Viewpoint: Sizzling Perry lends prestige to first-round leaderboard

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By Craig DeVrieze | Monday, July 14, 2008 |

Kenny Perry hits out of a sand trap on the 8th hole Thursday at the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill. (Andrew Link/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Buy this Photo

SILVIS, Ill. — The fire alarm went off in the wee hours at Kenny Perry’s Quad-Cities hotel on Thursday morning.

A punster might be tempted to chalk that up to the Kentuckian’s status as the hottest golfer going right now.

Over a two-month stretch, Perry has lost a playoff in Atlanta, won the Memorial and the Buick Open and also tied for sixth at the Travelers.

Entering The Players Championship in early May, he was 56th in the FedEx Cup standings. Thursday morning, Perry stood third in those standings as he took to the 10th tee, his first, at TPC Deere Run.

He shook off his lack of Z’s by posting three straight birdies to open his round at the John Deere Classic, then smoothed his way around Deere Run with a seven-birdie, lone-bogey 65, his ninth straight round in the 60s.

And — viola! — look who’s in contention at another PGA Tour affair.

Hot as a Fourth of July firecracker, Perry is the owner of 11 career victories and, with a certain injured someone sidelined to a Florida easy chair, he is just maybe the best golfer in the world at the moment.

That is a status golf’s high-falutin’ pundits insist mandates that the 47-year-old from Franklin, Ky., take his game across the pond to next week’s British Open.

Perry’s going to mosey on up to Milwaukee, instead.

“If they don’t like it, that’s fine,” Perry says, showing just a hint of Kentucky fire. “They can say all they want to.”

You could say the 47-year-old Perry is getting cantankerous in what amounts to his PGA Tour dotage. Call him contrary, if you dare. Fact is, he knows what he wants to do and where he wants to do it.

Besides, age does have its by-golly privilege.

“I want to play golf at the courses I want to play at these last couple of years,” he said. “I’m going to go out on my terms, not theirs.”

That’s the way big boys operate. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson dictate their terms, too. They play when they want to play. They play where they want to play.

Difference here is Perry is lending the prestige that comes with his raised profile to tournaments that badly could use it.

The John Deeres and Milwaukees — tournaments to which Tiger readily accepted sponsor’s invites in 1996, but has not graced since with his presence — rarely see players with the top-tier credentials Perry is bringing the JDC leaderboard.

But Perry has had success at both events in the past. He had three top-10s at Oakwood in the ’90s and tied for 11th at Deere Run last year; at Milwaukee, meanwhile, he was an ’01 winner.

The chance to pay tourneys both back certainly is a worthy bonus to his quest to score Ryder Cup points.

“I like the small-market tournaments,” he said. “It just seems it is more intimate. To me, I just feel more at home.”

Feeling more at home on the road might be the key a career renaissance Perry has enjoyed in his 40s.

He has won eight of his 11 titles since 2001, and said that’s less a result of a second win than it is a second honeymoon.

“We’re empty nesters now,” the father of three 20-somethings said of he and his wife, Sandy. “So Sandy has been traveling with me every week, and I told her, ‘We’re either going to get a divorce or we’re going to fall in love again. We have had a blast.

“I think for me, my kids are gone, I know they’re doing great. … There’s nothing for us to do at home, so might as well go play golf.”

Certainly, Perry is playing it like a champion.

Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com.