A true 'grinder,' Perry takes clubhouse lead

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DULUTH, Ga. -- Want to know what a grinder is on the PGA TOUR?

It's a guy who endures a seven-hour round in the late afternoon in which it rains from the opening tee shot to the last putt, forcing him to carry 15 gloves under his umbrella because he has to keep rotating them to find a dry one ... and still shoots 6 under.

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Kenny Pery endured a grueling 24 hours, but still took the early clubhouse lead on Friday.

Kenny Perry

Through 36 holes

STATS Rnd1 Rnd2 TOT EAGLES -- -- 0 BIRDIES 6 4 10 PARS 12 13 25 BOGEYS -- 1 1 DOUBLE BOGEYS -- -- 0 OTHER -- -- 0 DRIVING ACCURACY 43 64 53.6 DRIVING DISTANCE 281.0 289.5 285.3 PUTTS PER ROUND 26 31 28.5 PUTTS PER GIR 1.571 1.765 1.677 GREENS IN REG 78 94 86.1 SAND SAVES 100 -- 100.0

It's a guy who grabs a quick bite for dinner and goes to bed early because his second round is the next morning, which might not be so bad if he could drink coffee and give himself a jolt ... except that he can't because caffeine makes his right hand shake when he stands over a putt.

And it's a guy who then shrugs off both a horrible opening drive -- luckily the fairway was wide, so he still had a play from the intermediate rough -- and his own tired body to shoot 3 under and grab the clubhouse lead at 9 under.

Welcome to Kenny Perry's last 24 hours. It's been a whirlwind, but it's over now. And it's worth it, considering where he sits on the AT&T Classic leaderboard.

"You just grind it out," Perry said.

Seems simple, but it really wasn't for the veteran who is seeking his 10th career PGA TOUR win. He was the only one of the five first-round co-leaders to play his first round in afternoon thunderstorms Thursday -- he had to wait on the tee of his final round for 30 minutes due to a back-up in groups -- and the only one who had to return to TPC Sugarloaf early Friday morning.

Of course, in his 22nd year on TOUR, Perry has faced similar situations. But that doesn't mean they've gotten any easier. Indeed, at age 47, grinding is more physically demanding, if perhaps slightly easier to manage mentally.

"I can tell you it was a lot easier when I was 24 and 25 years old," he said. "It's tough knowing that you've got to play and it's that early and you've got to hit quality golf shots immediately on tough holes and hang in there. But ... I've gotten use to it over time, I guess."

Luckily, he got a small break because the first round had not been completed on Thursday. That pushed Perry's tee time from 7:20 a.m. to 8 a.m., which meant he didn't have to be at the practice range at the crack of dawn.

But while that first drive went astray, few others did. Perry bounced back from a bogey at the par-5 fourth with birdies at the sixth and ninth holes. Then he stayed clean on the backside, carding two more birdies by sticking it close to the pin on the two par-3 holes, 11 and 16, to finish off his 3 under.

Perry's last two rounds have been a far cry from the 81 he shot Sunday in the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship. He was in the last group with Paul Goydos, and Perry just didn't handle the 30 mph winds that whipped through TPC Sawgrass.

But he did handle the adversity, putting the bad round in perspective -- he had hit just one bad shot when he scolded out of the bunker at No. 15 and took triple-bogey -- and bouncing back. That's what grinders do.

"I take a lot from last week," he said. "Eighty-one was disappointing, a terrible round of golf. ... I had a lot of people call me and just tell me to be patient, that your game's coming. And it is. I'm playing a lot better golf."

And he's doing it at the right time. The next two tournaments are the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial and the Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley. Of his nine wins on TOUR, four have come at those two events. May should be a big month for him.

And, of course, there is that ulterior motive of making the U.S. Ryder Cup team so he can play in his home state of Kentucky this fall. If he doesn't qualify on points, he needs to impress captain Paul Azinger and prove that he's not too old to take on the Europeans

A win this week at TPC Sugarloaf would certainly catch everyone's attention, especially given the circumstances Perry has faced.

"It would just start opening doors for me," Perry said.

Perry, you see, isn't waiting for someone else to open the door for him. He wants to push it open himself, forcibly if he has to. After all, that's what grinders do.