Viewpoint: Modesty suits Perry as well as his putter

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By Craig DeVrieze | Monday, July 14, 2008 12:05 AM CDT | () comments

SILVIS, Ill. — Kenny Perry left smalltown Kentucky for the bigtime PGA Tour with expectations only of modest accomplishment.

Some 22 years and 12 Tour victories later, the modesty remains.

In a matter of just 43 days, Perry has scored triple the number of wins he told his father early-on he envisioned for his career on the Tour.

He used a magical putting stroke to emerge from as exciting a Sunday afternoon as the 38-year-old John Deere Classic ever has enjoyed, in the process joining a short list of very high profile Quad-Cities champions that arguably would include only Payne Stewart and Vijay Singh.

Seemingly against his will, the soft-spoken, church-going father of three finds himself knocking on the door of golf greatness at the advanced age of 47, riding the wave of a dominating month-and-a-half long ride that has left him second only to Tiger Woods on the 2008 PGA Tour money list and in the FedExCup standings.

Stewart, Singh and Woods are lofty company, but, if you tell Perry he belongs, he will aw-shucks tell you he is very much a reluctant and accidental Tourist.“I told my dad I just wanted to make it on Tour and win one event,” Perry said after topping Jay Williamson and Brad Adamonis is a one-hole sudden death playoff at TPC Deere Run. “I just wanted to make a living.”

If $25,863,999 in career earnings constitutes a living, Perry has succeeded in that.

That total ranks ninth all-time in PGA Tour earnings, a standing that certainly exceeds modest. So does a win total four shy of the Tour’s Top 50 all-time total.

Yet, Perry remains more comfortable behind the counter of Country Creek, the public golf course he opened in his hometown of Franklin, Ky., than he is at a Tour media podium.

And he is prouder of the things he does away from golf — donating 5 percent of his annual PGA income to a scholarship fund at David Lipscomb University, creating a Boys and Girls Club in Bowling Green, Ky. — than he is the increasingly impressive work he does on Tour.

“I hope I am known more for what I do outside of golf,’’ he said. “I hope I am not remembered as a golfer.’’

Perry’s increasing list of Tour successes certainly aren’t going to help in that mission.

He simply is the world’s hottest golfer right now, having forged five top-10 finishes in his last seven starts and making tracks toward possible year-end recognition as the Tour’s player of the year.

He doesn’t see it that way.

“I have to win a major to do that,” he said of eclipsing the injured Woods and his now truncated four-win campaign that includes an epic, one-legged U.S. Open victory.

And, remember, despite his recent accomplishments, Perry isn’t acting like a major player this year, choosing the comfort and potential success of smaller tournaments like the Deere and this week’s U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, over the grinding demands of major championships.

His major goal, his year-defining middle-aged mission, is to play in the Ryder Cup in his home state, something he will do for certain at Valhalla GC in Louisville, Ky., a place where his heretofore best chance at a career-defining major championship slipped away in a playoff loss to Mark Brooks at the 1996 PGA Championship.

Modesty notwithstanding, Perry said he someday would welcome induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame, but that’s more for the thrill it would supply his son in introducing him.

To afford 23-year-old Justin that opportunity, however, his father said: “I am going to have to win a major, so time is running out on that deal, but that’s OK.”

Indeed, this modest man is more than OK with low-key.

“My goals were never to be a superstar,” he said. “I just wanted to make a living.”

The accidental tourist has done considerably more than that, but always will eschew the label of greatness.

“I don’t think I am a great player,” he insisted. “I think I am just a real good player.”

Good. And modest.

But, sorry Kenny, a great JDC champion.

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