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FBR OPEN

January 30, 2009

Kenny Perry

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

DOUG MILNE: Kenny Perry, thanks for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center of the FBR Open. 1-over 72 yesterday, 8-under 63 today. Obviously a tale of two different days. Out there you commented this morning this is one of your favorite tournaments. If you could elaborate on that a little bit and jump into the round.
KENNY PERRY: I had a chance here in 2002. Chris DiMarco beat me. I had the lead through 13 holes on Sunday, and I missed about a two-footer for birdie on 13 to go 2-up on him, and he birdies, I think, 15, 16, and then closes me out 1-up on the last hole.
I've had a lot of Top 10s here. I just enjoy coming here. It's just a fun tournament. I had those kids today that were yelling at me about how ugly my sweater was that I had on today. So that's interesting. I had a guy yesterday yelling "Noonan" at me on a chip shot. I pushed it to the right on 17 up in the hill, up by the grandstands -- you know, you've just got to kind of bite your tongue, and hopefully you hit a good shot.
I love this golf course. It just seems to fit my eye, and I enjoy putting the greens. They're very firm right now. I think that's why I was forcing it with the morning time with perfect weather; greens were as soft as they were going to be, and I got away with it. I played beautiful. I shoot 5-under on the front nine, I birdie 1, and then I eagle the 3rd hole. I had a lot of opportunities out there. It was a fun day. It was a fun, relaxing round of golf.

Q. Since the 14th hole yesterday, your 14th hole, you've done a pretty big turnaround. Did something just click at that point?
KENNY PERRY: No, not really. I was 4-over going into the 15th hole and basically was out the door. I had 275 to the flag on 15 and told my caddie, I said, "Just give me a 3-wood, it really doesn't matter." Just pured it right in the middle of the green, two-putted for birdie, stuffed it on 16 and then made about a 45-footer for birdie on 18, and next thing you know I salvaged the round and went out today and played great. It's amazing how one shot here or there can completely turn you one direction or another.

Q. Would you say that this is the only tournament where people are never afraid to say something to you?
KENNY PERRY: Definitely, definitely. Maybe the 17th at Warwick Hills is pretty rowdy, that par-3 there. But by far this is the one where they'll say -- they're out to try to make you choke, basically.

Q. But ultimately that doesn't bother you?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, it does bother me. When you've never had that in the history of your career, and now all of a sudden one week you've got to -- I've been out here 23 years. I've got a lot of skeletons up in my head, and you just -- I've experienced all the shots. I shanked a pitching wedge the first hole this year at Kapalua right out of the gate, right out of bounds. You try to fight the demons and then you get them thrown at you.

Q. But at Kapalua there's nobody there to holler anything.
KENNY PERRY: No, they all just gasp (laughter).

Q. Is it good for you?
KENNY PERRY: You know, it'll either make you mentally stronger or it may affect you a little bit down the road. You never know. I've always felt like I could handle it, but there's been times I haven't been able to. It's a roller coaster out here. It's amazing how strong the mind is, and if you can sway your mind -- if you're in a certain rhythm and in a certain pattern and somebody can break that pattern of you, it puts you in a whole new, different sphere, different element out there to where all of a sudden now you're feeling something different that you hadn't been feeling, and it could actually hurt you or it could make you refocus even harder and get stronger.

Q. Have you ever really felt apprehensive walking in that portal on 16?
KENNY PERRY: Not really, no. I saw a stat last night, I'm the No. 1 guy on that hole. I'm 12- or 13-under for 73 holes. I was watching the broadcast last night, and they said I've played that hole better than anybody. I've been very fortunate, made lots of birdies on it.

Q. Will you be going back to P.F. Chang's tonight?
KENNY PERRY: I should. We were sitting there eating, and I was telling the Scotts - I stay with Bill and Sherry Scott every year - and my wife and my son, I said, "That meal was so good I'll probably shoot 63 tomorrow." That's the exact words out of my mouth, and I go shoot it, so what does that tell you? It tells you how strong the mind is.

Q. And were Nitties and Glover there the night before you?
KENNY PERRY: They were. The waiter told me I should have been there the night before because they were in there and what they shot. It was pretty interesting. I might need to go there again tonight.

Q. P.F. Chang's is going to be on your visor?
KENNY PERRY: No, that's Briny Baird.

Q. You had mentioned you've been out here 23 years and had a lot of success, but what did last -- the success that you had last season at the Ryder Cup, what did that year mean to you?
KENNY PERRY: Well, it was the pinnacle of my career. I mean, it was the ultimate. The Ryder Cup was the greatest thing I've ever experienced in golf, period. I mean, to have my dad walk on that 16th green when I closed Henrik Stenson out, had my wife run out there, my three kids and have all of Kentucky behind me, I felt like Tiger Woods for one week. I felt like a rock star. And to have it all come together the way it did, and to be criticized all year for skipping majors -- you know, I had one goal and I stuck to it, and in the end it was the right way to do it.
You know what, they can criticize me all they want to, but to me that was what I was after, and that's all I wanted. I don't know how many opportunities I'll have to win majors, but I knew being in Kentucky -- I had a chance to rewrite my history.
In '96, Mark Brooks -- I screwed the 18th hole up there, made bogey on the 17th hole, and then I really screwed the playoff up, and Brooksy beats me in the playoff there to lose the PGA Championship there, so that's kind of what I was known for in Kentucky. I had a mulligan basically, I had a chance to rewrite history. That's kind of why I focused in on that deal.
Now all the Kentuckians will remember me for Ryder Cup. They won't remember that. So to me that's pretty neat.

Q. Do you plan on playing all the majors this year?
KENNY PERRY: Mm-hmm, I'm going.

Q. Every one of them?
KENNY PERRY: Yep.

Q. Has your skin gotten a lot tougher from the whole thing?
KENNY PERRY: No, I don't think so. I mean, it bothers me to tell you the truth. I get home at night, and it bothers me. I'll talk to my wife about it and stuff. Bottom line is you've got to play better. Somehow you've got to be stronger and try to get all those thoughts out of your head and clear your mind and go do your job. I don't know, I don't like people talking about me, I never have. But that's just life.

Q. I was just reading in the transcript from two weeks ago what you've been dealing with at home. Seems overwhelming to me, so I wonder where golf sort of fits in at a time like this.
KENNY PERRY: Well, I'm hoping the golf will help my dad. Obviously my mom has multiple myeloma cancer; she's struggling. My dad just had two stents put in his heart. He's been in and out of the hospital. He's lost over 40 pounds; he's been in bed now for over a month.
It was like he got to the Ryder Cup and he was trying to hard to get to the Ryder Cup, and just the strength to walk on that green, and then ever since then he has gone downhill.
If I can just somehow play well, keep my name -- he really loves watching me play golf, and he loves -- that pumps him up. If I can somehow get him through this winter -- I think he's really depressed. He's on antidepressants; they've got him on a lot of drugs. He probably takes 20 pills a day. I saw his little pillbox; it's nasty.
I've got to somehow get him to the summer to get him back to my golf course. He loves going to my golf course and just hanging out with all the people and talking and saying hi. He's my ambassador out there at Country Creek, the little course I own. But I don't know, I tell Sandy I'm really worried about him.
Then my mother-in-law, my wife's mom, fell at Wendy's and broke her kneecap and fractured two vertebrae in her back. So she's been in the hospital for over three months. And we just got our house handicapped-proof to where we can get her out of the hospital and now she's back home. We had three parents in the hospital, all in different hospitals. One was in Vanderbilt, one was in Franklin my town, and one was in Bowling Green, Kentucky, so we were doing a lot of hopping.
It's been a tough time, tough go for us. We just need to figure out some way to get us through this winter, and hopefully they're going to come out of this deal.

Q. Does the concentration required to shoot a 63 or to play competitive golf --
KENNY PERRY: I just need to play well for him. I've got to somehow stay up there, just where he'll get out of bed maybe and go sit down by the TV and watch TV and just get up. I always say if you lay in bed too long, you can get pneumonia, your kidneys start messing up. There's a lot of problems with him staying in bed for three months, four months now, whatever.
He hasn't even smoked a cigar. He hasn't had one cigar. He's smoked cigars his whole life. When I know he's not smoking cigars, I know something is up.

Q. On your round today, could you tell us about the eagle, and also, did you have any spectacular birdies in there? I think you made like seven today.
KENNY PERRY: Actually on 1 I chipped in. I was a little left of the green and chipped it up the fringe and it went in, which was a nice bonus, which was my 10th hole.
On 3 I hit a driver and a 4-iron about 15 feet left of the hole. It was a beautiful little shot in there and had six, eight inches of break, and it broke right in the middle of the hole.
But I got off to a good start. I birdied 10 which was my first hole right out of the gate, I hit a sand wedge real close.
I birdied 13, the par-5. I hit a driver, 5-iron about ten feet from the hole. I had a great shot at making eagle there and missed it.
14, I hit a driver and a pitching wedge probably eight feet right of the hole, ten feet, made a nice putt there.
15, I didn't go for it today. I laid it up and hit a 100-yard sand wedge to about six feet and tapped that one in.
And then I drove 17 green, two-putted for birdie there.
And then birdied 1, 3 -- bogeyed 2. I had a 100-yard sand wedge in front of the green and it rolled over and I hit a poor chip coming back and missed about a four-footer.
5th hole I hit a good drive and a sand wedge. It was playing straight downwind today, hit a sand wedge to about 20 feet past the hole and made a nice curler down the hill, and I think I parred out.
DOUG MILNE: Kenny, thanks for your time. Best of luck the rest of the way.

End of FastScripts

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