"People like to bring up dirty laundry, I guess."
/Bob Verdi writes about Kenny Perry's first remarks about the FBR Open incident.
Kenny Perry looks as though he has lost no sleep whatsoever over a "controversy" concerning an "incident" surrounding his victory at the FBR Open last February. In fact, he's somewhat puzzled that people are talking about it without talking to him.
Now I was out all day so I had only seen Verdi's take thanks to the readers who emailed the link to Bob's story. Only later did I read the transcript and the combination of Verdi's observation with the transcript probably won't make this go away.
Now, I know it's a bit unfair to Perry since there wasn't much he could say at this point that would help make the video more palatable. And it's perhaps unfair to parse his words from a transcript since the tone may have been tough to grasp, but sheesh, this is rough...
Q. Kenny, I know you talked about this earlier this morning. What do you suppose this playoff wedge thing from Phoenix has taken on such a life of its own on the Internet? I don't know that I've heard you talk about it. I was wondering what your take on all that is and why it won't go away.
KENNY PERRY: Well, I mean, I said the truth will set you free. I looked at it, and I thought it was crazy, my first impression.
I went to Charlie Hoffman, and I asked Charlie. Charlie, do you have a problem with it? That would be the only guy, if he had a problem with it, it would have really upset me, if he thought something was done wrong there.
You know, doesn't that mentality speak directly to something I wondered about recently: self policing gone awry to the point that the opinion of one's fellow competitors supersedes the Rules of Golf?
He said that's crazy. You didn't do nothing wrong. Patted me on the back. And saw the Tour came out -- I wasn't in the closed door. The Tour went in. I wasn't with the Tour staff when they made their -- they shot back with their remark saying, we saw nothing wrong. I mean, I just let it go.
That's life, isn't it? People like to bring up dirty laundry, I guess.
How is it dirty laundry if it is clearly not a violation?
Q. You were just trying to figure out how high the grass was and where the crowd was?
KENNY PERRY: You're allowed to.
To figure out how high the grass is? No kidding?
You're able to sole your club. Did you watch it? Did you actually watch that last hole?
Q. Everybody has seen it.
KENNY PERRY: I soled my club on the ball. Did you watch me sole it left of the golf ball? Then I went and hit the shot.
I don't think that quite describes how things transpired.
When you're in the rough, you just need to find the bottom so you can figure out how high the ball is sitting up in rough.
Find the bottom with about many stabs of the fire stoker? Sorry, here's the close up.
Q. You kind of hit a chunky running shot out of there anyway.
Oh, so the shot was lousy, therefore whatever precipitated didn't matter?
It wasn't like you hit some spinner that stuck it a foot from the hole, right?
KENNY PERRY: I hit it 25 feet from the hole. It's not like I hit a great shot. I mean, I don't know. What do you all think? Someone brings something up four months down the road. I didn't understand. We're going to go looking in the archives of all the players who have been on TV and see what they've done? I didn't understand that part of it.
That is a fair point that no one has been able to answer. Then again, the Super Bowl had started, so we now know just how many people were watching golf.
I've got a camera guy five feet behind me. He's right there looking. I turned around and looked at him.
If I thought I was doing something wrong, I definitely wouldn't have done it there.
Scribblers in attendance, did Kenny leave behind a large hole and a mound of dirt next to the podium?
Once that was -- I didn't hear nothing about it after that. There was nothing else said. So I just assumed it was dead. not after this press conference!
Q. When was this brought to your attention?
KENNY PERRY: When I finished the Sunday round at the Players. They came and told me about it. I was just stunned.
Q. Did they just walk up to you and say, by the way, you didn't cheat?
KENNY PERRY: No. They said you're going to have to answer some questions about this video. I didn't quite understand.
Rick George came and talked to me. And then I met with Alex Miceli. He was out there. And talked about have you heard anything about this video? Which I didn't know.
And then the Tour came out with their saying there was nothing been done wrong here.
After this press conference? Maybe not.