things. If you're not nervous, you're not alive, you're not into the moment. You're not enjoying it. When I go to a tournament and know I'm not nervous on the first tee, I've got a problem. I know I'm not into the week. I'm not really thinking about it properly. I like having a little bit of edge there. It kind of keeps me focused. Q. You mentioned earlier about a lot of the younger players want to play practice rounds with you. Ten or so years ago Mark O'Meara got a lot of recognition as the mentor for Tiger Woods. Are the new Yoda for the youngsters on TOUR? KENNY PERRY: I don't know about that. I didn't have the career Mark O'Meara had, either. But I'll be willing to help any of them. I've always had an open-door policy with any of the guys. They're free to come and ask me any question they want to ask, play practice rounds, do whatever. To me, I'm just a people person. I just enjoy hanging out with them. Q. Is Anthony a threat to maybe step up and challenge -- KENNY PERRY: I think so. I think he's definitely the real deal. He's got all the talent, he's got an awesome golf swing and a good short game. The sky is the limit for him. It all just depends on his motivational factor, how will he handle these two wins. Will it make him more driven or will it make him pull back and just kind of enjoy it. We'll see. End of FastScripts |
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