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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLASeptember 26, 2009Kenny PerryATLANTA, GEORGIA COLIN MURRAY: You've equaled the low round of the tournament. If you could give us a few quick comments about getting it going today and we'll open it up to questions. KENNY PERRY: Well, four birdies in a row puts you in a good mood is all I can say. (Laughter.) You know, that kind of set the tone for the day, and I was just -- I hit it beautifully. I drove it great. The couple times I missed the fairway I was able to recover, and it was a very fun round of golf. I felt very comfortable. Those opening four holes really set the tone with what was going on with me today. Q. What did you have the first day, dehydration? KENNY PERRY: Definitely. I was sick. I was heat sick. I wanted to throw up on the first five holes. I was sweating -- y'all saw me yesterday. I sweated through my pants yesterday. It was terrible. And I've never been like that. I don't know what's going on, why I'm sweating so much all of a sudden. Yeah, I was very lucky. That 72 saved me. I putted unbelievable the first day. I bet I made eight putts outside of six feet or maybe eight feet for par. It was an unbelievable putting round, even though I felt terrible. I couldn't hit it. I felt like my arms were rubber bands. I just really felt out of place. That night I drank, I think -- I had three bananas three Powerades, three big bottles of water with amino, and I was doing everything I could to hydrate myself for the second round. That's probably why I sweated so much. I had so much in me. Got it around good yesterday, and then today thank goodness it clouded up. I'm still very hot out there, and it wasn't that hot. I don't know, I'm just really sweating right now. Q. When did you start feeling sick? KENNY PERRY: On the range. Q. Thursday? KENNY PERRY: On Thursday morning on the range. It was like a sauna on that range. It smoked me. Q. Speaking of sweating, do you know what you need to do to get the 10 million? Do you know the scenarios or do you want to know? KENNY PERRY: I've kind of looked. Tiger has got to finish 4th or worse. Is that correct? Q. I think it's T3 or worse. KENNY PERRY: There's a lot of scenarios out there. That will be neat to talk about it tomorrow if that happens. I probably won't pay a lot of attention to the boards. If I can just kind of maintain what I'm doing right now and keep playing, I think we'll just see. I mean, it might be some excitement coming down the last couple holes. Everybody will kind of be figuring numbers and percentages, who falls where. It might be exciting tomorrow. Q. You obviously play for a lot of money every week. Does $10 million get your attention? KENNY PERRY: How can it not? (Laughter.) But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you this, it's not going to change my life if I win the $10 million. My life will stay the same. But it will definitely give me some opportunities to help some people. I want to start a foundation. There are some things I want to do for charities. It's definitely not going to change my life. I'll definitely be thinking about it out there, but if I win it or don't win it, it's not going to change anything about it. Q. Does Justin get 10 percent of the bonus? KENNY PERRY: I think he deserves it. He's doing a great job out there. We're having a great time. Q. You know, it's been said forever, beware the sick golfer. Is your story this week Case No. 8,432,000? KENNY PERRY: Could be. I mean, I was. I was out of control on Thursday. I didn't know if I was going to finish the round. I thought I was having heat stroke out there. That's the first time I've ever felt likes that. I thought physically something was really wrong with me. But I rolled the ship. We're all right right now, and I think I'll be good for tomorrow. Q. (Inaudible.) KENNY PERRY: No, I didn't play that year. That's when Larry won, Larry Nelson. Q. Do you have any idea when these hot streaks are coming, because there's been absolutely nothing over the last, you know -- last week, the week before you've been down in the 40s and kind of grumpy and playing and not doing much. KENNY PERRY: You've got to understand, I'm playing a course now I've played ten times or whatever. I've played a lot here. I've never played Liberty National. I don't do well at courses I don't know very well it seems like. I can't figure them out real quick. To me I like to keep my yardages, my notes, over the years, and I can really pay attention to what's going on out there. I play here a lot. I understand this golf course. I've never been a great September player, ever in my career. Normally September I was coaching high school golf. I'd always take September off and then come back and play a little in the fall, October and November. And now I had to play more with this FedEx thing. These courses, I just don't play well on those courses. I don't play well at Boston, and those courses just don't seem to suit my eye. I don't know what it is. It just seems like to me I play good at courses I understand, I've played a lot, I have experience at. My 23 years out here, it just seems I can put it to work. I've got a lot of information on this golf course. Q. Is there anything you did with your driving to straighten it out over the last couple days? KENNY PERRY: Yeah, I moved it back. I moved it back probably three to four inches in my stance. I was playing it kind of up off my left toe, and I was trying to cover the ball more. I've been kind of under -- my fault is the club drops in underneath me and I end up hitting a pull draw. So I was trying to shove it way forward so I had to kind of chase to get to it and cover it a little bit and change the path of my golf club. And it didn't work on the first day, plus I was feeling terrible. Friday morning I said, okay, we're going to go back to the way I can -- to get it around kind of golf, the Band-Aid kind of golf, what I feel like I can hit the fairway with. It worked. I drove it a lot better, and I drove it really nice today. Q. Just a quick follow-up question. Tomorrow the final pairing will be the guys who have won the most tournaments in '08 and '09, you and Tiger. I think he's won ten and you're five if I'm not mistaken. Do you take pride in that? Can you address that? KENNY PERRY: Definitely. With this type of competition that you play against week in and week out and the toughness of the field, you know, Tiger is definitely No. 1. He's kind of head and shoulders above us when he's playing his game. It's not bad being No. 2, you know, when you've got the world class players we've got out here playing. No, I look forward to it. I'm going to jab him a little bit tomorrow. I want to be his partner in the Presidents Cup here in the next couple weeks. I'm kind of scrapbooking, guys. I've got memories going right now. I would love to play one match with him somehow if Freddie would let me to do that. I'm kind of putting a plug in early, y'all get that in the papers so he can read it. Q. Can you just go through the first four holes? Did you just stick it close or make the -- KENNY PERRY: I did. The first hole I hit a driver and a sand wedge to four feet, and second hole I hit a beautiful 5-iron from 223 or whatever it was, back left pin. That's where I like them, kind of hit my little draw in there about eight feet right of the hole. 3, I hit a good drive and a 60 degree sand wedge to about three feet. Then 4, good drive right down the middle, and I hit an 8-iron to about eight feet past the hole. It was another beautiful golf shot to that back left pin. There's like a crown short of the pin. You really had to hit a good golf shot to get it close there, and made another nice putt to keep me going. Q. You may have already talked about this, but did I read or hear that you might be scaling your schedule back next year? KENNY PERRY: Yeah, I'm thinking about it, very seriously wanting to with the health of my mother. She's not doing very well at all. My sister yesterday says she quit -- she's not talking much now. She won't talk. It's happening really fast. So that will determine how I do my schedule next year, how she's doing and how my family is doing, my dad is doing. But yeah, I'm just going to enjoy it and play the tournaments I love to play and just kind of pick and choose. I'll play some senior events next year. You'll see me do that, too, so I'll kind of have the best of both worlds going. Q. Can you talk about just what kind of an emotional week it's been, winning the Payne Stewart Award obviously on Tuesday? KENNY PERRY: Well, that was so humbling. That was one of the greatest honors I've had bestowed on me. I was flattered, I was shocked. I looked at the list of all those men who have received it before me, and I felt uncomfortable. I felt like I didn't belong. They are men I've always put on a high plateau above me. To have Tracy there and Chelsea was there -- I just wanted to honor Payne that night. I wanted to give Tracy and Chelsea a hug. The Southern Company has continued with the legacy of that and has grown it. Thank goodness I went to the award last year when Davis received it, because this southern boy would have definitely been out of his element, and I would not have been prepared for that speech. But it was a fun night. It was a beautiful evening. I can't thank them enough. I'm shocked. I had so many people this week congratulate me in the gallery about the award, and then they put a full-page ad in the sports, in the USA Today, which blew me away. It's been a very special week. Q. Obviously you got that award for a reason. You're one of the nicest guys out here and contribute greatly. Was the motivation from that feeling blessed to get on TOUR, or would you have been involved no matter -- KENNY PERRY: Definitely, life lessons. Ronnie Ferguson, he got me going. He got me the money I needed to get through the qualifying school. He taught me a lot of things, taught me about giving, benevolence. To me that's what it's all about. That's why I talked about the 11 million is not going to change my life any. I won't do anything with it. I'll probably end up giving it away more than I'll keep it. To me that's more important. That's all I want to do. I've got everything I need. Q. Do you believe in karma? You got the award earlier this week, so of course I'm going to play well? KENNY PERRY: I don't know. I don't know. It might be magical, we'll see. Q. I just wanted kind of some playful clarification here, but at the start of the year you were talking about maybe feeling good enough I can win 20. Then you said you were kidding. Then you won twice. Then it became real. Now you're not so sure. What's the number, Kenny? KENNY PERRY: (Smiling) you know, I can't answer that, I really can't. I can't understand why I continue to play as well as I do. Maybe I don't have as much pressure on myself. I'm more relaxed, easy going. But yet I still have a burning desire to win golf tournaments. I'm a very competitive person inside. And when I'm out there competing, I want to win. Is that going to get me to 20? You guys know, it's hard to win out here, win one, much less I'm going to have to win six more times, and here I am at 49. It might happen, might not. It don't really matter. I'm having fun with it. Q. What would be the most meaningful thing if you were to win tomorrow? KENNY PERRY: Wow. I mean, there's a couple things, like the gentleman said on the Payne Stewart -- to have certified the Payne Stewart Award and to be able to win that for them and to have Justin caddying for me and be able to see me in my element under the heat, under the utmost pressure you could probably have on yourself, I'll draw a lot on The Masters tomorrow. I was feeling a lot of heat that day. My youngest daughter flew in from SMU yesterday. She was with me, and my oldest daughter and son-in-law are driving up tonight, so I'll have the whole gang here tomorrow, my family. I hope mom and dad will be watching. Hopefully I can lift her spirits a little bit. Q. Over the years what's a U.S. Open victory worth, a Masters victory, I've got to think you'd take that 11 million and give it in for a green jacket and not think twice? KENNY PERRY: Definitely. Yeah, the green jacket to me was it. That to me would have been the ultimate, yep. End of FastScripts |
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