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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 5, 2010

Kenny Perry

AKRON, OHIO

LAURA HILL: We'll get some comments on your round starting out with a 66, a good start for this tournament.
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, definitely. I don't really have a lot of success here. The golf course has usually beat me up pretty good. Took a little bit different strategy. My oldest daughter told me she was pregnant on Sunday, I'm going to be a grand dad, so I stayed home. I didn't fly in here until late Wednesday, and just teed it up today.
I really didn't have any goals, any expectations, and just I've played a million rounds of golf here. I just knew what the golf course was like, and it just seemed like whenever I needed to make a putt, I made a putt. Whenever I needed to scramble, I scrambled well, and whenever I needed a quality iron shot I seemed to hit it.
It didn't feel like a 66. I felt awkward over the golf ball. I didn't feel comfortable over it, but it just kept going on the green, and I kept surviving. All in all I'm ecstatic with the start of the week.
LAURA HILL: Is it a matter of just lowering your expectations and just letting other happy things in life kind of take over.
KENNY PERRY: Well, they've been lowered all year (laughter.) I've played horrible this year, so -- you know, my game has struggled, I've struggled, and I've had a lot of issues, family issues, and we just -- I'm just trying to get through the year, get through the FedExCup, and I'm excited to go home. I turn 50 next Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to playing some on the Champions Tour this year. I've got a lot of things that are going to happen that my life is going to change a lot, so I'm looking forward to it.

Q. What is it about this course that beats you up so to speak?
KENNY PERRY: Well, it's just difficult. It's very long, 74, 7,500 yards. Especially now I don't hit it nearly as far as I used to hit it. I'm hitting a lot of long irons into the greens. But we got lucky today. The greens, I guess from that rain last night about 2:00 in the morning it dumped a lot of water on the golf course and the greens were holding F-- my iron shots are a lot flatter now than they used to be. Normally mine would go over the green, but they were all hitting and checking and making huge ball marks. I got lucky in that respect that all the greens were very receptive, and that's the reason why I guess the scores are going to probably be better today in general.
Normally the greens are very fast, very firm, and we've got narrow fairways out there, so the ball was plugging in the fairways. I had mud on my golf ball quite a few shots. I pulled a drive off the 4th hole, and in the past that would have always gone in the left rough. The fairway slopes really hard. The ball stayed in the left side of the fairway. We got lucky there. I guess if you got it somewhere in the fairway, it's going to stay in the fairway.
The 9th hole, I hit the 9th, which was my last hole, which is a fairway that's almost impossible to hit the way it's crowned, and shoot, the ball just hit and kind of plugged and stopped and stayed right in the middle of the fairway.
The golf course, if it doesn't get any more rain it'll get firm and fast and get real difficult like it always is.

Q. About the flatter iron shots, is that something you've worked on, or --
KENNY PERRY: No, I have less club head speed. I'm putting less spin on the golf ball and consequently if you've got less club head speed and less spin, the ball is not going to rise and get altitude when it seemed like I could generate more club head speed. I'm starting to look for 7 and 9-woods now.

Q. You had another great year last year, and then this year, like you say, you've struggled a little bit. Has it been more your game or the personal situation with your family?
KENNY PERRY: Well, it's been a combination of a lot of things. It just seems like my focus -- you know, I'm usually a goal setter, and I kind of achieved all my goals. The Ryder Cup was over the top for me, and then last year when I -- this is my 24th year on TOUR, and when I first got on TOUR in '86 I stayed with families across the United States when I first started, but there's only two families I stay with now that I still stay with them for 24 years. One is in Phoenix and one is in Hartford, and won both those tournaments last year. It's pretty ironic how that turned out.
Everything, I've just achieved everything, and everything has been great for me. And so I just am really having trouble kind of putting my nose and working at it a little bit. I guess I've been a little lazy is probably the best word. I'm not practicing nearly like I used to practice, spending all the time out there. Sandy and I are doing a lot more together. We're traveling a lot. My youngest just graduated from SMU so all three of them are grown and gone. Justin is caddying for me.
It just seems like I just don't want to get after it like I used to. I don't want to just try to kill myself like I did, and it's showing. I don't seem like I hit the golf shots I used to hit -- I'm accustomed to hitting, what I've seen from me to hit.
So it's just -- I don't know if I want it anymore, that's the question I need to answer.

Q. What does your schedule look like the rest of the year?
KENNY PERRY: Well, I'm in next week, the PGA, and then I won't play Greensboro. I'll go to New Jersey for the FedEx, so I guess I'm 70th in points in the FedEx points, so I know I'll get to play in the first two. So after that, if I don't advance very far in that deal you'll probably see me sneak over and play two or three events on the Champions Tour just to see what that's all about. And then go home and enjoy my time at home and do other things.
LAURA HILL: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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