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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY KITCHENAIDMay 27, 2012Kenny PerryBENTON HARBOR, MICHIGAN KELLY ELBIN: Kenny Perry, ladies and gentlemen, with a final round 9‑under par 62 today. Setting the new all time best 18 hole scoring record‑‑ KENNY PERRY: For an hour. (Laughter.) KELLY ELBIN: ‑‑ in the Senior PGA Championship for at least 30 minutes. (Laughter.) The previous record score of 63 was held by Buck White in 1961 and someone named Arnold Palmer in 1984. The 62 also ties for the lowest score in a Champions Tour Major. Kenny, congratulations on a great day. Comments? Right out of the box you got hot and stayed that way all day. KENNY PERRY: Exactly. Birdied the first two holes right out of the gate and I'm in that, I'm at 1‑over thinking I'm just trying to figure out a way to get better. Made a swing change two days ago, actually had the flu the week prior to coming here, I couldn't practice, so I was kind of out of the sorts when I got here. And I just got better each day. On Friday afternoon I made a swing change, I started taking the club back more inside, just something as simple as that, and I started hitting it perfect with the driver. And the irons got good again. And I opened up with two birdies right out of the hopper and eagled the fifth hole and birdied 8, 9 and 10, and off to the races I was going. So I was telling Freddie, my caddie, I said I was trying to shoot 59 out there today. I knew I wasn't going to catch Roger, but I was just trying to, I was in that go mode, I was just going at every stick and didn't really care, didn't have any fears or thoughts and I wish I could learn to play golf like that every day. KELLY ELBIN: Did you have any idea the 63 was the low score in Senior PGA Championship history? KENNY PERRY: Freddie told me. We knew where we stood with the scoring. So, yeah, I knew where I stood on that scoring part. So I was trying to go more. It looks like Sandy Lyle is going to catch me all of a sudden, that's kind of‑‑ that's all right. I like Sandy. He played behind me, I've been talking to him the last couple of days and he's hitting it a mile. He played behind me yesterday, I couldn't believe how far he's hitting the golf ball. He's getting his act back together. KELLY ELBIN: Could you go over the eight birdies, one eagle, and one bogey, please. KENNY PERRY: Okay. I hit a driver, sand wedge to about six feet on 1. 2, I hit an 8‑iron to about three feet. The eagle I hit a driver and a 4‑iron to about 30 feet and made a bomb there. 7, I hit a 3‑wood in the bunker, had to just chip outside way, knocked it on, 2‑putted, bogey. 8, I hit 3‑wood, pitching wedge, to 15 feet. Made that. 9, I hit driver, rescue, in front of the green, chipped it up to about four feet past the hole and made that. 10, I hit driver, 5‑iron to about 20 feet, 2‑putted for birdie there. 13, I hit a great 6‑iron on 13 to about eight feet past the hole. Made that. 14, I hit a 3‑wood, pitching wedge to about three feet. 15, I hit driver left rough, had to lay up with a sand wedge, and then I had hit a sand wedge about eight feet past the hole and made that. And that's it. KELLY ELBIN: Thank you. Questions for Kenny Perry in with a 62. Q. Great playing. When you first got a look at the course earlier this week did you think these low scores were possible? A lot of guys were just talking about ‑‑ I guess the wind was the big factor on Thursday, but did you think that these kind of scores were out there? KENNY PERRY: No, not really. I think the problem was none of us had a lot of experience. Nobody knew this place at all. We all come in here blind, playing a new venue. And it's tough. It's tough to learn green complexes, tough to play one round of golf and tee it up in the tournament and say I'm ready to play. I have always found for me it takes me years to play and learn conditions. Learn‑‑ we played with the northeast wind on Friday, we played with a high southerly wind on Thursday, which was 20, 30 mile an hour late in the afternoon, and then it flopped around and it was kind of cool yesterday morning. And today it was very hot with a southerly wind. So we kind of saw a lot of conditions out there today, for the whole week. And I think we were all just getting more comfortable with the place. You keep seeing the greens four days in a row, you're kind of understanding them Jack's thinking and all his plateaus and humps and bumps out there. And I think that if we ‑‑ my score is based on weather, a lot of that, you see a lot of guys going low today, so I think a southerly wind the golf course plays a lot better. You get that northeasterly, it plays tough. There's a lot of hard holes out there. But there's a lot of holes you can make bogeys and doubles in a hurry. It's definitely a driver's golf course. You got to get it in the fairway. You got a lot of heather or whatever that tall wispy grass, you can make big numbers in a hurry. First of the week I definitely wouldn't have thought 62 was possible. But then we were lucky, the PGA definitely, the greens were just average speed. I think if they got them up to 11, 12 on the Stimpmeter we would have been, we would have really had some problems out there. They kept them probably at nine, very receptive, and that helped us to be able to shoot good scores. Q. Mentally and physically both with an adjustment of your swing and in the middle of a competition, how do you deal with that? KENNY PERRY: I tell people, you're never as far away from the game as you think you are. All the young kids that I work with, mini tours and stuff. They're frustrated, they're shooting 75, 78s. I tell them stories like at Boston, I won Boston one year and I was so frustrated Wednesday or Wednesday night on the practice range I picked my whole bag up behind my head and slammed it on the ground. It was 8 o'clock at night, I was on the range, I had had it. I was fed up with it. Come out Thursday morning and make a couple swings on the range and I was like, made a couple pretty big moves for me and I was like, that felt pretty good. I went on and won the golf tournament that week. So that's how I deal with it. I'm a feel player and if I can kind of come up with one swing thought, one mental thought process out there, I usually can play with one thought, but if I got to do two or three things in my swing, you might as well just pack it in. But it's just a simple little adjustment, next thing you know the golf club is back on the inside plane for me, I'm backing underneath it and I'm hitting my nice little draw out there starting out down the right side of the fairway. Which, the first two days, it was all starting down the left center of the fairway and look hooking into the left rough. And was just definitely out of sorts. I couldn't figure it out. Just lucky I found the right key for me and played beautifully the last two days. Q. Can you talk about what's going through your mind on that last green? You knew what the record was, were you shooting for 61? KENNY PERRY: Definitely. I knocked it four feet by. Q. What was your frame of mind on the come back putt? KENNY PERRY: I was very relaxed. I didn't really, I wasn't so worried too much about the record, I was trying to make birdies. Just missed it on 16, just missed it on 17, and I was thinking if I birdied the last three holes I could definitely make history. And I was firing at it and just couldn't make it happen. I drove it beautifully right at that left bunker, it was 280 to that left bunker on 18 and I hit it just a little too far into the rough, so it was a tough shot coming out of the rough. I got it 20 feet right of the hole, but I definitely would have liked to have got it six, eight, ten feet on line and had a realistic shot to make birdie. But it was great. Q. You talked about possibly shooting 59 early in the round, what made you think that you could do that? Was it the way you were playing, was it the conditions, was it a combination of things? KENNY PERRY: Just I had‑‑ my swing was there. I was ready. I was hitting quality shots on every hole and just wherever I was looking that's where the ball was going. And when you're freed up and you are really not thinking a lot out there and play relaxed golf, I didn't have anything to lose or anything to gain out there. I was just playing golf trying to get better and trying to figure myself how I can prepare for Iowa next week. And I think I hit on a couple nice things. Hopefully this will carry over to next week and we'll get after them next week. Q. Did it make it easier or maybe not easier but being freed up knowing there wasn't a real good chance you were going to catch Roger; and is this the greatest round you've ever played? KENNY PERRY: It's a great round, yeah. But there was no pressure. I think the, I shot 69 in the last group to win golf tournaments that I thought were better rounds because I was feeling the heat, I was nervous, and I was grinding and trying to win. This score may not have happened if I had been playing with Roger today. You know what I'm saying?  I would have probably played a little more defensive, not shot at the flags as much. I was just freed up, flying at it. And that's ‑‑ I felt like today I was just playing with a bunch of buddies at home, playing just a little two dollar Nassau or something, we were just having a good time. Jay's a great partner to play with, seems like I also shoot low when I play with Jay Haas. So he's my good luck charm. KELLY ELBIN: Kenny Perry, the new record holder with a score of 62 today in the Senior PGA Championship. KENNY PERRY: For a little while anyway. KELLY ELBIN: Thanks, Kenny. KENNY PERRY: You're welcome. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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