BUICK OPEN

August 7, 2001

Tom Pernice, Jr.

TOME PERNICE JR: I guess August is nice to me, like growing up in the warm weather in Kansas City, nice, it was a thrill last week, very emotional. It was nice to have my family there and have my two girls there. It was quite a thrill. And it was pretty touch and go that back nine there, so it was interesting to say the least.

TOM PERNICE JR: I prefer to be warm as opposed to cold, so I guess growing up in Kansas City in the summer I played golf when it was hot.

TOM PERNICE JR: No, not really. It is hot, but it's summertime, it's supposed to be hot.

TOM PERNICE JR: They are here. We flew in last night.

TOM PERNICE JR: Yeah, it will be great. Whenever I am not here I basically spend with them. J.L. Lewis has got an older daughter and she baby sits for a lot of us out here. They are staying in a house not too far from here so I took them over there. They are staying over at their house today for the afternoon for the shootout and while I practice a little bit, then tomorrow they will probably go to -- they have one of the best day cares here on Tour. They have scheduled events and stuff. So tomorrow afternoon they will go there and same thing during the week. Pretty much when I am done, then the rest of the day and the evenings are for us.

TOM PERNICE JR: It's just nice for me to be able to spend time with them. We are out here 25, 30 weeks a year and, you know, it's not easy to have your children out here with you. Once school starts, and once school is around -- they are in third and first grade coming up, then they can't leave school very often. So you leave a week for Disneyworld, they come, they are not going to miss that and Hawaii for the Hawaiian Open, so really can't take them out of school until summertime, and that is when the opportunity is there for them to come out and do some stuff so it is very nice.

TOM PERNICE JR: Yeah, they'll come out here some, sure. They will go to day care and stuff and then the girl that I am seeing she's coming with her daughter and she will probably go pick them up early; then they will come out and have lunch and maybe when I am done, but, yeah, they will be out.

TOM PERNICE JR: She doesn't walk. My oldest daughter may walk some, but my oldest -- youngest daughter, no, it's too difficult for her to be able to walk around. Not much for her to see so she's better off staying at the day care with Sherri Lewis.

TOM PERNICE JR: I think so, yeah. I got in the lead on Friday and they both said: Looks like you are going to win this week, you are going to win, you are going to win. I said: I don't know about that, we have got a long ways to go. They were excited about it and the opportunity they were there, they came there, and ended up winning, that meant a lot to them.

TOM PERNICE JR: I try. There's no question that I like to have them out. With her schedule and stuff, and their mom's scheduled some trips and stuff with them this summer so they have been busy doing that this summer as well. It is just tough, once the kids get in the age when they are in school, it's tough to get them out. On the West Coast it's pretty good because they come out on the weekends on the West Coast almost every weekend, roughly speaking, San Diego is close to L.A., close to Palm Springs, so they are able to come out and maybe leave school early on Friday and spend the weekend. Once you get away from the West Coast, even living on the West Coast for me, it is tough, you are out for a while.

TOM PERNICE JR: Well, there's no question it will. For however many years I have been a professional and not to have won; then to come here and to win was very special and very exciting to come from so far back and to be able to hang on and to win. Totally different, really I was here basically by myself, my first win, kind of came from a ways back. Last week was basically in the lead most of the time. I had my kids there, my brother and his wife. My mom drove from Kansas City overnight on Saturday so they could be there the last day and they were there. So two totally different experiences. Emotionally, last week was nice to everybody there, but from a golf standpoint this will always have a special place being the first time to break through.

TOM PERNICE JR: I just think any time that you continue to win it's just -- it reassures yourself that what you are doing and the direction you are going is the right thing and if you can compete out here and your confidence level is obviously going to be a little bit better that you can sustain it and get it done and I think it is going to help you out, no question about that.

TOM PERNICE JR: I feel like I should have a pretty good week. I will continue to work hard. Jim, the guy I work with on my chipping and putting, he was there last week and he is here again this week. We will keep finetuning that. Yeah, I feel pretty good about it. So I will work hard a little bit this afternoon and tomorrow and I feel like I am pretty much ready.

TOM PERNICE JR: I think I like the old style golf courses, right in front of you, Donald Ross style, no tricks, you need to hit good shots, quality. You know, need to drive the ball straight here, I think. You have got tree-lined fairways on every hole. They are not extremely tight but if you get in trouble here you are in the trees. So you need to drive the ball well. Obviously you need to putt well, any week out here, to compete. So it's always in good shape. It's straightforward. It an old classical style that I kind of like.

TOM PERNICE JR: I like to feel like the weakest part was always driving the ball in the fairway and I feel like it's getting better. Of course, I like my ball-striking as a rule it has gotten better and I am driving the ball in the fairway. And if you do that out here, drive the ball in the fairway, you set yourself up for opportunity. Everybody says the putter is the most important club, well, if you remember usually a good putter most of the time, I think driver is probably the most important. Hogan used to say driver was the most important club in his bag - if you drive it in the fairway you have an opportunity for birdie. If you drive it in the rough, you have lost that opportunity for a birdie. So that has been a key for me for a year or two is to get the ball -- driving the ball in the fairway. The distance has always been out there, but I need to drive it a little bit straighter. So I think if I continue to drive the ball in the fairway I will have myself plenty of opportunity.

TOM PERNICE JR: Probably the putts I made coming in on 16, 17. Those are the two major ones that come to mind. Because I didn't hit a very good third shot into 16, kind of stayed short, made the putt over the hill from about 30 feet. Hit a good shot on 17 but then to make the putt to break so much was big. After (inaudible) it was fortunate the fact that Tom hit that bunker shot over the green, kind of opened things up. Then he hit two great shots on 17 and 18 and neither of the putts went in. It looked like they were pretty good putts. So I was pretty fortunate.

TOM PERNICE JR: I didn't know. I basically didn't look at any leaderboards until I was done. Everybody was lighting it up. Tryba was behind me. He birdied 6 or 7. Tway played in front of me and he shot a low round. I never looked at the leaderboard. I didn't know how I stood. I was just playing. I played with Joey Sindelar and we were talking and I am just playing good and started making some putts. I figured I had a shot because I was 5-, 6-, 7-under whatever I was, I had no idea what Lehman was doing because he was four, five groups behind us so I really didn't know.