Kenny Perry is the headline act at the John Deere Classic with most of the top players already in Europe preparing for next week’s British Open.
The American has been the hottest golfer on the PGA Tour for the last two months, losing a playoff for the Atlanta Classic in mid-May before winning twice in his next five starts.
The 47-year-old clinched his 11th Tour title with a one-shot victory at the Buick Open nine days ago and by his own admission has never been in better form.
“This is probably the longest sustained stretch in my career where I’ve played tremendous golf each and every week,” Perry told reporters ahead of this week’s event in Silvis, Illinois.
“These last two months I’ve just played unbelievable golf. I’ve been on the leaderboard every week I’ve been playing.
“I’ve always been a streaky player. That has just kind of been the history of my career. When I get hot, I get hot.
“In 2003 when I won back-to-back [the] Colonial and Memorial [tournaments], two weeks later I won Milwaukee and I finished third in the Open that year in between.”
Perry posted eight consecutive top 10 finishes that season, beginning with his victory at the Colonial in May.
This year, he has registered five top 10s in 18 starts, four of them in his last six appearances.
“It’s just all happened so fast in the last two months,” said Perry. “It’s been an incredible run and I hope I continue to play well. I’ve got a lot of confidence and I love my game the way I’m playing right now.”
Perry, the world No. 20, is the highest-ranked player in this week’s field at the TPC Deere Run.
Among the biggest names scheduled to tee off in Thursday’s opening round are 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson and former major winners Tom Lehman, Rich Beem and David Duval.
Johnson, a native of nearby Cedar Rapids in Iowa, is back in action for the first time since last month’s US Open after recovering from a wrist injury.
“The state of my game is rusty but, at the same time, my expectations are minimal,” the 32-year-old American told reporters on Tuesday. “I’ve played here so many times so I know the golf course.
CRITICISM
Kenny Perry never imagined facing so much criticism over where to play golf.
There was a time when he was desperate to play anywhere. He was 26, with two children in diapers and no money for a third attempt at qualifying for the US PGA Tour. That’s when he made a deal with an angel, Ronnie Ferguson, an elder at the Church of Christ in Franklin, Kentucky, who offered him US$5,000 for one last shot at qualifying school with one string attached.
If he failed, Perry didn’t owe Ferguson a cent. But if he made it, Perry would give back 5 percent of his tour earnings to David Lipscomb University, a small Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.
That was 22 years and US$25 million ago.
Over the years, Perry has collected 11 victories on the US PGA Tour, including two in the last six weeks at the Memorial and the Buick Open. The kids who have gone to Lipscomb with help from his scholarship program have become teachers, nurses, youth ministers.
ORIGINAL PLAN
This is worth remembering as Perry gets buried next week for skipping the British Open, sticking to his original plan to play in the US Bank Championship in Milwaukee.
As determined as he was to play golf for a living, Perry was equally tenacious about playing in the Ryder Cup at Valhalla, just up the road from his old Kentucky home.
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