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FBR OPEN

January 31, 2009

Kenny Perry

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Kenny Perry in, Kenny with a 5-under par 66 this afternoon with birdies at the 17th and 18th. The last one at 18 from almost 33 feet, as you said, good time to make one.
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, supper is going to taste good tonight. Great day. I actually felt better from tee to green today than I did the first two days. My putter was off. I left every putt today for whatever reason until the last hole. The greens to me looked faster than what they were, and my lines were good, but I left a lot of putts going right in the hole just short. I don't think I made a bogey. I don't even think I was in trouble to make a bogey. Oh, 7. I hit the prettiest shot of the day, hit a 5-iron drawing right in there, lipped out, almost made a hole-in-one. It went over to the back fringe and I kind of chilied my chip and I two-putted and made an easy 4, so that was kind of frustrating. But other than that, my birdies were close and short except on the last hole, and it was a fun day.
I drove 17, two-putted for birdie there. I knocked it on the front on 15 and three-putted for par on 15.
And 13, I hit a driver and a 5-iron about 15, 18 feet there, or 20 feet, just missed it for eagle. I'm hitting it nice. I just need to get the putter to be a little sharper tomorrow.
JOE CHEMYCZ: 16 of 18 fairways, 31 putts. So about 66 about the worst it could have been today.
KENNY PERRY: Definitely. It was a fun round of golf, very relaxing.

Q. How comfortable are you in this position right now?
KENNY PERRY: I don't think you ever get comfortable in it, but I've been here a few times. I mean, I enjoy it. I actually -- to me this is what you work so hard to get to. I've only won once maybe in my 12 wins coming from behind, and so it's nice to have the lead. That's why I really wanted to make that putt on the last hole.
I look forward to tomorrow. I'm hitting it great, I feel good, my body is good, so it's going to be a fun day tomorrow.

Q. Were you aware of what was going on with Scott ahead of you?
KENNY PERRY: Well, I saw him at 14-under. I looked at my caddie, Freddie, and I forget where I saw he was 14-under. I was probably on 9 or 10 when I saw that, and I don't know what he did coming in, but then when I picked him up on 17, I saw him back at 11 and I couldn't believe it. I was like, "What happened?" So either they put wrong numbers up or he had a couple tough holes coming in.
I like Scott. I played a practice round with him in Hawai'i. I think he's a rookie this year, or he may have Monday qualified for a few events, but I think this is his first full exemption out here. He's got a sweet swing, very smooth, rhythmic swing, which I like watching.

Q. At that point you were probably like four or five back, but were you thinking the birdie holes are coming up?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, my kind of goal out here is to get through 12. If you can get through 12 a couple under, I'm always excited to get to 13, 15, 17. There's some holes that you really can turn this tournament around in a hurry. So you've just got to be patient. You know, 11 and 12 are tough holes. There's some tough holes out here you've got to get through. 5 and 6 are playing hard, 8 and 7. The front side to me is a very difficult nine holes, and if you can somehow survive that nine and get it under par somehow through the front nine, it really sets up the day for that back nine.

Q. So there were some low scores out there today, and then you said you were hitting all your putts at it and just leaving them short. Do you think it's going to be the same kind of conditions tomorrow?
KENNY PERRY: I think so. They probably won't put a lot of water out on the greens. The golf course is in great shape. The greens are fast. To me they're not rolling as fast as what I'm seeing, what my eyes are seeing. I like how I putted today, I just couldn't let the putter -- it didn't want to release a little bit. The ball felt like it was stuck on the face a little bit today for whatever reason, which is a good thing. Normally I get that little right hand popping at it, and I'm usually knocking it way by the hole. But today they were all just kind of lagging up to the front of the lip. But it was all right. 5-under, I can't complain. If I go out there and do that again tomorrow, I'm going to have a great shot.

Q. Somebody looking at your scores might think that there was some line of demarcation between your first round and what you've done the last two. Was that something you figured out or is it one of those quirky things?
KENNY PERRY: Not really. I said earlier I was out of here. I'm 4-over with four to play on Thursday and just pretty much mad basically going into 15, and I had 275 yards to the hole from the left side of the fairway, and I just took 3-wood out, and normally I probably wouldn't play that play normally, I'd probably play a little more cautious. But at 4-over I smashed it as hard as I could hit it right in the middle of the green and two-putted for birdie, and then I hit it close on 16. And then I made a 45-footer for birdie on 18 to close out late in the afternoon there to shoot 1-over and actually saved the round.
And then come out here and shoot 63 the next day. You know what, it's amazing what one shot can do for you in a tournament. You can either go one way or another with one golf shot.

Q. Are you still going to the P.F. Chang's theory of excellence?
KENNY PERRY: No, I didn't go there last night, but it worked that one night I can say.

Q. Scott and you are two of the longest players still up in the tournament. Does it matter tomorrow that you'll be paired with a long hitter or does it not matter?
KENNY PERRY: Well, I like playing with somebody who has a good tempo, rhythmic swing. If you've ever watched him he's very deliberate on the backswing and has a lot of acceleration coming through. That's kind of the way I was taught. I think it'll help me watching him swing the golf club. But this golf course is tough, the rough is tough, you've got to hit the fairways, and the driver has always been one of the best clubs in my bag and I love hitting it. It's carried me through 23 years out here, so I'm going to keep going with it.

Q. Is it good to be done with the Saturday round with all the hoopla and the crazy fans out here?
KENNY PERRY: You know, I was kind of disappointed on 16. I was expecting more. There were a lot of empty seats to the left of the tee box where all the kids usually sit. I guess they had gotten tired and left, they were done partied out. It's still a beautiful hole, and it's a fun hole. For once all year to have a hole like that, it's kind of neat to play it.

Q. Off the course you had mentioned yesterday some health issues with family members. I was wondering, is any of your family being burdened even more by this terrible ice storm situation that's going on?
KENNY PERRY: Well, I know 11 people have died back home. I don't know how many people are out of electricity still or still out of power. But in Franklin, I know it knocked all our cell towers out. I have AT&T back home and I can't get ahold of anybody because the cell system is all screwed up. But the people I have gotten to and talked to, Franklin is okay. It all hit further west and north up around Paducah. They got the brunt of it. I'm down by Nashville, Tennessee. I'm probably three hours south of there. I lost a big tree in my front yard. Somebody told me that it broke it in half. But Franklin is okay.

Q. Did you have issues with your eyes earlier in the week?
KENNY PERRY: I went to three doctors. I've had issues all year with them, all last year. I've had LASIK surgery twice. I'm wearing a LASIK lens because I have astigmatism so they're hard in the middle and soft on the outside, and it's a special built lens just for me. They told me when you look through your glasses you look through a 90, horizontal and vertical, they said after my surgery my eyes were like this. That's why I can't see very good in glasses. Actually, I've just signed on to transitional lenses this year. I met with a doctor for two days, and he thinks he can fix me glasses-wise, prescription-wise. I'm a right-handed right eye dominant, and my vision is -- my depth perception is off, but when I wear my contacts I'm okay, but they've been infected, I've been on Tobradex, it's a steroid, so my eyes have been really irritable this week. They said I had allergies out here, which I had never heard of eye allergies, but I've got some kind of deal where it feels like there's sand in my eyes. It feels like there's something in my eyes along with my contacts. It's been a battle.

Q. Were you close to not playing this week?
KENNY PERRY: No, I was going to play. If I had to play in my glasses, which I was originally going to do, I probably wouldn't have played because it's almost impossible.

Q. Does it affect anything out on the course for you?
KENNY PERRY: No, my vision was good today. When I can wear my contacts and they are not aggravating me too bad, everything is okay. I wore this pair all last year and they're okay.
JOE CHEMYCZ: Kenny, appreciate it.

End of FastScripts

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