Golf Course Digest

Ryder Cup

Kenny Perry arrived at Oakland Hills Country Club, site of this week’s PGA Championship, as soon as possible, perhaps eager to get preparations under way for what will be, amazingly, his first major championship appearance of the year.

He didn’t recall The Monster being as long or as difficult as it is now. The last time he traversed these hallowed fairways, however, things did not work out so well. Perry was part of an embarrassing 18 ½-9 ½ United States loss to Europe in the 2004 Ryder Cup, matches in which he went 0-2.

That and the fact that next month’s Ryder Cup is in his home state of Kentucky fueled Perry’s desire to make the U.S. squad, despite the fact that he’ll be 48 when the first ball is struck at Valhalla.

That goal has been accomplished despite his not playing this year in a single major championship, where Perry could have earned double points to help in his quest to qualify for the Ryder Cup team. Perry also did not compete in a World Golf Championship event — where the purses are higher, thus offering more points — until the Bridgestone Invitational, where he tied for 66th on Sunday.
It was the most ordinary result in months for Perry, who played in the final pairing at the Players Championship, lost in a playoff at the AT&T Classic, won the Memorial, the Buick Open and the John Deere Classic, and put himself in position to win the PGA Tour money title and the FedEx Cup.

That lofty standing came despite being ineligible for the Masters, declining to attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open and then skipping the British Open despite being exempt.

“He’s arguably the best player in the world right now and I find it amazing that he’s not here,” England’s Justin Rose said of Perry while playing in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale last month. “I couldn’t imagine opting out of majors. It’s what I want to judge myself on by the end of my career. He has different goals, and who knows what makes him tick. He maybe found a formula right now that he didn’t want to mess with.”

Other players questioned Perry’s decision, as did media and fans, although he said he simply did not want to alter a schedule that he laid out at the beginning of the year with the intention of including venues and tournaments where he had success in the past.

Instead of playing in England, Perry teed it up at the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, where he tied for sixth.

“To me, that was more of a compliment than a criticism,” said Perry of all the British Open talk. “I said before, in 22 years, nobody has ever cared where I played golf. I’m not trying to knock myself, but that’s the truth.

“Now all of a sudden, I’ve got everybody. It’s funny how the media goes, one little story and the next thing you know, everybody runs with it. So now I’m the bad guy over there. It was kind of comical. I was chuckling over it. I was like, wow, this is pretty cool.”

Perry might not have understood all the angst over his decision, although nobody ever made him out to be a bad guy. They simply questioned the wisdom of the hottest player on tour — a 12-time PGA Tour winner playing some of the best golf of his life — skipping a major championship when, by golly, maybe he had a chance to win it.

“I love stuff like that,” Perry said. “I love when people tell me I can’t do something, because I’m going to prove you wrong. That’s just my mentality and that’s just the way I feel. People told me I’d never make the tour; I proved those people wrong. They said I’d never amount to much. You know, it just seems like negative comments, and criticism just fires me up, makes me play harder.

“I’m kind of a low-key, easygoing guy, and I kind of need stuff like that. When I get something burning in my belly, it just inspires me to work a little bit harder. At my age, I need that because I’m kinda getting lazy.”

Perry’s mission was aided by a chance meeting. Perry spends part of the offseason getting ready in Vero Beach, Fla., and a friend who is a member at Vero Beach Country Club, Paul Hargarten, suggested he try a certain kind of putter.

“Looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘You need to use this putter, it’s going to help you,’” Perry said of the Ping model. “I was like, ‘Yeah, right.’ Sure enough, won $4.4 million with it or whatever and three tournaments. I don’t know if it’s the optics of it. The only thing I do know, the difference with this putter, it’s got the deadest face I’ve ever hit. When you hit it, it doesn’t go anywhere. For me, I’ve got that pop in my stroke, and with that Rossi it would get away from me. I’d hit it 8 feet past the hole. This putter, I can be really aggressive with it — I can just swat it and it’s not going anywhere. I can be really confident, and that’s helped me more than anything.”

The hope for Perry now is to maintain his momentum through the PGA Championship and into the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin in two weeks. After that comes the Ryder Cup in Louisville, a short drive from his home in Franklin, Ky. Perry is in second place in the FedEx standings behind Tiger Woods, who will be unable to compete due to knee surgery.

“You know, I set a plan out, set a goal out, and actually it was a dream more than a goal to be able to achieve it at my age,” he said of making the U.S. team. “It’s been pretty special. I have prepared myself to do well that week. I’ve thrown everything out on the table. I’ve stuck my neck out there, I’m laying it on the line. This is all I’ve got.”

(source: Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com)