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BUICK OPENJuly 30, 2009Tom Pernice, Jr.GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN JOHN BUSH: We welcome Tom Pernice here in the interview room at the Buick Open, after a 67 today. Tom is the winner of this tournament in 1999, and obviously a place you feel very comfortable at. If we could just get your comments on today's round. TOM PERNICE: Perfect day to come out. It was early this morning, but the greens were absolutely spectacular condition wise. I got off to a good start, made some nice putts, took advantage of the opportunities when I had them early in the round and got off to a pretty good start. So just it's the type of golf course that's in perfect condition. It's right there in front of you, and if you play well, as good as conditions of the greens are, you got a good opportunity to shoot good scores. There are going to be plenty of good scores today. I'm sure there will be some 6 or 7-unders out there. But I had a good start. Didn't quite play as well the last nine holes and had to get up-and-down a couple of times and missed a short par putt on No. 5, I believe. But other than that, I putted better today, and that was the difference. JOHN BUSH: All right. We'll answer questions. Q. What is it -- you know, you've been a mainstay here, Tom, through the years. What is it about the area, the atmosphere and the course that just suits you? TOM PERNICE: Well, I think any time you play an old, traditional-style golf course, everybody has good opportunity to play well and execute. You don't have to have just power here. So if you hit the ball in play, give yourself a lot of opportunities to make your putts, you shoot a good score here. You don't have to reach all the par-5s in 2, but you have opportunities if you hit good wedge shots and make the putts, you can get there. You don't have a lot of overly excessively long par-4s, and when you do, you have the firm of the greens, they're the classic style where you can run the ball up if you need to, if you do drive it in the rough. To me, it's just the way golf was meant to be played, very similar to Tom Watson playing so well at the British Open, it's an old, classic, Links-Style course, and this isn't Links, but length wasn't necessarily the issue. If you executed, hit the ball in play, got some roll in the fairway, hit some quality shots and putted well, you have the opportunities. So I think a lot of players really love coming here because it's an old, traditional, classic-style golf course. Numerous players, if you look at all of the past champions here, total diversity in terms of players from Vijay to Tiger to myself to Billy Mayfair, to you know, Jim Furyk, so there's a wide variety of people that have won here, and I think that lends itself that it's a great golf course. Q. Obviously brings a lot of players into the mix. Have there been any courses you've had to drop from your schedule because it's a little too much for you at this point? TOM PERNICE: Not necessarily dropped, but there's some courses that I like to play and some that I don't care to play at as much, so I love the style of play of this golf course. You know, I particularly didn't care for the setup at the PGA down the street here at Oakland. So you know, to each his own actually, but I like this more conservative classic-style golf course. It gives you an opportunity to play golf. If you miss the fairway, you can run it in. If you hit good wedge shots, you can capitalize. Plus, the greens are old-style. They're not Mickey Mouse greens, and you have the opportunity to hit good shots and make the putts. So I think a lot of the players like coming here because of the golf course, plus it's one of our oldest tournaments. The community's always been behind it. Buick's always been probably our biggest and most gracious and generous sponsor that we've had on the TOUR over the years. So I think that has a lot to do with it. I think Tiger committing to play here has a lot to say of his feelings of the golf course, the community and what Buick's meant to the PGA TOUR. So I always come here. It's my special place because of my first win, but before I won I always played here because I like the golf course, what Buick did and what the community did. Q. Are we going to lose all these type golf courses in time with the way the TOUR changes? TOM PERNICE: I hope not. You know, several weeks ago I didn't qualify for the British, but I was at Milwaukee. It's the same type of beautiful, old, classic-style golf course you can run the ball into. It just lends anybody to be able to play well, and I sure hope not. You know, there's a lot of good still old classical golf courses around, and I played with a couple of members here yesterday that have been here for a while, and they said, has the course gotten too easy? I said, no, the course is not too easy. Everybody's worried that this isn't any good if the winning score is 18, 19-under. It's quite the opposite. It just tells you that the weather conditions are good. Golf course is in good condition. You don't have a lot of wind. If they don't shoot 20-under, people need to realize something's wrong. That's why, to me, the setup down at Oakland Hills, the PGA if they wouldn't have gotten rain, 3, 4, 5, 6-over could have won. To me, it can't be a great course if it's too difficult. To me, the best players in the world under good conditions should be able to go out and score. I don't know if the USGA started it all years ago or not. But to me, like Oak Lawn, it's an unbelievable challenge, but to me is it a great course? I could never put Oak Lawn as a great course at Oakland Hills because it's too difficult. The average person can't go play there if it's a 15 handicap and not shoot over 100. I mean, what fun is that? It's still a game for enjoyment. Why I think Pebble Beach is the best course in the world, because no matter what your handicap, if you go play Pebble Beach in the right set of tees under good weather conditions and play well, you'll shoot lower than your handicap. And probably the same thing here. To me, that's what golf's about. They shouldn't be penalizing. A good quality golf shot should be a good quality golf shot. That's kind of my feeling. Q. What can we expect from Hazeltine in the next couple weeks? TOM PERNICE: All these holes, 512 yards, 490, the players don't have a lot of fun. The players like to come here -- it's still challenges you because you still know you have to hit the ball and execute and make the putts. But it's fun. It's fun for the spectators and fun for everything. To me, I don't care for it, to be honest with you. To me, the setup they had last week or two weeks ago at the British Open was outstanding. Q. You've been on the board. What's the discussion within the PGA TOUR about this and the type courses you like to play? TOM PERNICE: Well, I don't think -- unfortunately, I don't think the players have a lot to say about it, to be honest with you. I think a lot of it has to do with what the sponsor wants to do, so you know -- I've gotten myself in trouble by criticizing some of Reese Jones's re-dos and stuff over the years and some of his golf courses, but it's just not my particular style that I particularly care for. Now, some people may. That's fine, but you know, the other 51 weeks of the year, these other people that are average players need to be able to go play these golf courses and enjoy themselves. You know, PGA of America right now is trying to do all they can to encourage people to play more and have the game to grow, but the golf courses have gotten too difficult, and it takes five-and-a-half hours to play and people aren't having that much fun. So courses like this, I think they're a jewel and a gem, and Pebble Beach and Riviera, and the old-style courses, I just love them. Q. Does Charlotte fit into that? TOM PERNICE: Sure. It is. I mean Charlotte's, the difficulty they bring into Charlotte is they get the greens extremely firm and fast. Now, to me that's okay because you still have the opportunity to execute and stuff. But overall, it's an old-style, classic golf course, and you have a wide variety of winners at Charlotte as well. You have David Toms, who's not necessarily a long hitter. He's a finesse player. So it's just my style. I love courses like this, what they stand for. And what the old architects really had to work with. They didn't move much dirt. They were true artists, in my opinion, and I'm not too thrilled about what the modern-day architects are doing to a lot of the golf courses, unfortunately. Q. Nothing's official as far as if this is the end of the Buick Open here, but when you're out playing your first round today, which might be your first round, that you do play here, was there a sense from the gallery or from the fans -- like yesterday, Bob Seger was saying a lot of people were thanking Tiger for coming out. Were you getting a lot of that kind of stuff today during your round? TOM PERNICE: Not really. I think everybody's here to enjoy themselves and have a great tournament, to be honest with you. Any time you get Tiger to your tournament, you should thank Tiger for coming. There's a lot of tournaments that haven't seen Tiger yet, so the people here need to really appreciate what Tiger's done to come back here, and it's something that I don't think he planned on doing, but did. That means a lot to a lot of us, because a lot of us support a lot of different sponsors over the years and a lot of different tournaments, and it looks like Tiger stepped up to the plate, did what he needed to do to really help out Buick and the community here. So I thought it was a great thing, and it adds excitement any time Tiger's in the field. If it does happen and we leave here, I know I'll miss it very much because I enjoy the golf course and coming here, and I've played well here over the years. And I'm sure there's a lot of other people, like Jim Furyk and some other people. But you never know. There's a lot of companies that have gone through bankruptcy and came out stronger, and two or three years from now, you never know, they could be as strong as ever and we could be back here again, so you don't ever know. And the TOUR's got a lot of this coming up within the next two years leading up to our TV contracts in '12, and we've got a big job in front of us to sign a lot of title sponsors in the next two years, so the people here, Buick and the local people need to realize they're not the only folks that are going through this right now. There's going to be a lot of tournaments that are going through this. So it's part of the times and what we're going through, and we're just trying to do what we can, and try to think and hope that the sponsors see the value that they're still there in title sponsors on the PGA TOUR and hope the players can bring that value back to them for what they've done for us, and I hope Buick's back soon. If they do have to go away, they've probably been our most long-term sponsor we've had in a long time. So speaking on behalf of the players, if it is, we have a lot of thanks to Buick, for sure. JOHN BUSH: Just 24 putts today, Tom. Let's go through the birdies starting at No. 10. TOM PERNICE: Like I said, the greens were perfect out there, and I had 30 feet below the hole, perfect place to putt from and it went right in. So I had a good putt and convert, so it was a good sign right off the bat. Hit a good wedge into the 12th hole, made a birdie there from about eight feet or something. I can't remember which shot. Like I said, drove it in the rough at 13. Didn't have the opportunity to have a good birdie chance there. 14, hit a wedge in there about 20 feet, made the putt. So that really kept the round going. Hit a pretty good wedge, but it bit up on me, but I made the putt. Had a good chance on the next hole below the hole and didn't make it. And then the par-5, I hit three good shots, hit a wedge behind the hole about six or seven feet and made it. Played solid, hit two good shots at 17 and 18. Had tough putts, obviously, but didn't make them. Hit a nice wedge from right on the front of the green to about 6 feet at one and made the birdie. So things were going pretty good. Made a nice putt for par at 2 after I drove in the rough just short of the green. I made a nice putt to keep the round going about 12 or 15 feet. I bogeyed 5, I think. Hit a bad iron shot just on the left fringe, chip shot came up short and missed about a 6-footer. But was able to get one back on the par-5 coming in. That was about it. So happy with the start. I hadn't been playing very well and hadn't been converting and making some putts. So it was nice to see some putts go in and started to putt better the last three weeks. So hopefully it's something good to come for the rest of the week. JOHN BUSH: Well, keep going the rest of the week, and thanks for coming by. TOM PERNICE: Thanks, guys. End of FastScripts |
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