Once a Torrey Pines worker, Perez returns as a contender

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Pat Perez won for the first time on the PGA TOUR at last year's Bob Hope Classic.

During his younger days, Pat Perez had to get creative when it came to playing at Torrey Pines. Not a problem this week. He won't be asked to move the carts from the barn and no one will make him pick up balls from the range. Perez won't be required to wedge 18 holes in between his chores.

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This week Perez is in the field for the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Now when he visits La Jolla it's as a proven professional, who has won a PGA TOUR event and is coming off a solid tie-for-26th finish at last week's Bob Hope Classic. He's playing well enough to be considered a contender this week. He's proven he belongs.

But it wasn't always that way. Perez grew up in San Diego and graduated from Torrey Pines High School. He wasn't like many of the other kids who came from privilege. He took the bus to work and his mother would pick up him up afterwards. There was no fancy car for him to drive.

When his club (Lomas Santa Fe) got washed out, Perez needed a place to play. He was serious about his game and projected himself as a PGA TOUR player. Knowing such dreams don't come true without hard work, Perez took a job at Torrey Pines and began to work on his game.

"I needed a place to play," he said. "I knew the only way I could do that is if I worked at a course. And I didn't want to go to one of the snobby ones so I went to Torrey with the common folk, which was me. That's what I did."

Torrey Pines is a beautiful place. Its two courses offer fabulous views of the Pacific Ocean that the television cameras show as often as possible during a telecast. But what the home viewer doesn't see are the spartan accommodations that greet the TOUR players. The locker room looks like it was recreated from the set of architectural plans discovered in a 1960s time capsule. Range space is limited. The putting green isn't exactly spacious, either. Perez was correct; this is not a snooty place.

That's because for 51 weeks out of the year, Torrey Pines is a public golf course. Come and pay a greens fee, stick the paper tag on your bag and wait for the starter to call your name. This was the world in which Pat Perez got his start.

"It worked out great," Perez said. "I could hit all the balls I wanted, play whenever I want."

Perez started winning local tournaments and the guys who ran the operation started sneaking him out.

"I had the whole system down totally," he said. "I could go play. I could play 36. I could play right before I went to work. I could play right after work, whatever. I was there all day, from 5 a.m. to dark. I was there all day."

All the work began to pay off and he started to ascend the ranks of junior golf. In 1993 Torrey Pines hosted the Junior World tournament and 17-year-old Pat Perez did something that was rare in the junior ranks: he soundly whipped Tiger Woods and won the event. Later in the summer Perez won the Maxfli PGA Junior at Pinehurst.

The next stop was Arizona State, where he expected to follow in the footsteps of Phil Mickelson. But his situation changed Steve Lloyd left town with Lefty. Perez had issues with the new coach and survived their rocky relationship for three years. The breaking point came after ASU won the NCAA championship in 1996. Perez, who was playing in the No. 2 slot, was told his scholarship had not been renewed for his senior season.

"It's not today, where kids are thinking about playing the TOUR and making millions," Perez said. "At that time it was like, well, The TOUR is there and we'll see what happens when we get there."

The Perez reaction? "I said, 'Cool. I'm going to make some money. And that's about the end of it."

So he turned professional in 1997, worked his way up to the Nationwide Tour in 2001 and earned his PGA TOUR card by winning the PGA TOUR National Qualifying Tournament. He joined the TOUR in 2002 and has never had any trouble retaining his playing privileges. A year ago he broke into the winner's circle for the first time.

Now he comes back home to Torrey Pines with a head of steam. He tied for 10th at the SBS Championship in Maui and tied for 26th at the Bob Hope Classic, where he shot a 66 in the final round.

He doesn't have a great track record at Torrey Pines, where his father, Tony, was once the tournament's starter. In eight previous tournaments he's missed the cut five times and has finished better than 39th only once, that in 2005 when he tied for sixth place.

Does he want to win here too badly? Perhaps. There's something inside most people that makes them want to perform well in front of the home folks. But Perez doesn't really have anything to prove, not with everything he's accomplished.

Stan Awtrey is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the PGA TOUR.