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MERCEDES-BENZ CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 7, 2009Kenny PerryKAPALUA, HAWAII JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome Kenny Perry to the interview room here at the Mercedes-Benz Championship. Kenny coming off a fantastic year in 2008, with three wins and making your seventh appearance here. You finished third in 2002. So just comment on being back and the fantastic year you had last year. KENNY PERRY: Obviously it's great to be back. Alex, I watched your show last night; I'm not going to fall. Q. I didn't say you were going to fall. It was McGee. KENNY PERRY: I'm going to kill him. (Laughter). It's been a short off-season. I played -- went to Africa, I played the Shark Shootout and Tiger's event. I only had, like, ten days off for Christmas and came right to here. I have not had much downtime, which I'm excited about. My golf game is not going to be very rusty, I don't think. Looking forward to playing. Had a little success here, not a lot. Still trying to figure out these greens and the high winds. But I think it's going to be a great year. I'm looking forward to it. My body is good. My health is good. I'm excited. It's going to be a great year. JOHN BUSH: And what are your goals for the year? KENNY PERRY: I haven't set any goals yet. I started, that was my deal last year, trying to make The Ryder Cup Team. I don't know what my goal is actually. I'm definitely going to prove Andrew McGee wrong after I saw that show last night. That might be the new goal (chuckling). Q. I was going to ask you what do you do for an encore? What motivates you now? KENNY PERRY: Great question. You know what, y'all may think I'm crazy, but I want to get 20 wins. I've got 12. Somehow I've got to win eight more times. I turn 50 in a year and a half. And is that a realistic goal? I think it is. I still think I can play well up into my mid-50s and be successful out here. I'm not going to put a lot of time or pressure trying to do that. I still think that's going to be my goal. I still hit it far enough. My short game has come around, and the biggest part is going to be how focused I am; how much am I going to prepare like I did last year. That taught me a great lesson, my preparation. Am I going to stick to that schedule? New son-in-law, new family, I've got three parents in the hospital, my parents are in the hospital, Sandy's mom is in the hospital. We are fighting cancer. We are fighting -- Dad had two stints put in his heart. We have a lot of issues at the house. A lot of things going on that's kind of been detracting me, on my mind mentally. If I can get my head back in the game and focus on my golf, I'll be okay. There's a lot of issues right now. Q. When did your dad have the stints put in? KENNY PERRY: Four or five weeks ago. The trouble was, we put him back in, he's been very nauseated. He can't eat anything. They thought it was gallbladder and have run every test in the world and don't know what's wrong with him right now. You start losing 20 pounds at his age, it's not a good thing. Q. And your mom? KENNY PERRY: She's fighting that blood cancer, myeloma. She can't hardly walk anymore. It's wheelchair. Now going into assisted living, hiring people to come in around the clock to take care of them. You know, everybody goes through it. Q. When was she diagnosed with this? Has this been a while? KENNY PERRY: It's been a while, been quite a while. Q. Before Ryder Cup? KENNY PERRY: Yes. Dad was doing fine, but after The Ryder Cup, Dad really went downhill. So we have been struggling. Q. It was kind of a big year in more ways than one. I don't mean big in terms of all great, but just big, a lot to get your arms around. KENNY PERRY: Yeah, Sandy and I, it was good to get Sandy here. We have had to remodel, completely redo her mom's house. They would not let her out of the hospital until it was handicapped -- a way to get the wheelchair into the house and completely redo the bathrooms and all and the showers. So Sandy, she's been redoing her house while I've been dealing with my dad, and my sisters have been taking care of my mom. We all have our own little jobs back home, so we all have a lot going on. Q. And what's with Sandy's mother? KENNY PERRY: She fell and broke her kneecap at Wendy's. She went for lunch by herself after church and fell. And then it compressed two -- like, she broke two vertebrae in her back on the fall and compressed to where she's become -- she's not very mobile. Q. I know it's not in Kentucky, but does The Presidents Cup hold a special appeal to you this year, making that team? KENNY PERRY: Definitely. Sandy and I have talked about it. I would like to be on Fred's team. I played three of them. You know, to me, they are a lot of fun. The guys you play in competition are the guys we see in and out, mostly week-in and week-out out here. I don't feel a lot of pressure at The Presidents Cup. I don't feel near the pressure that I do in The Ryder Cup. It's two totally different formats in my opinion, and feelings and emotions; it's just a lot of fun. You know, if Michael Jordan is going to be the assistant captain, that would be kind of neat to hang out with him a little bit. I look forward to that. I'm doing real good. I'm probably fifth in points, I think I saw that. So got a great shot to make that team. Q. What's the nuttiest thing you've ever heard Captain Couples say? KENNY PERRY: Everything that comes out of his mouth. He's out there. That guy is out there. He can be so aloof at times, and then all of a sudden, he gets real serious. And I don't know how to take him sometimes. I don't know if he's actually kidding me or being serious at times. He's a very unique guy. (Laughing) He's just easy going, laid back most of the time. But then when he gets -- you hit a nerve on him, man, he comes after you. (Laughter). Q. Do you anticipate him with coming up with a pod system like Zinger? KENNY PERRY: No. I can see him Friday morning looking at me saying, Do you think you and so-and-so can go out and beat these two guys? It will be that kind of deal (laughter). Q. You know, 12 wins is good in this era, I think most people would agree. Now you are talking about 20, a lofty goal and making up ground quickly. What you've done to date, happy with it or done more than you should have? KENNY PERRY: Only one I regret is missing that one opportunity to win the PGA, pretty much. Every tournament I've had the lead going into Sunday, I've won. I don't think I've lost a tournament -- I could be wrong about that, but I'm not sure. I know I've only won one tournament coming from behind, and that happened this year at, I think, the John Deere. I was losing and won coming in, I think. Maybe it was the Buick I did that. I don't remember. But, you know, it's been remarkable. When I turned 40, I've won nine times in my 40s. And for whatever reason, my game came more to me. My short game came to me. Usually you lose your short game at 40. My chipping is still not great, but the putter is what has really turned my career around, I think, these last few years. I mean, I feel very confident, very comfortable over the putts now. That's been probably the biggest confidence boost I've had in a long time. Q. You mentioned having so much success in your 40s; the other guy obviously who has had that success is Vijay. You guys ever sit and talk about that and scratched your head together and said, What is it about this? KENNY PERRY: I said, when you turn 48 in three years, you see if you can do what I did. He'll probably win eight times or whatever. Yeah, we aggravate each other a lot. I like Vijay. We play a lot of practice rounds together. We have a good time. Q. A couple of youngsters, Kim and Villegas won twice last year and are getting a lot of attention these days, but you actually won more than they did. Just wondering, do you like the fact that you get a lot of respect, but yet, you're still kind of a little more under the radar? KENNY PERRY: Yeah, that's good, fly under the radar. Also I think it's refreshing for the TOUR, those two kids. I got to know Anthony. I actually played a lot of practice rounds with Anthony last year before The Ryder Cup, and then I actually got to see another side of him at The Ryder Cup, which to me, he's just a young kid. He's just 24/7. That guy, he's wide-open all the time. That party at The Ryder Cup was incredible. That boy put on a show that night. And I got to play with Camilo the last couple FedExCup events, where he won. I was paired with him either the first two days or Saturday. Now, he's a guy that to me has improved. Seems like Anthony was always more out there, but Camilo was down here. But looks like Camilo has caught him now. His putting has improved. Every time I played with him earlier in the year, he couldn't putt. But when I played with him at the FedExCup, he never missed a putt and made everything. So what he captured in the short game department really turned his game around. So I look for great things from them. They have kind of put a boost to the TOUR with Tiger being out. A lot of stories, new stories, and they were great stories for us. I think they are going to be great for the PGA TOUR. Q. And yet you feel like you're right there with them and you can compete with them and still win against them? KENNY PERRY: They can't out-hit me. I tell them, I said, Here I am, and y'all can't out-hit me, you workout all the time, and you've got all those muscles, and you're still back there (laughter). Q. So how are you pulling that off? KENNY PERRY: You know, I say genetics. I don't work out. I don't really watch what I eat. I just play a lot of golf. I just play every day and usually stay with it and practice and hit a lot of balls. You know, until something breaks down on me, and I can't do that anymore, I still think I can be very competitive out here. Q. Were you inspired by Greg Norman doing as well as he did at the British Open, and at age 53, maybe you really do have a lot of years left? KENNY PERRY: Well, I think so. I think it's all what the guy wants to put into it. The guy I always admire is Vijay; the amount of time and effort he puts into his game each and every day is something that's helped me want to get out there and work each and every day. Greg, he's got other interests. He's got other business interests that he loves and he enjoys, and he'll tell you that. I don't know how much he puts into his golf game. But for a while, he was -- 300-something weeks, he was No. 1 in the world. So he was the greatest we had out here before Tiger, and he kind of lost the fire a little bit. Still, it shows what a great player he was and at age 53, he was able to get out there in the Open and at the British and be very competitive. He had a great shot at winning. They criticized him a little bit; I remember some of the people say he was hitting driver, and he was very aggressive on Sunday, and he had a poor Sunday, so, I don't know. Anything is possible. I look up to guys like Jay Haas and Fred Funk. They played great until they were 50. They still play good. Fred comes over and still plays our TOUR some. So I hope -- I've earned exemptions until I'm 54 out here. I've got four years of exemptions for winning three times out here, so I've got Top-50 and Top-20 all time money, gives me two more years, so I'll be exempt until I'm 54. So takes a lot of pressure off me and I don't have to be as cautious. And if I get into position, as many as I did last year -- for three months last year, I was on the leaderboard every week. I had a chance to win every tournament. I'm a very streaky player, always have been, and if I catch fire somewhere in a streak of tournaments I've had success at, look out, I could put two or three more on the board. Q. Do you think the guys that have moved up since Tiger was away have a realistic chance of closing the gap more when he gets back? KENNY PERRY: We'll only see -- he hurt his left knee. I had surgery on my right, and I think the left knee is more important than the right. Because when you're firing through that golf ball, you put a lot more strain on your left knee. So everything has kind of been hush-hush with Tiger. We don't know a lot about his recovery and coming back. Is he practicing? Is he hitting balls? When is he coming back? It's all pretty hush-hush. Don't know. Will he be as good or better or will he hit it as far or will he feel as comfortable on that knee? He has one of greatest workouts. He's religious when it comes to working out, so he'll be strong and fit. He's got the best short game of anybody out here. I think they may get a little closer, but I still think the gap is going to be fairly wide. If he comes back and plays like he's capable of playing, they are not going to get to him. He'll stay up there. Q. You can probably count on one hand the guys who have won majors 45 or older, and yet we've seen what you did last year, what Vijay has done throughout his 40s. Why do you think that is? Why do you think, given how well guys are playing late into their 40s, why you don't see it translate into majors? KENNY PERRY: Well, I mean, a lot of times, when I saw Vijay win that one tournament last year, he was really shaky with the flagstick. You could just see it in his stroke. And then he comes back and makes that 20-footer on Sergio and says, I'm the greatest putter on TOUR. I think you just lose things as you get older. It's the natural process, evolution of the game. You don't hit it as far. I had the yips for a while, middle of last year, you saw me skull it twice with my chipper at the John Deere for whatever reason. I had a little firing mechanism in my right hand and could not stop it. I calmed that down, so that's a lot better. Things change. Now, I don't see why it shouldn't. We've got more experience and we've got more confidence. We've got no worries, financially-wise. All we have is we are competing against ourselves out there. We are trying to -- you know, I've been out here 23 years, and there's a lot of bad thoughts in my head. A lot of things have happened to me, and there's a lot of great thoughts, too. I think being able to get on the mental side to where you can forget about all that stuff and play golf and just be in the moment and enjoy that ride, it will help you. There's just a lot of stuff up there in my head, anyway. I don't know if Vijay's got a lot in there, either. I don't see why we can't be very successful. Who was the oldest, Sam Snead, 48? Who was the oldest to win a major? Q. Julius Boros. KENNY PERRY: How old was he? Q. 48. KENNY PERRY: That's one of my goals. I'd like to get those odd records. You know, who won Annika's tournament; who is the oldest guy to ever win (laughter). I think I'm the oldest guy to ever win three tournaments in a year. Q. That was you. Congratulations. KENNY PERRY: So I'm the trivia guy. Q. That being said, what are the majors? What's the setup for the majors for you this year? Do you like the rotation? KENNY PERRY: Oohh. Well, it's not looking good, to tell you the truth. I've never played well at Augusta. But you know what, I've never -- I've never had the short game there. I've never had the flat stick. I've always been able to hit it from tee-to-green fine there. I'm a hooker, so, shoot, I can shape it right around 13. All that's no problem. I actually think with this putter I've got, as soft a face as it is and as slow as the ball comes off the face, I'll definitely have better speed control and ball control that week. So I'm actually looking forward to going back there. I've made the cut at Bethpage Black and Hazeltine and made the cut and finished in the middle of the pack. I have some knowledge there at those two venues. Bethpage, that's a hard golf course. I don't know if there's even a birdie hole on that golf course. That's just a grind-it-out, hang-in-there, and hopefully I'll keep driving it well and hit in those fairways and play okay. I've never played Turnberry, but I'm going. I'm looking forward to that tournament, too. Q. You were not eligible for any of the majors, I don't think, starting the year. KENNY PERRY: No, I was 100th in the world starting. Q. How was your schedule, because you stuck to your guns from the start, how does it set up this year? KENNY PERRY: Very similar, except I've added all the majors. I'm in the World events now. I'm in The Match Play this year, which I wasn't in last year, and the World Golf Championships event at Doral, which I wasn't in. I probably picked up six tournaments. I noticed by Greensboro I'll have played 26 events if I stick to my schedule. Q. Did you drop any? KENNY PERRY: No, I only played like 21, 22 last year, I think. I'm talking about -- actually, I added on. Because if I have 26 by Greensboro, and I get in the four FedEx, that will be 30 events for me. That's a huge year for me and a lot of events. I'm skipping the Hope, because Sandy is in charge of the TOUR Wives Association, so she says, "You're coming to Pebble." Q. When is the last time you played there? KENNY PERRY: Six or seven years. Q. Back when it was the Bing Crosby? KENNY PERRY: I don't think it was that long ago. I don't want to get the sponsors mad at me (laughter). Q. 30 seems like a lot for -- no offense -- but somebody that's your age -- KENNY PERRY: I'm catching you. (Laughter). Q. You are. But at the end of the day, do you really think you're going to get through 30? KENNY PERRY: I think so. That said, health-wise, will my wrist and knee hang in there? My knee gets sore a lot of times. It throbs on me. I had no problem getting through 26 last year and through the off-season, South Africa, Shark Shootout, Tiger's event. My feet are good and I'm getting around fine. I'm just trying to make my last push here. I figure this may be it for me, and I'm going to see how this year goes. And if this year doesn't go very well, you'll probably see me start scaling back the next few years. So I'm going to give it a pretty hard push and see what I can do. JOHN BUSH: Kenny, play well this week, thanks a lot. End of FastScripts |
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