THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 22, 2002

Craig Perks

TODD BUDNICK: Hi, Craig. 4-under 68 today, very nice. That has you at 5-under, one behind the leader with still a few more groups out there to go. Start of the day with a bogey on No. 1.

CRAIG PERKS: Want me to go through the round?

TODD BUDNICK: Yes.

CRAIG PERKS: Actually, it was one play quite difficult today. It was a driver and we still had 145 yards and the wind was kind of whipping in from the right. And I missed the green to the right and kind of had no chance there.

I just hit a good drive on two and hit a 3-iron in there, but missed a green barely to the right, didn't hit a really good chip there. That was a disappointment to not make a birdie on the par 5 downwind.

6, I hit a 3-wood off the tee and hit a 9-iron to about a foot and -- no, actually, a sand wedge to a foot because it was playing downwind.

9, I hit good tee shot. I laid it up perfectly and that was quite a tough third shot into the wind, had a little knockdown 9-iron that again, was really close. Probably inside of a foot.

10, I hit driver that was playing into the wind, as well. A little knockdown 7-iron to about 15 feet behind the hole made that one.

11, I kind of miss-hit a tee shot. But in the fairway, I hit a great 3-wood back there to about eight feet, behind the hole, just misread that putt. I thought that was kind of going to be a real momentum for me, if I can make eagle there and kind of jumpstart but I missed it. Obviously, a good 4.

Smashed a drive down there. Had a 5-iron and hit a really good shot there, with the wind down and out to the left -- eight, ten feet left and rolled that one in, so that was good. Little redemption for the one I missed on 11.

18, I just didn't want to, obviously, hit it in the water. I didn't take quite of an aggressive line as I normally do and I just kind of hung onto it, not trying to hook it and hit it in the rough. Actually, I got quite a good -- but the rough is so thick that the club just didn't go through it and it came up about 10 yards short of the green. I hit a relatively decent chip maybe to about 6, eight feet. I didn't hit a very good putt.

TODD BUDNICK: 9, 10, and 11 really got you going there.

CRAIG PERKS: Yeah, it was obviously the 9 played difficult because it was into the wind and that pin was tucked in the back. I hit a great shot in there and then 10 was a bonus then - obviously you are trying to take it on this golf course, try and take advantage of the par 5s downwind, hitting that second shot in there I really -- I guess I tried too hard to make that eagle because I knew coming in, you know, you just never know on this golf course, you try and take advantage of every good shot you hit but three birdies in a row kind of set me up.

TODD BUDNICK: Conditions earlier rougher as the afternoon had --

CRAIG PERKS: Yeah, definitely. Basically the first tee shot of the day was -- I mean it was whipping pretty good through there and from the right that made the second tee shot a little bit tougher because you got to hook it and the wind was out of the left. But it was tough to gauge because it is kind of in between the pines and it is kind of whipping through there, you try not to miss it in certain spots and the wind is pushing you to spots that you kind of try not to miss it. But it did die down probably there, maybe on -- after 10 or 11, actually came up again on 14 and 15 and 16 and then it kind of died down a little bit towards the end.

TODD BUDNICK: Questions.

Q. This is your first time here at Sawgrass?

CRAIG PERKS: It is.

Q. Usually first-timers don't necessarily fair so well. How do you figure?

CRAIG PERKS: I was watching -- it's funny you say that, I was watching the Golf Channel early on in the week and they were saying how first-timers have never ever done well here. I can obviously see why. You got to have a lot of experience around this golf course and obviously I think the golf course this year is obviously playing differently than it has in the past. It is a lot wetter. The fairways are not really moving, leaving ball marks in the fairway, you can fly, you can attack most pins, you can stop, so I think that that could be a small reason why. It's not playing the firm, fast, you know, you have heard these horror stories sticking away from pins and so I think that -- I think the condition of the golf course with the rain has certainly helped.

Q. Did you have a feeling early in the week that the course set up nicely to your high or --

CRAIG PERKS: No, at the start of the week I just -- it seemed -- I had a couple of good practice days - seemed like every shot was hard. Obviously I have not yet to play in a major championship and that's got that kind of feel, if you hit a bad shot, you are going to make bogey or worse. You know normally on Tour if you kind of hit a poor tee shot you can have a chance to make par. Seemed like if you hit a bad shot, you just take your bogey and run. That's what the way I found the golf course. Obviously with the rains, it's kind of made it a little bit easier. The fairways are reasonably generous. Now they are a lot wider since they are so soft. The greens, you can attack them a little bit more being so soft. But I mean, it's still, if you mess up at any point you are looking at bogey or worse.

Q. For those of us who don't know your life story it is accurate saying you are All-American in two different colleges?

CRAIG PERKS: Yeah.

Q. Four years apart?

CRAIG PERKS: '87 and '90, I don't know how many years that's apart. I started at the University of Oklahoma. I was a fourth New Zealander to come behind Grant Waite, and Grant and I were -- we were teammates, roommates, we roomed together on the road and when he left -- he was like my big brother, and when he left I was kind of lost and we had a change of golf coach there. I didn't get along too well with him. While at Oklahoma we played a college event in Lafayette, Louisiana. Met a bunch of great people there and decided to go down there on a recruiting trip and loved it, really had a ball; kind of saw an opportunity there that this small school that had never really had any success at all. Mike Heinen had been an All-American there but that was it. Never made regionals, never made Nationals. It was kind of a unique opportunity if I could go there and play well and they had the grounds of a good team, but just no really good players, I guess at that point. It was a hell of a lot of fun. I played well my senior year and managed to make All-American.

Q. Where was that?

CRAIG PERKS: Was University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette which is now University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Q. Not much of a golf tradition coming out of that school?

CRAIG PERKS: No, not at all. Not much tradition, like I said, Mike Heinen who has played on Tour for a couple of years who won in Houston, he was -- he was a good player but that was it. They had a lot of home-grown hometown guys that liked to party and liked to have a good time and the atmosphere was so different from Oklahoma. I mean we just had a bunch of good guys, we just had a lot of fun. It was fun to kind of help them -- we finished 15th one year at Nationals when I was there and ninth the next so it was kind of good to play well. And my wife is from there so made a base there and it has been good.

Q. Raging Cajuns?

CRAIG PERKS: Yeah.

Q. Who was the star basketball player?

CRAIG PERKS: Bo LaMar (phonetic) and Brian Mitchell went there - punt return, kick return guy.

Q. (Inaudible)

CRAIG PERKS: It's funny because their accent is stronger than mine. They can't understand me and I can't understand them; we had a great time.

TODD BUDNICK: Thanks for coming in today.

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