Pat Perez Reminisces About His Days Picking Torrey's Range

It was a surreal scene Thursday in the Farmers Insurance Open media center as Pat Perez couldn't take his eyes off the driving range visible through the door immediately to his left.

After his opening 67 on the South, Perez had lots of great stuff to say, including this:

Q.  How's it feel, given how important this is to you, how's it feel to get off to such a great start?
 
PAT PEREZ:  It feels awesome.  Every time I come back here I see the picker going, I logged a thousand miles on that range picking that thing and cleaning carts to 11:00 at night.  I used to shuttle the guys up and down the range here.  It was the most exciting tournament for me ever.  I'd get up at about 4:00 in the morning and I'd come back about 11:00 at night and couldn't wait to get back the next day to see all the pros.  You know, I'd steal a lot of the (inaudible) balls that were on the range.  I'd go home and have this huge bucket of balls, never hit them, never played them, you know, just stared at them.  I just thought that's got to be the greatest job in the world.  So cool to be here and do that.  You know, it's so exciting to be here all the time and now that I'm actually playing well and get going, I'm really looking forward to this weekend.

John Strege reports on Perez's stellar over the South Course, fueled by instructor Joe Mayo. Perez's father worked as the North Course first tee starter Thursday.