Perry is definitely tired, but hot always beats tired
By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.COM Senior Correspondent
DUBLIN, Ohio -- He has played six weeks in a row. He's tired.
He's been home to Kentucky just one day in that stretch. He's about two months shy of his 48th birthday, about two years shy of a Champions Tour career. He's tired.
"It's going to be tough for me showing up in Memphis [this] week," he admitted.
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He's tired.
But he's also one of the hottest golfers on the planet. Hot beats tired. Hot also beats an elite invitational field.
Kenny Perry can't stop now, not when he is on top of his game and once again on top of a PGA TOUR leaderboard. The personal pro from Franklin, Ky., who began the year with his sights set on making the U.S. Ryder Cup team, has to reassess his goals after his sterling performance Sunday at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
Perry fired a closing 3-under-par 69 on a pernicious layout to win his third Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley and his 10th PGA TOUR title. The two-stroke, come-from-behind victory, worth $1.08 million, lifted him to fifth in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings and put him a few steps closer to a return to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, which is about two hours north of his home.
"Everything I put on ... all the pressure I put on myself to try to make the Ryder Cup, it may be the No. 1 round, because it may take, this may solidify my spot," Perry, who surpassed Tom Watson as the oldest winner of Jack Nicklaus' tournament, said when asked to rank his performance Sunday. "When (U.S. Captain Paul) Azinger said in the paper that the guys on his team are going to have to win tournaments, that really changed my thinking. And I knew I had to win golf tournaments. To get it done and to kind of get your back against the wall and to actually do it, this may be the greatest round."
Perry, who won his first TOUR title at Muirfield Village in 1991, might otherwise be content to go home and rest after a stretch of tournaments in which he also contended at THE PLAYERS Championship before a final-round 81 and lost in a playoff to Ryuji Imada at the AT&T Classic.
"Kenny played great. He deserved to win and he's been playing great," said Mike Weir, who tied for second with Jerry Kelly, Justin Rose and third-round leader Matthew Goggin. "He deserved to win."
"Kenny's been playing so well for the last month; he's led every tournament at some stage. He's been the best player in the world for a month," Goggin added. "He's such a great guy. It's just one or two guys that have beat him."
But now he's playing some impeccable, unbeatable golf. His only blemish Sunday was on the 71st hole, when he overshot the green and couldn't get up and down out of one of Muirfield Village's rough-raked bunkers. No problem.
He calmly drilled a 5-wood down the middle of the 18th fairway for a solid closing par that accounted for the lowest final-round score among the top nine finishers, though Rocco Mediate equaled it.
Six weeks ago, Perry was languishing in 43rd place on the U.S. Ryder Cup list, and it appeared that the only way he was going to get back to Valhalla -- where he lost to Mark Brooks in a playoff in the 1996 PGA Championship -- was to buy a ticket. He already has done that, in fact, purchasing about a dozen through a lottery.
Now, however, he's looking like a lock to make Azinger's squad either outright or as one of four wild card picks.
"That is just going to be a neat experience for me. To be able to play and in front of everybody to celebrate with them and hopefully I can have the nerves and the calmness like I had today to go out there and hit, execute golf shots. And that will be the ultimate high."
Speaking of highs, Perry, who finished at 8-under 280 at Muirfield Village, the highest winning score in more than 20 years, is riding one. He finished in the top 10 for the week in driving accuracy, greens hit and putting. He's doing everything well.
Don't think he can't keep it going? He's used to it.
He's tired. But he just won't go home.
He's hot.
"I'm a streaky player," said Perry, who has also moved into fourth place on the FedExCup points list. "I've done this throughout my whole career when I won back to clear at Colonial and Memorial back-to-back weeks [in 2003]. And then 2005 I won a couple times. So it was another stretch to where I had, I was in the last group for three and four weeks in a row. That's just the way I play for some reason. And dad's always told me, 'Ride that train when it's hot, keep chasing it. Don't go home.' And I've always taken his advice to heart. And I'm going to keep playing until I'm just mentally frazzled and then I'll go home for couple weeks."
Actually, he'll play this week at TPC Southwind, and then he is skipping the U.S. Open. He's not a big fan of Torrey Pines South, in La Jolla, Calif., and he's not been a traditionally strong U.S. Open player, even though he is a good driver of the ball. He said he might regret not trying to qualify for the national championship, given the level of his game, but the upcoming summer schedule that includes stops like the Travelers Championship and the Buick Open have been other friendly places.
He's sticking to a schedule that makes sense for him, given his goals. Now, however, he might have to alter his outlook just slightly.
"I don't want to let my guard down," he said. "I still want to get out there and push hard and keep playing well. Now there's other goals. Can I be a multiple winner again like I was in 2003, 2005 and work my way now up to FedExCup points, try to get upper echelon again where I was back in the mid 2000s where I was a top 30 world player? And that would be neat to kind of get back there again."
If he keeps playing like this, there's nothing stopping him.
Oh, yes, he's tired. But he's hot.
Hot beats tired. Hot beats everyone.
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