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FRANKLIN TEMPLETON SHOOTOUTDecember 9, 2012Sean O'HairKenny PerryNAPLES, FLORIDA MARK STEVENS: Like to welcome our 2012 winners of the Franklin Templeton Shootout, Sean O'Hair and Kenny Perry. Sean, you picked a good partner this week. This is Kenny's knees third win here at The Shootout. He won earlier this year in Naples on the Champions Tour. So, Kenny, start off and give us your thoughts on your third win here. KENNY PERRY: Well, you know, all three's been different, all three of my wins. John and I were pretty even partners, and then the year Scott and I won I played fantastic that week. It was like Scott wouldn't even hit his tee shot. I would hit the tee shot first and he wouldn't even hit it. We would just walk out to the ball. This year my roles have been reversed and I was complementing Sean. It was awesome for me to be able to watch this guy. You know, I reflect back now. I remember when I used to do that. We all live in the past a little bit. But I just thought the whole week if I could just help him a little bit I knew I had a great chance this week at winning the golf tournament. Putted pretty good the first two rounds; I didn't have much of a putter today at all. But we hit it better today than we did the first two rounds.  We had no nervous moments out there, not one. You know, I think that's kind of key in this format. So we were just steady golf. I knew starting today if we shot 12‑under ‑‑ I was thinking about this last night. I knew 12‑under, I knew Roy and them were going to have to shoot a magical score to catch us, and the only people that could really do some damage to us was Davis, and they weren't having a good day. We got to 12 and win by one; that's all that matters. MARK STEVENS: Sean. SEAN O'HAIR: Yeah, it was a great week. You know, besides winning, obviously playing with Kenny was a great experience. We have played a lot of golf together, practice rounds, tournament rounds in the past, and just we get along great. We just had a lot fun out there. I think that was kind ofthe ‑‑ KENNY PERRY: Kind of great. SEAN O'HAIR: ‑‑ best thing about this was just we had a ton of fun, just like being a kid enjoying what you're doing. Had a blast this week. MODERATOR: Questions. Q. With Davis and Brandt not having a good day, some other guys made charges but they were having continually fewer holes left. Were you not that worried about what they were doing unless they passed you on the leaderboard? KENNY PERRY: I wasn't worried because I knew they started out four behind us starting out the day. I knew they were going to probably to catch up to us at some point, but I knew we had holes to catch back up to 'em. You really can't get too far ahead of yourself out there in that field. You just kind of play each hole. We started off great. We birdied the first three holes and missed a little shorty on four 4 which kind of stalled our momentum a little bit. Ut hit great shots on 6, the par‑5 6, and then I hit it close for a tap‑in on 7. You know, it was just a... And then we shoot 29 on the back nine. Played beautiful on the back nine. Only missed two holes, and that was 11 and 18. He hit it so far, you know, the par‑5s, I was lucky to put the tees up. I had 285 front on 13 or whatever that little short hole, 14‑‑ yeah, 13. And then 14 he drove it so far over the lake, it was amazing how far he could drive it. I hit 5‑iron on that green. I mean, it was just a little 5‑iron for me. I was like, Wow, this is nice to be able to hit 5‑iron into a hole. Then we hit wedges into the next hole; he made good putts on 15 and 16, which were key to keep the round going, momentum, keep the pressure on 'em to make 'em try to catch us. Then 17, we hit great shots up there. Mine hit the green and went over and his hit just short and stopped. It was nice two‑putt birdie. Pretty routine. So it was pretty stress‑free, and it's just nice to kind of enjoy the moment out there. Q. I know you were joking about it, Kenny, but are you serious about maybe buying a place in Naples? KENNY PERRY: No. I should, but they're calling me the mayor now, so I'm the mayor of this place. (Laughter.) You know, I just have great feelings when I come to Naples. Just seems like every time I set foot on this property no matter how poorly I'm playing, I feel like I can create something to get around and be competitive in the golf tournament. Q. Have there been any other courses you've played here in Naples, or do you remember your first memories of coming here to play? KENNY PERRY: No, not really. I've played in this event. I know I've played the last 10 years. I don't know how many before in The Shark Shootout, and now the last few years on the seniors here. So it's just great weather usually at this time of year. It's very hot and humid and warm. It loosens me up. I didn't feel so stiff. It's just a neat place to come and hang out. Q. The other thing you had mentioned earlier in the week was that you were feeling ‑ I don't know if dragging was the right word‑ but you said you've still got a lot of golf left to play here the next couple weeks and you weren't really exactly totally looking forward to it. How did you kind of get through this weekend? KENNY PERRY: Well, when you're playing poorly and you're struggling with your golf swing‑‑ but I found some things with my golf swing. I came down early. I was in Vero Beach. I lived in Vero Beach from '82 to '86, so I came down the Sunday prior in Vero Beach and I was there for a whole week just working on my golf swing. The more I practiced and then when got here Sunday night in Naples, I hit balls all day on Monday. Then it just seemed like the more we got along in the tournament the more comfortable I got and the more started feeling like, You know what? I strengthened my grip a little bit in the left hand, and made all the difference in the world. Made me seem to know where the face of the golf club was at all times. I drove it beautiful. Only hit a couple crooked shots for the three days. My irons weren't spot‑on, but they were solid enough to get on the green and allow him ‑‑ you know, I was playing first. I told him we didn't have any rules, but the only rule was I was going to hit first. So I knew I could get my driver in the fairway and I knew I was going to get my irons on the green, somewhere around the greens, and I was just going to turn him loose. It worked out great. Q. What makes this format so great compared to a regular TOUR event? SEAN O'HAIR: You want to answer that? KENNY PERRY: Go ahead. SEAN O'HAIR: I just think obviously being a team event, we don't get to play team events too even unless it's Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup. You know, then it's just obviously being with a team, it's just he and I. It's not like we've got a bunch of other guys on our team. So it's just kind of nice. You can practice together, you can kind of have lunch together. To me it almost felt like a vacation this week, you know, having a few cocktail parties, go out with my wife, and have a good time, come to work and have a good time with a friend of mine, play some nice golf. Just was a nice way to end the year. I just think having that team format, but also every day having a different format that you're playing, that kind of mixes it up a little bit. So that's a lot of fun, too. This is a great venue to have this tournament on. I just think it's challenging in some ways, there are some tight driving holes, and also there are a lot of birdies out there, too. I think it's fun for the spectators; definitely fun for us. When you're playing well, it just makes it that much better. KENNY PERRY: I just think you see more aggressive play. You see a lot more different shots in this tournament. You see guys going for stuff that they don't normally go for. I mean, like this one shot today we had on 6. We were 300 yards away, and normally I would hit a 5‑iron in sand wedge it. But I knew he had a great shot to knock it on the green, so I said, Give me that 3‑wood. I'm going to hit it as hard as I can. I hit a good shot. I left it about 40 yards short of the green, but then it turned him loose. I think that is just kind of the key. It's a team atmosphere. Everybody is a going after it. We're all flag hunting, all trying to make as many birdies as you can. I think Brendan Steele and Keegan, they shot 32‑under. I think when I won with Scott Hoch it was in the mid‑20s. It's like the last few years it's really going ballistically low, so you've got to play aggressive golf and make putts. It's just neat. I've gone through the cycle. I've play the Tiger Woods era, I was with the Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus era, and now ‑‑ I watched Tiger and Sean and Rickie Fowler. For me, I've gotten to see all these generations come through. I've come through golf at a good time. That to me has been what's been so neat. To get to watch all these guys, hang out with 'em. You know, everybody ius cutting up in the eating area, on the range. This is kind of the time you're reminiscing about. The year, we're all talking about what we're doing next year, where we're starting. It's just a neat week to get away, have some fun, you know, with a good friend, and hopefully make a few dollars. (Laughter.) Q. Sean, did the conditions after the rains yesterday, did it change the course at all? SEAN O'HAIR: I've got to be honest, this is one of the best courses I've ever seen with drainage. I've never seen it come down like it did yesterday. It just came out of nowhere. It came down hard for quite sometime, so I actually got soaked. I was in the room and I was watching the rain, you know, and I was taking a quick shower and getting changed and getting dry clothes. There was a river on the greens, a river through the fairways, and literally once it stopped, 20 minutes later, I didn't see any water. When we went out we had a few mud balls, but wasn't too bad today. I mean, I'm not going to say it was dry as a bone, but it definitely wasn't slushy out there. KENNY PERRY: We got to pick it up today. We all marked it, and that was neat. SEAN O'HAIR: But I don't think it played any longer. Fairways were already soft and weren't really running out, so I thought it played just fine. Q. Other thing I was going to ask you, Sean, is when I talked to a guy who played with Kenny in this event a couple yeas ago, he talked about he really actually was almost like a mentor to him during the weekend. Was there anything you picked up from playing with him or anything that he said to you that helped? SEAN O'HAIR: You know, I've known Kenny for quite a while now. The thing to me is growing up with the game, you know, I looked up to guys like Kenny, and Davis Love was my idol growing up, and Freddy Couples. Now you're playing against these guys and you can't really look up to them anymore. But the thing for me with Kenny is not just who he is as a golfer but who he is as a person. That to me is what I take from the day I met him. There are two people out here that I try and emulate off the golf course: One is Steve Stricker and the other is Kenny Perry. They're just real people; they're good people; they're great family people; they're all about their family. That's who I want to be. So to answer your question, I look at Kenny how he is as a person and say, That's who I want to be when I'm 52 years old. KENNY PERRY: I'm going to cry. That was sweet. (Laughter.) Q. How much car talk was there out there? SEAN O'HAIR: A lot. Q. What are you now car‑wise? KENNY PERRY: I got everything he wants. Now that he's made a little bit of money he can buy something I got. (Laughter.) Q. If you were a car now, what are you and what are you? KENNY PERRY: You know, to me, my car, I'm like a '66 Impala that's a convertible that's laid back and just cruising along. He's like my ZR1 Corvette: Ready to run. I'm slowing down; he's speeding up. There is a difference. SEAN O'HAIR: I've had a lot of cars in a short period of time, but I'm driving a Dodge Ram 1500 and love it. It's comfortable. If somebody gets in my way, I can just run over them. KENNY PERRY: He can haul all the baby things. With four kids, he's got a lot of stuff. SEAN O'HAIR: I actually might jack it up a little bit for the winter. You know, probably put a four‑inch lift on it. KENNY PERRY: Don't do it. Don't do it. Save your money. It's not going to help the value of your vehicle. Do not do that. SEAN O'HAIR: I love what he does with cars. It's not just having a car. I've had a lot of sports cars.  But it's taking a car, building it and doing all the work yourself. I like the old school stuff, too. I like the '67 through '69 Camaros and all sorts of stuff. So when he's ready... KENNY PERRY: I got one you can buy. SEAN O'HAIR: Yeah, when he's ready to give one away I'll give him a call. MARK STEVENS: All right, well thanks for the time, guys. Have a good off‑season. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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