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TRANSITIONS CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 17, 2010Kenny PerryPALM HARBOR, FLORIDA MARK WILLIAMS: Kenny Perry, thanks for joining us here at the Transitions Championship. Obviously you have a big involvement with Transitions, you are a Healthy Sight Ambassador for them. Just take minute to talk about what you do for them in that respect. I know that you're involved in a youth wellness day with the children this afternoon. Talk about that a little bit. KENNY PERRY: It was awesome to see all of those kids out there running around today. Massive groups of kids. I actually feared for of this lives with the amateurs hitting balls, might clock one of them. It was neat to have them, just the excitement, they were asking me questions like: When did you start golf, why do you play golf, just do you love it. It's pretty neat listening to their questions they ask you. It's just nice to be here. You know, I represent Transitions, and it's been a great fit for me with all my eye troubles and LASIKs twice and trying to wear a LASIK contact lens. I've had to withdraw from a few tournaments with that scratched cornea deal. So it's nice to finally get a product on me that I can actually see. I don't have any perception problems. They work, and this is the same pair I wear outside, they turn into sunglasses outside. My eyes are not straining anymore and my vision is excellent. It's been very comfortable. I'm not having to worry about my eyes just always irritated, inflamed. So that's been very peaceful and I thoroughly enjoy being -- and they are just great people. We have got a great connection with them, and they have treated me like a prince. So I just can't say how grateful I am to be with this company. They have got me all over the golf course; and the players are mad, because they are tired of looking on my face, so I figure they are going to try to draw mustaches on all of the pictures. It's pretty neat. MARK WILLIAMS: Last year you were experimenting with the lenses and now you've been wearing them since the Shark Shootout. KENNY PERRY: Correct. That was my first week I officially dumped the contact lenses, and I'm not going to look back. It's been a very easy fit. It's been great. They got me right into this pair. Dr. Lambert went down to see him. He fitted me in my prescription. We have even got wrap-around lenses that it's kind of hard for a real bad astigmatism to get clarity with your vision, but shoot, they got me dialed right in and my vision has been great. MARK WILLIAMS: This is your seventh start here at the Transitions, and you've played pretty steadily and pretty nicely through the time. What are you looking forward to this week at the Innisbrook Course to get you over the hump and a victory this week? KENNY PERRY: I love this golf course because it doesn't take many under to win. It plays a lot like a major championship. It plays like an Open. I think Retief was either 7-under or 9-under last year, I can't remember. But it's a ball-striker's golf course and you have to drive it beautifully here. That's usually the strength of my game. If I can iron it well and my putter will start waking backup again -- I've been struggling all year with the putter, because mine broke at Kapalua and I had to re-shaft it and I just can't quite get the same look and feel. But I think I'm getting closer. So I'm looking forward to a great week. I think if I can shoot, you know, 2-under every day, I think a guy can put that in his head, you know. He's got a very real shot to win here. I mean, this is such a great golf course. You've got to hit every shot out there. It's very demanding. And it's in great shape. It's beautiful once you're walking the fairway. So I'm looking forward to a good week. Q. Is it still the Craz-E you are using? KENNY PERRY: It was crazy. It was five minutes before my tee time at that time Kapalua. I hit about a 30-foot putt and I looked down and instead of the facing where I hit it, it had spun completely around 360 on the shaft and then it fell off. So what happened, the PING, they this a ball bearing down in the hosel, and the shaft goes over, that's what holds it, and I guess the gentleman, Paul Ardgarten, the gentleman that gave it to me, the member at Bent Pines, I think he threw it in a lake or something, because the shaft rusted from the inside out. And you so key it broke around the ball bearing around that hosel, and it just broke, and the head, too and fell right off the club. I sent it back to PING to get it reshafted. Q. Whole new shaft? KENNY PERRY: You have to. The Craz-E has a double-bend shaft in it. It's not like a straight-in hosel and you can't duplicate the double-bend shaft. So that's what's been -- it's really been a pain, it's really been very frustrating to go from a putter you've loved and had all the success with it and you can't use it. It's been a couple years, '08 and '09, my two good seasons. I probably started the end of '07 with it is when I first started using it. Q. So have you been experimenting? KENNY PERRY: No. All Craz-E's, same double-bent shaft. They probably made me 15 putters, PING has, and they just keep sending them to me. I was in there again today and I finally think we are getting it closer. And I've sent off three more back to the factory today. I've sent my old putter, the old head, because it -- each head feels differently as the ball comes off the face. Some are a little hotter, some are a little softer. I don't know what that material is, that blue insert, they are different. And I can feel it and I can hear it. They sound different off the putter. We are getting closer, so they are going to reshaft my old putter and make me two more like it and send it to Bay Hill on Monday. I have one now and I think it's okay. I wouldn't say it's perfect, but it will get me through the week. And hopefully I'll stumble upon a look, my optics -- my other putter, where I was looking, that's where the ball went. That's what was so neat about my putter. I kind of aim a little right and pull across it, but it would always start on-line. Well, now I'm aiming it and the ball is starting left every time, left of where I think I'm aiming. So obviously they may be a little shut or not it as open. My other putter was probably a little more open than what I've gotten. It's just been tough to duplicate and get the putter to sole and sit right on the ground. Q. Subsequently, has it played into your confidence? KENNY PERRY: Definitely. I 3-putted three times on Sunday at Doral, and I missed two 2-footers. That's something I don't ever do. It will get in your psyche a little bit. And that will funnel down into the rest of your game, you get so frustrated with your putting, it funnels right into your long game. But I've been optimistic. I haven't played a lot this year. So I've kind of gotten off -- I wouldn't say a very fast start like I did last year, but I've enjoyed my time at home with the family. Now I'm kind of firing up. I mean, I've played last week. I'll play Bay Hill. I'll have a week off and then the Masters, and a couple of weeks off, and then I really go. I'll play probably seven or eight out of the next ten weeks. So I'm going to play pretty hard all through summer. So I'm ready for warmer weather, too. This year has been cold. And I just can't stand cool weather. Q. Is it Justin's job now? KENNY PERRY: Justin, as long as he wants it. As long as I can make money for him. Q. You were saying earlier that this is a ball-striker's golf course. I'm curious in that regard, is it a good warm-up for Augusta? I know a lot of the people talk about the speed of the greens here being similar. KENNY PERRY: A few of these greens are outrageously fast. There's not a lot of grass on the greens this year. I can understand with the winter being as cold, worst winter in a hundred years; I can see where the bermuda has been very dormant and not had a chance to pop and grow. There's a lot of overseed, and the greens are very thin and very fast and very firm. That is very similar. Around the greens is totally different. Augusta have all of the run-offs and the real tight lies. You have to pitch it totally different. Whereas here, the two-, three-inch rough right beside the greens, you can hit a little flop and just pop it out. Q. Maybe more tee shots and putting than any other aspect? KENNY PERRY: Definitely the tee shots. Augusta, everybody says it's an iron golf course, which it is. It's a second-shot golf course in my opinion, but you've got to drive it to have that second shot there at Augusta. And last year with my success, I drove it beautifully. I had a short driver there last year. I actually had a driver with more loft on it and one that went straighter. I probably had one I could hit ten yards further but for instance, like on the first and second hole, I could hardly even get to the bunker on the right on one and two I couldn't get it the bunker. So I was just aiming at all of this stuff and fire right away at it and not worry about it, not worry about the bunker so took everything out of play being shorter and gave me good iron shots into the greens. Q. Similar game plan looking ahead to Augusta this year? KENNY PERRY: I don't know. It's been tough for me. Another thing been the groove change. I've had to redo my whole bag from irons to wedges, everything in my golf bag is different the only thing that was the same was my putter. You know my driver has been different. TaylorMade's technology has gone now we have gone from the Burner to the SuperTri and the SuperFast and moving in that direction with the new woods. But the V-groove rule, I played that set of R7s for five years, the same set, I had not changed. I just love them. I knew the distances they were going. I just knew my characteristics with the clubs. I knew what my misses were going to do with them and what they were going to do on high grass. I've been catching flyers this year, been kind of rocketing a few over greens and back bunker, something I don't have do. With the square grooves, I could hardly move it out of the rough. So I always came up short. You can always pitch from the short. But when you go long, normally the greens all slope back to front, and pitching is a lot more difficult and back bunkering is tough. So I found myself in some spots this year that have been like, whoa, what am I doing here. You know, and so that's kind of been tough. So it's kind of been a combination of a lot of things from equipment to putter to everything why I think I don't quite have the confidence that I've had the last couple years. Q. Do you expect to have any emotion or different feeling or what have you when you go back to Augusta? KENNY PERRY: Well, sure. I wouldn't be human if I didn't have any emotion going back there. But like I said in the past, I don't have any ill feelings about that deal. I don't have any sadness. My comment is I smile every time I think about Augusta. You know, it was truly a remarkable week for me. It was a perfect week. It didn't end the way I wanted it to end, but yet, for 70 holes, I played flawless golf. I had a game plan, stuck to it, and it was perfect. It just -- my game plan, I wanted to come out on the 72nd hole and changed my strategy; and thinking I'm 2-up, all I'm thinking is I have to make two pars to win the Masters, and I shouldn't have thought like that. I should have thought: Let's hit the drive, let's do what we have been doing for the past week and a half, because I went in four days early and played practice rounds the week before, played the holes, thought about the holes, the feeling inside myself, not think about the lead or nothing. The 16th hole, I hit the greatest shot of my life and might have been totally different if I had not hit it so close, that 8-iron that I thought I almost made on 16. But you know, it was just -- I had my kids there, everybody was there. It was just truly remarkable. It just didn't end -- Cinderella didn't get the slipper, but it was really a neat week. I'll go back and look back. How can you not reminisce. Q. When will you go? Will you go early this time again? KENNY PERRY: No. I'll probably go Sunday. Last year, I went like on Wednesday. I've already got my yardage book. Everything is charted from last year. I know they haven't changed the golf course any. So my notes and all are all still there and I'm prepared so I'm ready to go back. Q. A couple of us were talking about the playoff and the shot Cabrera hit first into the trees and the crazy one he hit out of the trees, nobody has been able to come up with a luckier bounce in crunch time at a major down the stretch in recent history. I'm wondering when you're a player and watching that unfold, what runs through your mind when you see a guy get a break like that. Obviously you had to capitalize on it but that was as big a break as anybody's gotten in a long time. KENNY PERRY: I didn't think nothing of it. To tell you the truth, I was over there in the fairway, I had an 8-iron in my hand and I was just trying to figure out a way to get my 8-iron in the middle of the green and made birdie. I heard him hit it. I heard it hit the tree and I never saw the ball. I never could find the ball either. Finally, even though I'm out in the fairway, I think I was looking back -- I was looking behind and then I turned and looked forward and there it was up there in the fairway. You know, it was a good break, but you need breaks to win tournaments. When I look back, I 3-putted the -- the thing that kills me was my 3-putt on 13 when I knocked it on in two. I had about a 25-foot eagle putt and I 3-putt there. We can all look back and see where we -- I've had good breaks to win golf tournaments and I've done things to lose golf tournaments. You know, still, then he had to hit a nice shot from the fairway and then he still had to make a 7- or 8-footer there, straight down the hill, glassy putt, knowing I've almost chipped it in and I've got it stone dead. He knows he's got to make it to continue on. My hat was off to him. He did a great job. Q. You said yesterday it was going to be good for the TOUR to get its stud back, I believe, was your choice of words. But there's been kind of speculation all through the early part of the schedule that whatever tournament Tiger comes back at, he's going to just overpower; how does that shake out with Augusta? Is it big enough to withstand that? KENNY PERRY: Oh, yeah, Augusta it will withstand anything. It will be a good place for him to come back. I thought he would come back next week, to be honest. It's in his backyard there and he's won it six times. Arnie, they would have been great to keep him protected or whatever the problem they think they are going to have with him coming back. I think it would have been a good time for him to get some tournament golf under his belt. But he'll do fine at Augusta, too. What's he won there, four times? You know what, he's going to come back, personally, I think he's going to come back and play great. I feel like he's got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder a little bit, and I think it's going to make him stronger. I really do believe it. He's going to come back and he's going to do what Tiger does. I look forward to it. I hope he does. Q. Do you feel like he has to rebuild any aura or does he get to show up with what he left with? KENNY PERRY: No, no. How many times he won, 60-something? 70 times? It's incredible how that kid can play. Everybody knows when he's on his game, we have got our work cut out for us. Q. What do you think how you would play, if you went five months off, made your first tournament at Augusta and -- KENNY PERRY: I play four, five weeks in a row, usually the first two weeks are terrible, and third week is okay, and maybe by the fifth week I'm all right and then I'll take a week off and then I'll go at it again. You know, but he's had long stretches off in the past and he's come back and won the first week out. I don't see how people do that. I really don't understand that. I cannot process that in my head. It's like a billion dollars; that doesn't compute with me. (Laughter). I'm like you; I think he needs to get competitive somewhere -- I don't know if he's playing in the Tavistock Cup. Q. No. KENNY PERRY: He's not playing in that either? Well, he's going to astound us all if he goes out there and wins the thing. Q. Bob says he'll play in a Par-3 Contest. KENNY PERRY: (Laughter). Q. The dynamic of when Tiger shows up on the range or the practice green, does that change? What do you say to a guy who has been out for five months, because of tabloid headlines? KENNY PERRY: Great question. You know, I don't know. I'm going to go give him a hug. I'm going up there and get right in his face and tell him if I can do anything for him, let me know. I'm here to help you. I'm not going to -- I don't know. It's going to be weird for the first two guys that have to play with him on the first day at Masters I think. That's going to be an interesting situation. I just hope we get through this, get over it, get back to golf, get the TOUR back to where it needs to be, let's get it excited and let's get people focused on it and let's make golf the greatest sport out there. That's what I'm here for. Q. There are some players that said, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near Tiger's pairing on Thursday at the Masters? KENNY PERRY: I would say it would be a tough pairing to tell you the truth. I'm old enough to maybe handle that, I don't know much maybe you need some hillbilly like me to do that. But it will be different, you know, because I'm sure the players will be focused on Augusta, yet focused on what's going on with him, and paying attention to what he's doing out there, too. A bit curious -- curiosity to how is he hitting the ball, how is he going to play. Q. In a way, you're a part of history, and you've still got to focus on what you're doing? KENNY PERRY: I wouldn't say it's history, but it's just something new. It will challenge us mentally and physically, and how we are going to adapt to it, I guess. Q. The reaction to what he did, obviously in some quarters have been pretty harsh, I can imagine you probably had some feelings on that front yourself being a pretty religious guy -- KENNY PERRY: Very much so. Q. There's a possibility when he comes back in a lot of people, he's going to be the bad guy for the first time in his career; how do you think he will handle that? KENNY PERRY: I hope not. I think people will forgive. I don't know anybody in this room that is perfect. We have all made mistakes. It's like any sickness, like alcohol, drugs, you name it; there's so many things out there that people get hung up into and it grabs you and just can't get away from it for whatever reason. I don't know what does that inside a person. But I hope America for gives. I hope we are that country that will forgive, and give him a second shot. You know what, everybody deserves a second chance. We have all said this, and we will just have to see, will he actually on what he said. We all heard the press conference, what he said. If he honors it, we need to stand behind him. That's just the way I look at it. Q. Do you think Wales will forgive him? KENNY PERRY: No. (Laughter). End of FastScripts |
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