The Daily Wrap-up, Round 5: The 50th Bob Hope Classic

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Pat Perez weathered windy conditions to shoot a final-round 69 en route to capturing his first PGA TOUR title.

Jan. 25, 2009

LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) -- Remaining calm despite the swirling wind and a tense duel for the lead, Pat Perez finally got his first PGA TOUR victory -- with a lot of help from Steve Stricker.

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Highlights: Rd. 5
Perez eagles final hole

Perez won the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer on Sunday, taking advantage of Stricker's collapse and holding off John Merrick by three strokes. The winner shot a 3-under 69 for a 33-under 327 total in the five-day event.

"I just tried to stay pretty even-keeled," Perez said. "I figured if I could just play solid and hit some good shots and kind of stay calm and think about what I'm doing out there, I was going to be fine."

In the past, "calm" wasn't necessarily a word used about Perez and his play. He seemed quick to anger and grow frustrated when he wasn't playing well.

"I just got tired of getting upset all the time," the 32-year-old Perez said. "It's a lot of energy. I learned how the best guys do it."

Mentioning Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els, among others, Perez said, "All these guys are pretty even-keeled. They don't let things bother them. They put stuff behind them. Before, if I made a double on five, the tournament was over. I look at that as a speed bump now."

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EVEN PEREZ ADMITS, IT'S ABOUT TIME
By Larry Bohannan, Special to PGATOUR.COM

LA QUINTA, Calif. -- From the time he came on the PGA TOUR as a talented and temperamental rookie, Pat Perez heard people tell him he had to change his ways.

"You know T.A. (Tommy Armour III). He would say, 'Kid, you gotta relax. Kid, you've gotta quit doing this and you gotta quit doing this,'" Perez said Sunday. "But Tommy's right. A lot of things he's right on."

Maybe after seven years of hearing people on TOUR, people who were rooting for him to succeed, maybe now Perez is starting to understand the advice. On the day Perez won his first TOUR event in 198 starts at the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer, the words used to describe him on the day were not hot-headed or volcano. Instead, the words were hard work, marriage and relieved.

"I was thinking it's about time. It's been seven years, it's about time," Perez said of his walk up the 18th hole of the Palmer Private Course at PGA West.

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Sunday's Best

EASIEST HOLE	TOUGHEST HOLE
The par-5 sixth hole on the Palmer Course at PGA West tied for the easiest with the par-5 second hole with a Sunday scoring average of 4.338. EAGLES: 2 BIRDIES: 48 PARS: 21 BOGEYS: 3 OTHERS: 0	The par-4 seventh hole on the Palmer Course at PGA West was the toughest with a Sunday scoring average of 4.284. EAGLES: 0 BIRDIES: 2 PARS: 19 BOGEYS: 11 OTHERS: 0

SHOT OF THE DAY	ROUND OF THE DAY
Pat Perez hit his second shot to within inches of the hole on No. 18, leaving himself a tap-in eagle to secure the win. Watch his shot	It was his highest score of the week, but Pat Perez's final-round 69 on a windswept day at PGA West was good enough to secure his first career PGA TOUR victory. Check out his scorecard

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"It means a lot. I'll bring it up. Pebble, I had a four-shot lead, but it was tough, and I don't think people realized how tough it was that day, blowing off the ocean 50 miles an hour. And I hadn't been used to that. I only played Pebble when it was perfect, and it was a completely different course. But I wasn't really ready to be thrown in that situation where I had to hit great shots and contend with the best in the world. And today, I knew that I was ready. Even if I didn't win, I knew I was still ready. It was still going to be a good year, and because I was prepared. I prepared myself all week. I played all winter to get ready for this in the same desert, and it just means the world." -- Pat Perez on what it meant to get his first career win on the PGA TOUR.

INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
PGA TOUR Network correspondent Bob Stevens offers these observations from Sunday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146/SIRIUS 209 or right here at PGATOUR.com.

Pat Perez's first PGA TOUR victory is enormously popular with those who matter to him most -- his family and his peers. Tommy Armour III, Jason Gore and others who weren't even involved in Sunday's play were greenside at 18, champagne bottles in hand, when Perez drained his clinching eagle, then got a guzzle out of the bottle on his way through a gauntlet of well-wishers to sign his card.

Throughout his career, Perez has battled his own emotions more than the game itself, but Sunday he held those emotions together without the help of the amateur partners who'd kept him loose all week. After dunking his tee shot at the fifth and taking a double-bogey, not bouncing back at the par-5 sixth, then bogeying No. 7 to fall three back, bad thoughts could have taken over. But his birdie at No. 8, coupled with Stricker's struggles, had him back even at the turn, and a brilliant escape from the trees at 13 for par saved the day. That, and a 6-iron -- the club that kept him from an opening 59 with two bad swings -- he hit right at the final hole to set up eagle.

Wisconsinites are abundant in the Coachella Valley with Badger banners hanging from many of the villas bordering the Palmer Private Course, but all that Madison love couldn't help the usually steady Steve Stricker. When he shot 61 Friday, he never went more than two holes without a birdie. Sunday, he didn't make his first birdie until the sixth hole. His three-shot lead was lost on the very next hole with a drive waaaaaay right into the water, leading to triple-bogey. An out-of-bounds drive right and another into the water left led to an 8 at the 10th hole -- a 7 and an 8 from a guy who hadn't even had many 5s all week?

What the top finishers said...

Player	Finish	Score	Comment
Pat Perez	1st	33 under	"I just got tired of getting upset all the time. It's a lot of energy. So I just said -- I started watching, not watching, but I see how -- I learned from how the best guys do it. How Tiger does it, Phil does it, Vijay, Toms, Zach Johnson, Ernie, all these guys are all pretty even keeled."
John Merrick	2nd	30 under	"I can handle being around the lead, and if I just fine tune a couple things, I can win next time. And I'm definitely going to learn from it. It's not like I had a three-shot lead or whatever. So I gave it my best shot, and I'll definitely learn from it."
Steve Stricker	T3	28 under	"It's just a couple of bad swings that really cost me big time. And I hit them in spots where I couldn't recover from them. I just got out of sorts there a little bit on those couple of shots, and it was a tough day. It was tough to judge the wind. It was tough to pick a correct club, and it was hard to feel comfortable with anything."

Read full interview transcripts

Pat Perez

John Merrick

Steve Stricker

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FIFTH-ROUND NOTEBOOK: 50TH BOB HOPE CLASSIC
By Joe Chemycz, PGA TOUR Staff

LA QUINTA, Calif. -- Pat Perez stuffed a 6-iron to within 3 feet, 1 inch from 199 yards on the final hole Sunday to wrap up his first PGA TOUR win. Perez, playing in the final threesome, rolled in the eagle putt at the closing par 5 to wind up at 33 under par, three better than John Merrick, who earned his career-best finish.

• Pat Perez becomes the fifth player in the 50 years of the Bob Hope Classic to earn his first PGA TOUR win in this event. The win came in his 198th career start. The other first-timers were Charley Hoffman, who got his first win in his 41st career start in 2007; Donnie Hammond, who got his first of two career wins in his 87th career start in 1985; Craig Stadler, who got his first of 13 career wins in his 106th career start in 1980; and Bill Rogers, who got his first of six career wins in his 68th career start in 1978.

• Pat Perez joins a growing list of comeback winners in this event. Perez came from three strokes off the pace in the final round to reach the winner's circle, joining several others in the past dozen years, including three of the last four winners.

• To read the remainder of this story, click here.