Perry hopes to play again for local crowd Franklin pro endorses drive to bring Senior PGA to Olde Stone is looking forward to U.S.
Open FRANKLIN — If a push to bring the Senior PGA Championship to the Club at Olde Stone is successful, perhaps no local resident will be more excited than Franklin’s Kenny Perry. Perry has certainly made the most of his waning years as a PGA Tour regular, helping the United States’ Ryder Cup team to a victory in September at Valhalla, reaching a playoff at the Masters in April and sprinkling in a handful of tour victories over the past two seasons. But the former Western Kentucky golfer is 48, after all, and he’s already thinking about the approaching transition to the senior-level Champions Tour. So the prospect of playing one of the senior tour’s major championships at the Alvaton course – where Perry is a member – intrigues Perry on multiple levels. For one, Perry would relish the chance to again play before a home-state crowd – at Valhalla, the gallery treated both Perry and Campbellsville native J.B. Holmes like heroes. But Perry also wants to show off the private course, which has already hosted events such as the Junior Ryder Cup and the NCAA Men’s Central Golf Regional, to a broad audience. “It’s a world-class facility,” Perry said Thursday at his own Franklin course, Kenny Perry’s Country Creek, where he hosted the first Kenny Perry Boys & Girls Club Charity Golf Scramble. “I don’t think people realize how great a facility that place is. If that place was in New York or somewhere, people would just rant and rave about it. … “It would beat the crap out of us under major conditions. They can get those greens to 14 on the stimpmeter, they can grow that bluegrass rough up, and they can make it a U.S. Open course. They can hold any major they want out there.” But Perry doesn’t turn 50 – the age of eligibility for the Champions Tour – until August 2010, so Olde Stone wouldn’t host a Senior PGA (which is held each May) until 2011 at the earliest. In the meantime, Perry’s strong recent play has earned him playing status on the PGA Tour through age 54, and he plans to begin flipping between both tours next season. This season, however, Perry has some work left to do. Next week begins an important stretch for the player, beginning with the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial Country Club in Texas, a tournament Perry has won twice (in 2003 and 2005). It won’t be quite the same Colonial, however – the course recently underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation. “I don’t know if that’s good for me or bad,” said Perry, who currently is fifth on the PGA Tour money list and has risen to No. 6 in the Official World Golf Rankings. “They’ve changed the holes, put lakes in and bunkers in. So when I get there on Monday I’ll be a little sad, but I’m excited to see the changes … it’s such a great old course.” From there Perry heads to The Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Perry has won the Memorial, hosted by Jack Nicklaus, three times (in 1991, 2003 and 2008). After the Memorial, Perry will begin in earnest to prepare for the U.S. Open, the season’s second major, which begins June 18 on the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y. Perry said he will largely follow the same procedure he used before the Masters, a tournament Perry appeared to have won before stumbling on the final two holes of regulation and losing in a playoff to Angel Cabrera. Perry said he will play Bethpage Black at least three times before tournament week begins. Under U.S. Open conditions, Perry said he expects the course to feature extremely narrow fairways and thick, difficult rough. “I’ll try to figure out a game plan,” he said. “I had a game plan for the Masters – I knew where I needed to hit it if I was going to miss it, (I knew) which side of the green I was going to miss it on. That plan really worked at Augusta, but you’re looking at a totally different place.” Perry hasn’t played competitively since the final round of the Players Championship in Florida on May 10. In fact, he hasn’t played at all, saying he decided not to even touch a club after returning home from that tournament. He spent part of his downtime hosting the charity scramble, which drew 288 players. Perry hopes the scramble becomes an annual event, and he said he’s more than willing to offer his name and support in the coming years. “I think kids need a break, they need a chance, they need a future, they need a mentor, they need something to look up to,” Perry said about the Boys & Girls Club of Franklin, the scramble’s beneficiary. “They need a place to go where they can have fun and they can learn. … “I just can’t thank (enough) all the people who give timeless support. They work their butts off to try to give something back to this community. I love Franklin. There’s so many people who are willing to make this such a neat little town.” Do not use usernames or passwords from your financial accounts! Note: Fields marked with an asterisk () are required! (children under 13 cannot register)