More fit Perez making weight, strong performances

text size

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Pat Perez has been putting together some solid finishes, as of late. He finished last season with three top-30s in a row and already has a fourth-place finish this season at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Pat Perez closed last season with a sixth at the Fry's Electronics Open. (Dunn/Getty Images)

Inside the Numbers

Four of Pat Perez's five most recent TOUR finishes

Date Tournament Finish 9/09/07 BMW Championship T18 10/14/07 Frys.com Open benefiting Shriners Hospitals for Children T30 10/21/07 Fry's Electronics Open T6 1/13/08 Sony Open in Hawaii T4

The biggest contributor to his success? A weight transfer.

"I've transferred from the stomach up, which is what you want," he said. "I've just gotten a lot stronger."

He's up on the leaderboard at the FBR Open, as well. After a 65 on Thursday, he sits at 8-under-par and well within contention for his first PGA TOUR victory at what is a hometown tournament for him.

Perez has spent a lot of time recently with Joey Diovisalvi -- "Joey D," as he is known on TOUR -- who spent several years training Vijay Singh.

The pairing paid immediate dividends.

"I just happened to bump into another buddy of mine, and he said Joey is looking for another guy. I said, 'perfect.' This was Hawaii. We started on Tuesday and I finished fourth. I said, 'hey, we've got to make this happen. If this is how it's going to be, then I'm all yours.'"

But Perez is also quick to point out that the partnership has created a lot more work for him.

"It's like boot camp with him, it really is," Perez said of Diovisalvi. "It's early morning, then golf, and then at night. It's twice a day, and he's on top of it. He's real serious about it, and he believes in me and what we can do, and I think we're going to have a good team."

Perez said he just came to a realization that something in his routine needed to change.

"I'm tired of being tired," he said. "I'm tired of being overweight. I'm not getting any younger and it's not getting easier to lose weight. It's a whole bunch of things."

Perez says the new fitness routine has him not only feeling good off the course, but not having to work so hard on it.

"I've noticed a huge difference," he said. "I was hitting 40 by guys the last two days. I can see a huge difference from where I was. Last year on this course and this year on this course, the numbers I had in was just a lot easier.

"Par-5s I've got 4-irons into. I've got 6-iron into 3. I've got 3-iron into 15. It's just a lot easier. I can drive 17. It makes your game -- it definitely makes it a lot easier."

Which, in turn, Perez hopes, will give him many more opportunities to play -- like as a member of U.S. team for this year's Ryder Cup competition, for example.

"I want to play on Azinger's team this year for sure," he said. "That's one thing. I love Zinger, he's great. I think he's going to be an unbelievable coach. But I need to take certain steps to get there."

One of those steps is making the field for the Accenture Match-Play Championship in a couple of weeks in Tucson. Perez is on the bubble for that event now and needs a good finish either this week in Scottsdale, or next week at Pebble Beach to secure his position.

He hopes to be able to end the suspense this weekend.

"If I play well this week I won't have to play next week," he said. "If I was even close, let's say I was 62 or 61, I probably wouldn't play next week just to get in."

Will the new, fitter Perez -- known as a bit of a partier -- be able to celebrate with a beer should he be holding the winner's trophy on Sunday night?

"Yeah, if I win Sunday I'll have more than one."