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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 18, 2006

Pat Perez

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

TODD BUDNICK: A nice 12 under 60 on the Palmer Course at PGA West today. A 61 a couple years ago, but there's something about this tournament that seems to fit well into your play.

PAT PEREZ: Yeah, I don't know, I feel comfortable, or maybe just after sitting around for two months, I'm anxious to go out ask play.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go through your card, the 12 birdies and no bogeys today.

PAT PEREZ: No. 10 was a driver and 9 iron about six.

11 was driver, 4 iron, chip to about half a foot.

13, I hit driver, 3 wood, 7 iron from about 35 feet.

Parred 14.

15, I hit it to about a foot.

17, I hit about ten.

18, driver, 3 iron, 2 putt.

1, I hit driver, wedge to about ten.

2 is driver, 5 iron, missed the green, chip, putted from about five.

4, the par 4, 2 iron, 9 iron to about four.

7, 3 wood, 6 iron to about ten.

8, 3 wood, sand wedge to about four.

9 was driver, 9 iron to about 12.

TODD BUDNICK: Did you leave any out there today?

PAT PEREZ: Yeah, I did, actually. I know it's hard to say but I parred two par 5s with easy shots, right in the middle of the fairway and 2 putt there. I missed about an 8 footer on 3. But other than that, it was a great day.

Q. At what point did you know this was going to be a special day?

PAT PEREZ: You know, I didn't think it was going to be special. I got kind of sick last night on food, I ate something bad or whatever and was up at 4:30, and tried to go back to sleep after that and only slept about 20 minutes. I didn't know what to expect after that.

I hit a great drive down 10 and made my birdie and thought, I feel pretty good. I made the putt on 13 from about 35 feet and thought it would be good; I haven't made one of those in a while. Just kind of snowballed and everything started going on.

Q. Would you mind talking about the two par 5s that you parred, what happened on those two holes?

PAT PEREZ: I had 3 woods on both of them. On 14, I hit it just right and got caught up in the rocks, hit a rock underneath it. Then on 6, I hit an okay drive, 3 wood and flailed it and bad lie and chipped it to about 12 feet and missed it. Just not very good from the middle of the fairway.

Q. You've played very well in the past early in the season. How important is it to get off to a good start to kind of kick start the season?

PAT PEREZ: I think it's very important. I would not want to wait until April to play well because then your confidence is kind of shot by then. I love playing on the West Coast because I grew up on West Coast. I went to all of these tournaments as a kid. Playing in them is so great because you get your friends and family to come out. It's a great time of the year, the weather is perfect. I think it's really important to get off to a good start.

Q. And what about the prize money, I think there's 48 million in these nine tournaments on the West Coast?

PAT PEREZ: Yeah, that helps, too. That's always nice to get if you can get a lot of that cash, then you're doing pretty good.

Q. When most of us saw you last, it was at the PGA Championship, you had that great third round, and you talked a lot about how hard you were working, you were closing down the range. What has been the off season preparation for you, and is this kind of a result of that?

PAT PEREZ: Yeah, as soon as I got back, I started up at a new place called Athlete's Performance in Tempe, Arizona. That's where a lot of, I guess you could call them star studded athletes go to. I was up actually every morning at 6:30 in the off season. I would go down there and get home about 11:00. It's just a lot of core work and leg strength and then I would play in the afternoon. I'd get up at 6:30, go play in the afternoon and go home; that was my routine for about two months there.

I figured and I had other goals, trying to stay patient and calm on the course and not get too excited or too mad or any of that stuff. I really tried to grind that into myself to try and succeed. Then I guess it all paid off today because I saw a lot of great things and I'm excited to play the rest of the year now.

Q. What do you notice about the work that you've done physically, how do you notice that on the golf course? How does it play out?

PAT PEREZ: Well, I'm definitely stronger. Definitely stronger because I'm hitting it farther and I've got a lot of shorter clubs in than I used to.

I just feel mentally stronger, because I'm physically stronger, my mind is clear and my mind feels stronger because I've been working my tail off.

I just feel as a whole, I just feel stronger and I feel clearer on the course than I have been. I'm not tired and slouching. I just feel a lot better.

Q. You became according to the guys on TV the 20th guy ever to shoot a 60 in a PGA TOUR event. Now, your brother was on the Nationwide Tour a couple of years ago, have you talked to him yet about this, and how important is it to have a brother who played even on the Nationwide Tour for getting advice and things like that?

PAT PEREZ: You know, I talk to him all the time. He's got conditional status this year and I helped him in the off season, going to first stage and second stage and I just tried to give him all of the advice that I have. He's got so much talent as it is; I'm just waiting for him to come through. I just try to help him as much as I can with anything. He's obviously the only brother I have and I've love to see him out here and succeed and I've love to see him even beat me and make money than I do in year because it would just be great to see. He has been in the final three times now but just has not put together six rounds.

Q. How much better do you feel about everything overall now, game wise, mentally, all that? Yet last year was kind of a regroup better year than you've had the last couple of years, how much more confident and how much happier are you out there now than you were in the last couple of years?

PAT PEREZ: About a thousand percent. I'm really trying to work on first changing my reputation and having a huge attitude and bad temper and the whole thing. I think that's after the thing that happened with the Honda, I started realizing a little bit more how stupid it is and how embarrassing it is.

I hit a point when I got home from Tampa, I said I'm going to change all this and I don't want any of this anymore. The only way to do it is have people see and you play well. And that's basically what we want to do is shoot the score and win tournaments and stuff like that. That's the only way you can do it. I just feel a million times better than I have any other year that I started.

Q. Have you noticed people reacting to you differently because of the attitude you've taken, the different attitude?

PAT PEREZ: Yeah, definitely. I've had amateur come up to me and say, well, really pleasure playing with you and this and that. It's just good to see and I wants to try and stay on this positive road.

Q. Did you work with anybody on this attitude change?

PAT PEREZ: No. It was just a self it was just a sit down, look at the mirror and say quit doing this and that's it and just stick with it because it's embarrassing.

TODD BUDNICK: Pat, thank you for your time today and good luck the rest of the week.

End of FastScripts.

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