Final round: Perry ends month of flirtation with win
DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) -- Kenny Perry joined Tiger Woods as the only three-time winners of the Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley on Sunday, taking a big step toward joining the No. 1 player in the world on the U.S. Ryder Cup team this fall.
With every contender in full retreat on the back nine, the 47-year-old Perry surged ahead with pars and one timely birdie, coasting home to a 3-under 69 and a two-shot victory that could not have come at a better time.
As he walked off the green to a warm handshake from the tournament host, Perry soon was surrounded by his wife and three children. It was the first time in his two decades on the PGA TOUR all of them had been at a tournament he won.
Bigger still was his answer to U.S. captain Paul Azinger's statement earlier in the week, that anyone making his Ryder Cup team would almost certainly have to win on TOUR this year.
Perry, who squandered two chances in the previous three weeks, delivered his best golf of the year.
He finished at 8-under 280, the highest winning score at the Memorial in 23 years. Perry earned $1.08 million for his 10th career victory.
The Ryder Cup will be held at Valhalla in his home state of Kentucky, and Perry is so desperate to make the team that he won't even bother qualifying for the U.S. Open. He does not like Torrey Pines, and believes he should devote his energy to tournaments where he has a better chance of earning points, such as Memphis next week and Hartford the week after the U.S. Open.
"When he (Azinger) said in the paper that you're probably going to have to win a tournament to get on his team, that changed my thinking," Perry said. "I'm glad I saw it."
Third-round leader Mathew Goggin lost his three-shot advantage in three holes and stumbled home to a 74, tied for second with former Masters champion Mike Weir, Justin Rose and Jerry Kelly, all of whom closed with a 71.
All of them had their chances until dropping shots somewhere along the back nine.
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PERRY IS DEFINITELY TIRED, BUT HOT BEATS TIRED
By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.COM Senior Correspondent
DUBLIN, Ohio -- He has played six weeks in a row. He's tired.
He's been home to Kentucky just one day in that stretch. He's about two months shy of his 48th birthday, about two years shy of a Champions Tour career. He's tired.
"It's going to be tough for me showing up in Memphis [this] week," he admitted.
He's tired.
But he's also one of the hottest golfers on the planet. Hot beats tired. Hot also beats an elite invitational field.
Kenny Perry can't stop now, not when he is on top of his game and once again on top of a PGA TOUR leaderboard. The personal pro from Franklin, Ky., who began the year with his sights set on making the U.S. Ryder Cup team, has to reassess his goals after his sterling performance Sunday at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
Perry fired a closing 3-under-par 69 on a pernicious layout to win his third Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley and his 10th PGA TOUR title. The two-stroke, come-from-behind victory, worth $1.08 million, lifted him to fifth in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings and put him a few steps closer to a return to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, which is about two hours north of his home.
"Everything I put on ... all the pressure I put on myself to try to make the Ryder Cup, it may be the No. 1 round, because it may take, this may solidify my spot," Perry, who surpassed Tom Watson as the oldest winner of Jack Nicklaus' tournament, said when asked to rank his performance Sunday. "When (U.S. Captain Paul) Azinger said in the paper that the guys on his team are going to have to win tournaments, that really changed my thinking. And I knew I had to win golf tournaments. To get it done and to kind of get your back against the wall and to actually do it, this may be the greatest round."
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| Multiple winners at the Memorial Tournament | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
"If I retire, I need to build a house right on this golf course." -- 2008 champion Kenny Perry on how much he loves -- and how well he plays at -- the Muirfield Village Golf Club.
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NOT FEELING GRAND (SLAM) YET
Trevor Immelman made his first cut since winning the Masters at the Memorial Tournament, but the only man who has a chance to win this year's Grand Slam isn't heading into the U.S. Open with much confidence.
| 3 | Memorial Tournament victories for Kenny Perry, tying Tiger Woods for most in the 33-year history of the event. |
| 18 | Players who finished in the top 10, including ties, the highest number of players this year credited with a top-10 finish. |
| 280 | Kenny Perry's winning aggregate score, the highest at the Memorial Tournament since Hale Irwin's 281 total in 1985. It was only the 11th time in 33 years that the winner did not reach double figures under par. |
"I wouldn't bet much on me at this point," he said Sunday after closing with what looked like a heartening 3-under-par 69 at Muirfield Village Golf Club to finish tied for 31st at 4-over 292. "I've got a lot of work to do before then."
Immelman, who plans to play this week at the Stanford St. Jude Classic, said his long game is lacking. His putting, meanwhile, is as good as or even better than it was on the way to his Masters victory.
"I made nine birdies but only shot 3 under, so that should tell you something," said Immelman, who played for the first time since withdrawing from THE PLAYERS because of illness. "I'm back to full health, but my game isn't there yet in the form I want. It's pretty average, but I hope I can turn it around before I get to Torrey Pines."
DISAPPOINTED BUT READY TO QUALIFY
Mathew Goggin slept on the lead for three rounds at the Memorial Tournament before being overtaken by Kenny Perry on Sunday. His first career runner-up finish turned out to be an eye-opening experience.
Goggin, who turns 34 in two weeks, closed Sunday with a 2-over-par 74 and 282 total while Perry raced off to his third Memorial title. Most of the damage was sustained via bogeys on two of the first four holes, but he held it together the rest of the way, and, in fact, birdied the last to sneak back into a share of second, worth $396,000 and 1,650 FedExCup points.
"It's a matter of experience," Goggin said before racing to catch a plane to Memphis in preparation for a 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier Monday. "It's another opportunity, and I'm sure there will be more. I made a couple of bogeys with good shots and didn't take advantage of a few opportunities, so it wasn't as bad a day as what it seemed.
"It's another good experience. Obviously, with a three shot lead, you sort of expect to win. I was disappointed to not win," he added.
Goggin was a bit down, but he took solace in some words from the winner.
"Yesterday, [Saturday] he [Perry] was really happy for me. He said, 'Just keep doing what you're doing. You're playing awesome.' And he's just been a real supportive person. He was real excited for me. And he's a real class act."
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