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By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The words stung.

Craig Perks chipped in twice on the final two holes to win the 2002 PLAYERS. Since that time,. the lanky Kiwi has made only eight cuts. (WireImage)

"Do you feel like a fraud playing professional golf this way?" he asked. The sportswriter was nothing if not blunt.

Craig Perks didn't know quite how to answer. Yes, his game had deteriorated. After all, the numbers don't lie.

The affable Kiwi has only finished in the top-10 once in the five years since he won that magical PLAYERS Championship in 2002. He made just one cut in 18 starts last year and he's yet to play the weekend in four PGA TOUR events this season.

It's not that Perks hasn't put the hours in on the range, though. He's been through a handful of instructors while beating balls back home in the Louisiana Cajun country. He wants desperately to climb out of the abyss.

He just can't get a leg up.

"So I said, no, I've worked hard," Perks recalled. "I've tried to do the right things. ... Just to play on the PGA TOUR is an honor, and it's very difficult. To win an event is incredibly tough, but to win the event that I won (is really, really hard).

"It's not like I'm a rookie again or don't feel like I belong and I've got to move back up. It's embarrassing, the way I'm hitting some shots, and I feel like I am a distraction sometimes. The guys that I play with would probably never say that but in general I would think that.

"So I don't think I'm a fraud. I'm just not playing well right now."

Perks was sitting outside the locker room at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., last week as he thought back to that interview. He had just finished playing in the first round of the Wachovia Championship, shooting 80 in the company of none other than Tiger Woods.

The air was unseasonably chilly, and the shadows were lengthening that Thursday evening. But Perks still greeted yet another sportswriter with a warm hello and proceeded to sit down, spending nearly 30 minutes dissecting his situation.

"I'm trying to be positive," Perks said with a weak smile. "I'm trying to say the right things, but ... I feel like I've pretty well lost it. I don't have any confidence. I don't trust where I'm trying to hit the ball. I don't feel like it's going to go there.

"I'm working my tail off and shooting 80, so it's very, very frustrating to put the work in and not get any results. You know, to be honest with you, I'm on a pretty short leash. I was contemplating walking away at the end of last year and then even the start of this year."

But Perks didn't. And this week, as the introspective 40-year-old returns to the TPC Sawgrass for THE PLAYERS Championship, his struggles have become fodder for columnists around the world since the five-year exemption he received for that 2002 victory runs out at the end of this season.

"It would be an absolute miracle to keep my card," Perks admitted. "I'd like to just keep playing and see some improvement, but at the end of the year, I'm pretty much going to walk away anyway unless something miraculous happens.

"(If) something changes dramatically and I really see some improvement and I start to play great, then I would go back to q school. I'm hopeful that that may happen, but I'm not expecting it to happen."

Perks nailed a birdie putt on the island-green 17th hole to help seal his 2002 win. (WireImage)

Perks answers each question with surprising candor, which is disarming in this era of superstar athletes and super-sized egos. He isn't the first player to have lost his game, just the most recent one.

Ian Baker-Finch disappeared after he won the 1991 British Open and resurfaced in the television booth. Chip Beck finished second on the money list in 1988 but found himself selling insurance before joining the Champions Tour last year. David Duval, another PLAYERS champion who rose to No. 1 in the world, is gradually making his way back from near-oblivion, as well.

Right now, though, Perks is the poster boy. Until THE PLAYERS approached, he was able to keep to himself. He tried to go about his business with as little fanfare as possible.

That was hard to do at the Wachovia Championship, with Tiger Woods as his playing partner in the first two rounds. Four days later, though, when he returned to THE PLAYERS Stadium Course to prepare for what could be his final PLAYERS Championship, Perks joined Woods for one of his trademark early practice round.

"We both walked over to No. 3 together, and I asked if his one-some was full," Woods said. "He's such a great guy. For him to struggle the way he's struggling, it pains you to watch, because you know the talent is there; you can see it."

Woods saw Perks' short-game wizardry first-hand as the 2001 champion waited to present the trophy to the Kiwi that March Sunday. Perks putted once over the final three holes -- playing them in 3 under in the process.

He holed a chip on the 16th for eagle and drained a lengthy putt for birdie at the knee-knocking par 3 17th. And with Stephen Ames awaiting a possible playoff, Perks chipped in for par on the 72nd hole to preserve the two-stroke win.

And lest anyone think Perks' lone PGA TOUR victory was a fluke, he was in contention again the following year -- two strokes off the lead entering the final round. This time, though, the Stadium Course exacted its revenge as Perks shot 76 and was bypassed by Davis Love III.

"It seems like a lifetime ago but my memories are real vivid," Perks said. "(I) just really didn't know what I was accomplishing the year I won. I think I appreciated it a lot more the next year when I had a chance to win and Davis shot 64 on Sunday.

"(I) still (have) very, very fond memories, great memories of that place, and I still keep telling myself I'm THE PLAYERS champion, even though I've been struggling for so long. I still won one of the greatest, toughest events in all the world."

The victory thrust Perks into a spotlight he hadn't anticipated, though. Two weeks later, the New Zealander found himself at Augusta National with TV cameras following his every move. Whenever he played, Perks was introduced on the first tee as the 2002 PLAYERS champion, and he felt he had to live up to the billing.

"I looked at the list of champions and my name didn't seem to fit at the time, so I tried to kind of force myself to be a better player instead of just kind of letting it happen," Perks said.

"I've always been a very not shy person, but introverted person to a point, and the attention was overwhelming. It was a big distraction. ... I think more than anything, it was the expectation, the high expectation I put on myself."

As Perks assessed his breakthrough 2002 season, when he made a career-high $1.6 million, he noted a glaring problem with his game. He ranked 194th in the ball-striking category, which measures total driving and greens in regulation.

That was hard to do at the Wachovia Championship with Tiger Woods as his playing partner in the first two rounds. Four days later, though, when he returned to THE PLAYERS Stadium Course to prepare for what could be his final PLAYERS Championship, Perks joined Woods for one of his trademark early practice rounds.

"Instead of going, well, imagine if I just improved a little bit, imagine where I could be," Perks said. "Instead, I'm saying, 'I'm the worst ball striker on TOUR,'" Perks said. "So I went about that the wrong way. But I did make some radical swing changes that I thought I needed to do to get better, to live up to those expectations.

"What happened is that I put my heart and soul into the changes, and I was 100 percent fully committed, I just didn't get to see the results. And then after a year of just busting my butt and not seeing results, then you kind of lose confidence in yourself (and) you lose confidence in the technique you've been taught.

"And it was pretty much downhill from there."

By the end of the 2004 season, Perks really felt his game slipping away. His confidence was shot. He didn't trust himself. He didn't trust the things he was working on, either -- so everything snowballed.

"It's surprising because he was playing great for like the year or two before," Aussie Geoff Ogilvy said. "He nearly won the Honda at Heron Bay (in 2001). I mean, he was a good, solid player. It wasn't a shock to see him win (THE PLAYERS). I'm sure he wasn't the first guy people thought was going to win that week, but it wasn't a surprise at all I don't think.

"It's hard to watch, you know? I'm sure he'll work it out. He's a talented guy, but it's tough to watch. I don't know, what do you say? I haven't got to that struggling part of my game yet. Maybe one day I'll find out how hard it can be."

At the start of the 2007 season, Perks planned to play three straight tournaments on the West Coast, beginning with the Buick Invitational. Two practice rounds later -- "I probably didn't break 85," he said, and Perks was headed back home to Lafayette, La. He was frustrated, and he didn't want to inflict his game on his peers.

"That's the biggest problem," another friend, Rod Pampling, said. "He's at that stage where he's thinking about what he's doing to other players instead of going out there and playing the game. That's the hardest part. You worry about what other people are thinking."

All of Perks' current problems stem from his driver. He rates his iron game a C+ and his short game -- showcased that Sunday at the TPC Sawgrass -- remains an A+. He needs to regain his confidence, though, and toward that end, he's talked with Pampling's wife, Angie, and Lenny Basham, who are both psychologists.

"You know, it's a chicken-and-the-egg type of thing," he said. "I feel like I've got some fundamental problems, physical problems or technique problems, to be able to hit the shots. I can stand up there and have the greatest mental attitude and hit it 50 yards off line. To me, that's physical. My wife would argue. She thinks that's mental.

"You know, I've got a lot of good techniques I can use in situations when I feel overwhelmed or stressed out, or the anxiety level is too high or too low. ... All the technique in the world is not going to help me hit a good shot."

Perks says he's thought about quitting the game, but he doesn't know what he'd do if he walked away. He appreciates the support of his peers, but he's not sure he can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"I've got a path and I'm trying to stick to it," Perks said. "I've seen some improvements the last month or so at home, even on practice rounds and even on the range. I'd just like to see some of those turn into fruition on the course.

"Until that happens, I'm not sure. I see a little glimmer but I'm not sure if it's a light."