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OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE PRO-AMApril 13, 2011Kenny PerryLUTZ, FLORIDA DAVE SENKO: Kenny, thanks for joining us. This will be your first start on the Champions Tour in 2011. I know you played two events last year in Texas, but maybe just talk about your day. You had a chance to look at the golf course. KENNY PERRY: The TPC here is a tough golf course. The green complexes are very difficult, which I kind of like. I like knowing that you got to be precise with your irons. You got to be able to hit the fairways to be able to control your irons a little bit into these greens. So I had a great day. I played with -- my group was Garo Yepremian. I remember when he kicked, he kicked for the Miami Dolphins for a long time. He was in my group, so we had a good time talking a lot about football today. Weather was beautiful. Couldn't ask for anything better. DAVE SENKO: Also a pass for the Miami Dolphins, too, I believe, back in the Super Bowl. Anyway, just a reminder, we're recording this. If you have a question, raise your hand so we get it on the recording. Questions? Q. You really divide your time. You're still playing a lot of regular tour events. As you go forward now, what are your plans relative to the Champions Tour versus regular tour events? KENNY PERRY: You'll see me playing more over here now. I'm still going to play Colonial, Memorial. I represent the Greenbrier, so I'll be there for the next couple years. Other than that, I'll pretty much plan to play mostly over here. I've still got any favorite sites, Phoenix, that I enjoy playing at. All in all, you'll see me spending more time over here. Q. How is the atmosphere different between the two tours? How would you best describe it? KENNY PERRY: Stress-free. It really is. You know, all these guys I loved and they made me who I am, I enjoy seeing all these old guys out here playing. I went out to dinner last night with Leonard Thompson. He was one of the guys that kind of took me under his wing back in 1986 and kind of showed me how to get around, travel. So that was neat to kind of hang out with him. Talked to Mike McCullough. Just guys that have meant a lot to me in my career, helping me in my career. They're still out here. I was able to go and shake their hands and say hi. That's been pretty special. To me, it's just very relaxed and easygoing but competitive. You still have to shoot -- you know, the events I play, if you didn't shoot 15- to 19-under, you weren't going to win. I think this week will be different. I think this week is probably 8- to 12-under week. It may change. But, you know, I guess I'm looking forward to the majors. I know we're going to play Valhalla, Louisville. Looking forward to that in a few weeks. I just want to win out here. I'm still a very competitive person. I think I still got enough in me to be competitive out here and yet still be competitive on the regular tour. I'm just going to pick and choose the golf tournaments that I enjoy on the regular tour, and then I want to try -- you know, I need to play all the courses out here on the Champions Tour so I can figure out where I think my game is going to be strongest. That's kind of how I always planned. I planned making the Ryder Cup team that way. I played all the events that I thought I was going to be very good at and competitive, I could earn Ryder Cup points, Top 10s, and worked out good for me. Q. What do you notice about the Champions' galleries? KENNY PERRY: Well, the color of the hair, for one thing (laughter.) You know, they're very polite. Everybody is just in a good mood. It's very easygoing. It's just a neat atmosphere. Just seems -- it's more like a picnic I guess I would say. To me, everybody is all strolling, having a good time. Everything on the regular tour is a lot more serious, a lot more businesslike. Everybody is out to make that $1.4 million first-place paycheck or whatever, and it's a total different scene, scenario. To me, I've really enjoyed coming out here. I've made some swing changes in my golf swing here the past three weeks. Been working with a new teacher. To me, it's going to be great to be able to come out here and know I'm going to get three rounds in, or, you know, two pro-ams, five days in. Like this year I think I've only made one cut out of six on the PGA Tour -- or two, I've made two. I haven't got to play a lot and get a rhythm, so I'm looking forward to getting out here and getting some rounds in and working with my golf swing and see if it's going to work under the heat. I'm very much looking forward to the challenge. Q. You mentioned your favorites on the PGA Tour. Is Transitions still in the mix for you in the future? KENNY PERRY: Definitely. Well, we'll see. My contract is up with those guys. I've got one more year with 'em next yeah, so I will play Tampa next year there, too. After that, I don't know. Q. Secondly, you said it's a relaxing mindset out here. Do you have the relaxing mindset when you're on the PGA Tour, or do you go back to having that... KENNY PERRY: Well, I'm still competitive enough I still feel like I could still -- you know, I'm still living in the past a little bit thinking I can still compete against all those 20 year olds now. It's amazing how young the tour has gotten, for one, and how long it's gotten all of a sudden. I used to be one of the top hitters, and now I'm not even in the top 50 anymore, you know, it don't seem like. So the landscape has changed. The kids seem more polished coming out now. Even though I've got all the experience on 'em, I'm still -- I don't have the flexibility. Don't seem like my body is reacting like it used to when it was 20, obviously. I don't seem to have the pop in the golf game that I used to have. I remember bunkers I used to carry no problem, and now I'm having to fit it around the bunkers. Out here, it's more like I used to remember. There's bunkers I can carry. These courses are usually around 7,000, 6,800, 7,000, and out there you're 7,300 plus. That gets tough when you're playing 230-yard par-3s all the time. I'm not hitting it as high and don't seem to spin it as much. So I'm hitting a lot longer irons than the younger kids are hitting, so I am definitely at a disadvantage. Not saying I still can't win. It's going to take the right conditions and the right circumstances to get back in the thick of things over there. Q. On the regular tour, what are your thoughts on instead of maybe one or two guys dominating, maybe we're in an era where every week a different guy will win. Some of them will be kids. How did you think that will impact fan interest, and from a golfer's point of view, is it more interesting? KENNY PERRY: I think it is. It was always Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, which was great. I mean, he carried our tour. I still thank him to this day for what he did for the PGA Tour. He woke up the tour and made golf a pretty good game. I still want him to get back in there and -- seems like when he's winning and doing great the PGA really rolls. Now there's a lot of the storylines Rickie Fowler, all these young kids, Jason Day. They're pouring in from everywhere. I played a few rounds with that Charles Schwartzel kid. He was a sleeper. Everybody kept asking me at my club, Who is that guy? I said, Well, dang he's won probably two or three times already on the European Tour this year and we just didn't know about him over here. Martin Kaymer is 1 in the world. I mean, it is just amazing how much talent and depth there is out there right now, and how much American guys -- we need to pick it up a little bit. Seems like the European guys are kind of running over us right now. But you've got 'em coming from everywhere. You know that Ryo Ishikawa is an unbelievable player from over there in Japan. There's just a lot of talent out there, and I think there's a lot of storylines. I think what's neat about it, you got a lot fans that can root for so many different -- you know, your age groups or youth or experienced guys, your Phil and Tiger, whatever. The media, they kind of have a field day right now. You can kind of pick and choose where you want to go with whatever. Q. You came so close two years ago you could almost taste it at the Masters. Could you empathize with Scott and Day playing as well as they did, and yet somebody else plays a little better and ends up winning? KENNY PERRY: Well, that's different. They got beat. I blew it. There's a difference. (Laughing.) All I had to do was make two pars or one par out of the last two holes and I win the Masters. I couldn't do it. I bogeyed both holes and lose in the playoff. But it was so funny. I was there in Mobile getting a lesson. I went into the clubhouse, and Adam Scott did the same exact same thing I did. He hit it almost in the hole on 16. He had a two-shot lead, and I looked at my teacher and I said, Come on. Let's go to the range. He's going to win. I went to the range and I was hitting balls, and a guy come and I said, Well who won? They said, Charles Schwartzel. I was like, Whoa, that must not be good to birdie 16 and get a two-shot lead. (Laughing.) So, yeah, they played great. They were making birdies coming in. Jason Day was birdieing coming in. He birdied the last few holes, 17 and 18. That was an exciting tournament. I didn't watch the whole thing, but when you have seven, eight different guys coming down the stretch that can win the golf tournament, that's pretty cool, I think. Q. You keep talking about young guys out there. How do you keep up with the young guys? Do you have to change anything within yourself, diet, exercise, anything like that to stay competitive? KENNY PERRY: Great question. I've tried everything. I hired a personal trainer. I actually did last year go from 235 to 199 in weight. I was working out diligently six days a week. Went to a nutritionist and really watched my diet. I actually played worse. (Laughter.) So, you know, now I'm on the fat diet to where you just -- you know, when I played great in 2008 and 9 I was heavy. And I was 235, almost 240, and played beautiful. I don't get it. So that was my mentality. I said, Man, I got to get stronger here. I got to hit it further. The stronger I got the shorter I hit it. I guess I was doing it wrong. I was lifting heavy bulk weight and getting heavy. I should have been working on lengthening my muscles, getting longer, looser, more flexible. I'm not very flexible as it is. For me, I just think I had my time. I spent my 26 years out there, so, you know, youth is a great thing. They don't realize how great it is for 'em and what they have until they get to be in my shoes. You realize you used to do things that you can't do now. It's physically impossible. Can't do it. For me to be competitive, like I said, it's going to take the right conditions, right circumstances to get in there again. I still think I can win at the Memorial. It's a golf course that I've won three times. It's not a power-hitting golf course. It's very strategic. It's a lot like Augusta. It's an iron golf course; it's a second-shot golf course. You've got to understand the green complex es and you've got to putt well. Those kind of tournaments I got a great shot at being competitive. I may not win, but if I can kind of get it going, I may have a chance to get in there. Q. I notice a lot of players from South Africa either finish high or win tournaments on the PGA Tour. How do you account for that? Do they have a special program over there? Coaches? What is that? KENNY PERRY: I just think this world has really realized how great a sport golf is. Now you've got everybody and their brother coming up at age seven with a golf club in their hand going to a golf school, golf teacher. Ernie Els was talking the whole time about his golf academy. That's what Charles came up through. You see all this going on, and it's just a great sport. A lot of people are getting more motivated and they're really paying attention, and they've got their personal trainers and swing coaches at young ages. It's just coming up through there. Plus, I've not spent a lot of time in South Africa -- I've been there three times -- but I think the weather down there is pretty good. It's not that cold all the time. It's pretty warm year-round. The climate I think has a lot to do with -- you don't see a lot of Canadians, or, you know, your four-month-a-year courses -- most the guys you see are coming from warmer climates. Q. This one is for Positive Impact magazine. Who or what has been a positive impact on your golf career? KENNY PERRY: My dad. He taught me how to play. He started me at seven. He was my instructor, my teacher until I was a freshman in college. It was so funny, if it was a board game, a card game, or a golf game, he beat me unmercifully. I mean, he beat me so bad and then he would laugh at me in my face. I thought, Man, this guy is cruel. But what I realized is that this guy is making me tough. Even though I'm a nice guy on the outside, I'm going to want to kill you from the inside. I want to rip you up. He made me tough, and that's carried me through the PGA Tour. You know, he was never mean. He just made sure he won. I finally beat him one time. He says on the 18th hole, a par-3 back at my little country club -- he was a couple up. I was 16. I was shooting 4-, 5-under all the time, but he was playing a great day. He said, I'm going to beat you 'til I die. He was winning. He was 2-up. He hit his 4-iron left of the green, I hit my 5-iron in the hole, and he ends up making bogey and I finally beat him. That's when I finally got over the hump against him. He never beat me since, so I let him know that. He's 87 and he's still going strong. It's neat to still have him. DAVE SENKO: Thanks, Kenny. KENNY PERRY: Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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