BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Kenny Perry tuned into the British Open a few weeks ago just in time to catch the rant of a peeved Pat Perez.
Soaked and chilled to the bone, Perez had just shot 82 in the awful gales and rain in the first round at Royal Birkdale, and he was giving Perry a long-distance knuckle tap of congratulations.
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Kenny Perry, who has three titles and three top-six finishes in three months, practices before the PGA Championship.
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“Kenny Perry's the smartest man in the world,” Perez proclaimed.
Perry couldn't help but laugh, warm and dry as he was as he prepared to play that morning in the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee. He'd passed on playing the British because he doesn't like cold weather and he had been loyal to the Wisconsin tournament for years.
“I chuckled a little bit,” Perry admitted. “I said, 'Maybe the British press won't talk about me so bad anymore.' ”
Smartest man in the world? Uh, no. Hottest player in golf? No question.
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PERRY MAY BE A SCRATCH
The Golf Channel reported last night that Kenny Perry suffered a scratched cornea late Tuesday while taking out a contact lens and was questionable to start the PGA Championship today.
Perry said one doctor advised him not to wear contacts for a week. Perry has undergone two Lasik surgeries, and he said he can't wear glasses because of depth-perception problems.
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Perry heads into today's first round of the 90th PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club with a record over the last three months that no one else can touch. He has won three titles and has three other top-six finishes, including a playoff loss when his ball inexplicably ricocheted off a tree into the water at the AT&T Classic.
At the season's outset, Perry was ranked 92nd in the world. Now he's 17th.
It has been a remarkable run for a 47-year-old who was stuck on nine career PGA Tour wins for the past three years. It seems to be the kind of surge fans were hoping for in the absence of the injured Tiger Woods.
So why have scribes and players from both sides of the Atlantic been on Kenny's case?
Perry's been asking himself that very question.
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90TH PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Where: Oakland Hills Country Club, Bloomfield Township, Mich.
When: Today through Sunday
TV: 10 a.m., TNT
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“In 22 years, nobody cared where I played golf,” Perry said. “Now all of a sudden, everybody is worried about, 'Oh, I'm not going to play the British Open.' They blasted me for it, which I was laughing (at).
“To tell you the truth, I just couldn't believe it. If I haven't been playing well, this scenario would have never happened. So to me, it was a compliment, and I enjoyed it.”
People complain about mindless, mechanical drones in golf, but Perry isn't one of them. He's been deemed soft and unmotivated for passing up a chance to compete in majors – he also declined to try 36-hole qualifying for this year's U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.
But he certainly showed guts and independence in the choices he made. And what Perry wants people to understand is that he has been playing, tenaciously and with passion, all year long with one clear goal: a spot in September's Ryder Cup, which is being played in Louisville, in his home state of Kentucky.
Now that he's achieved his goal, as a lock at No. 3 on the U.S. Ryder Cup points list, everything else is a bonus.
“What happened this year? It's been magical,” Perry said. “My goal was to make the Ryder Cup team, and that's all I focused on this year. I just set a goal, and it taught me I need to set more goals in life. . . . Next year maybe I need to focus on winning a major and see if I can do that.”
Perry's challenge now is staying hot, beginning this week at the PGA. Never much of a major player, this has been his best of the biggies. He's made 16 cuts in 17 PGA tries and in 1996 lost a playoff at Valhalla to Mark Brooks.
“I'm hoping I didn't peak too early,” Perry said. “I'm trying to get refocused here and get re-energized for September. This will be a great place to do it. I love the PGA Championship. I'm a golf course owner, and I just feel like this is the heart and soul of the PGA.”
Tod Leonard: (619) 293-1858; tod.leonard@uniontrib.com
