Pernice goes low in final round, gets stuck in bind

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MEMPHIS -- It was something Tom Pernice, Jr., hadn't expected -- certainly, not after bogeying the first hole of the final round Sunday in the Stanford St. Jude Championship.

Starting the day 10 shots behind the leaders, his plan was to finish early, and rush to catch a plane to the West Coast. It was going to be a special night back home in California.

Pernice's 13-year-old daughter Brooke, a singer and budding recording artist, was scheduled to sing the Star-Spangled Banner at Dodger Stadium a little later in the evening.

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Tom Pernice Jr. shot the low-round of the week in Memphis with a 7-under 63 on Sunday.

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So what did Pernice do?

Despite the bogey at the start, he suddenly found his game. He started rolling in putts from everywhere. At one stretch, he made four birdies in a row. By the time he'd finished, he'd shot 7-under 63 for the day -- the best round in this year's Stanford St. Jude Championship -- and was 2 under for the championship.

Little did he know that his great round would lead to disappointment.

There he was, through for the day and ready to go home at almost the exact time that the leaders were teeing off. For the moment, it didn't seem to matter that he was the leader in the clubhouse.

In a hasty post-round huddle with media, Pernice began discussing the oddity of how such a round comes from out of the blue.

"You never know," he said. "You make a few long putts here and there. It's all about momentum. You get the feeling that this might be your day and you go ahead and relax and let it all happen and you go after it.

"I did that today. I played well."

As far as the opening bogey, where he found the rough and couldn't get up and down, he said, "Sometimes your have your best rounds when you bogey No. 1. And when you're that far back of the leaders, you surely don't expect anything."

At the conclusion of the brief interview, a reporter asked about his daughter, who has a generic disease, Leber's Amorosis, which has left her blind. Her retinas did not develop fully at birth.

"She's got her own CD out, and she's got her own website," he said. "She mostly does country/Christian music."

With a papa's pride, he said, "She's pretty special, I'll tell you that."

And that's why he was in such a hurry.

"She sang the National Anthem at the Padres game in San Diego on Wednesday," said Pernice, who had to miss that because of being at the Stanfrod St. Jude Championship.

Thus, his anticipation of Sunday night's opportunity.

But within minutes of his finish, third-round leader Tim Clark triple-bogeyed the first hole. Marc Turnesa, who was in a logjam of players in second place, made a quadruple-bogey 8 on No. 1.

Pernice was told that he was only one shot out of the lead.

"Ah, come on," he said, in disbelief.

He checked a laptop leaderboard at the scoring office at the 18th hole, and said, "And they (leaders) haven't even gone through 'Heartbreak Hotel' yet -- Nos. 11 through 14."

A PGA TOUR rules official approached him to confirm the news. What if leaders continued to fall and a 2-under-par total for 72 holes was good enough to win -- or for a playoff?

"Well, I guess I'll have to go in the locker room and think about it, I guess," Pernice said.

That's where Pernice headed. He called his daughter.

"She said I had to stay here," Pernice said. Of course, that's what Pernice knew he had to do, at least until a couple of hours later when a 3-under finish was posted by Sergio Garcia, assuring that Pernice couldn't win.

But by then Pernice had missed his plane, and the chance to witness his daughter's performance. As he loaded his clubs into his vehicle, he was asked who's most disappointed -- him or her?

"Probably me," he said, softly. "She doesn't think it's a big deal doing this, but to see her in that arena and see her singing live out there. I definitely would like to have seen it."

His round had been spectacular -- only two shots off the course record. It equaled his third-round score at TPC Southwind in the third round in 2004, which was his best round in Memphis in 14 appearances.

He birdied Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13 and 16. He rolled in putts in the 20-30-foot range on Nos. 5-7. At the par-three eighth, he sank a 54-footer.

At the 18th, he had a downhill 18-footer for birdie that stopped a foot short.

"I didn't ever dream I'd leave it short," said Pernice, who was runner-up in Memphis in 2006, but missed the cut last year.

After shooting 72-72-71 in the first three rounds and being tied for 51st place, Pernice had no doubt he'd get his early start to Los Angeles. He was eager to get home. He'd lost in a playoff on Monday during qualifying for the U. S. Open in San Diego, which was a double-downer considering he lives in Murrieta, Calif.

"It was a real disappointment because the Open is back home in San Diego," he said. "It's been a struggle the last month and a half."

So he was even more excited about being there at Dodger Stadium.

"There's not been much improvement with her vision, but there's some great stuff going on right now with gene therapy and with her particular gene in testing over in Europe," he said. "They're having some great results. So, possibly, yes..."

Her voice obviously is fine already, as verified by her CD entitled "Help From Above." And her dad would have dearly loved to hear that voice live and in person Sunday night.