Slow-ripening success

You can count Pat Perez out of the kale-and-crunches revolution. The defending champion at this week’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba much prefers the comforts of his couch and the TV remote, and at 41 he’s not part of the PGA TOUR’s youth movement, either.

Having made it to his first TOUR Championship at East Lake at the end of last season, when players in their 20s won a record 28 times, Perez was asked where he fits in.

“I’m the old guy,” he said, drawing laughter.

No one was laughing, though, when on Oct. 15 he won the CIMB Classic at TPC Kuala Lumpur, giving him two wins in a span of less than 12 months. The old guy had won by four strokes, and he’s not the only graybeard who is just now hitting his stride.

Perhaps inspired by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who’s yet to show any signs of a drop-off even after turning 40 this summer, the Fab 40s on the PGA TOUR are enjoying a mini-moment.

Perez will enter his title defense at Mayakoba as the current FedExCup points leader.

Charley Hoffman made his first Presidents Cup team at age 40 after being selected as a Captain’s Pick by U.S. Team Captain Steve Stricker. The other Captain’s Pick was 47-year-old Phil Mickelson, who extended his streak of having played in every Presidents Cup.

Two weeks after Perez’ win, Ryan Armour -- also 41 and the most accurate driver on TOUR last season (72.7 percent) -- won for the first time in 105 starts at the Sanderson Farms Championship. That same day, 41-year-old Henrik Stenson – who won the 2016 Open Championship at age 40 – tied for second at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions.

Meanwhile, Paul Casey, 40, is playing the most consistent golf of his career. In his last 11 starts, he’s finished inside the top 20 10 times, including three top-5s in the FedExCup Playoffs.

Last week, Tiger Woods, 41, announced he will return to competition at the Hero World Challenge later this month.

As for Perez, not only is he the defending champ this week at Mayakoba, he’s the current FedExCup points leader. Five other 40-somethings are inside the top 20 – Armour (9), Alex Cejka (13), Stenson (T-15), Mickelson (18) and Casey (20).

As Casey joked this summer, “Apparently life begins at 40.”

Not that any of this has come easily. In fact, you might say it’s been a long time coming. On a Talk of the TOUR podcast last week with host John Swantek, Armour noted that he had no place to play as recently as 2013. Then he made a few simple but crucial adjustments, starting with a healthy living pledge.

“My wife was just like, ‘OK, listen, we’re going to go forward with this,’” Armour said. “‘We’re going to eat better, we’re going to exercise more, we’re just going to be healthy individuals, and no matter what happens with the golf, we’ll always have that.’”

Armour also abandoned his misguided efforts to get longer. Instead, he changed shafts to bolster his brand of precision golf, then finished T4 at the Wyndham Championship in August, his first top-10 in more than a decade. (Incidentally, the tournament was won by the 41-year-old Stenson).

A runner-up at the Web.com Tour’s Nationwide Children’s Hospitals Championship secured Armour’s TOUR card for this season, and at the Sanderson Farms, he became the eighth player since 1970 to get his first win at 41 or older.

OLDEST FIRST-TIME WINNERS (SINCE 1970)

Woods has won 79 TOUR titles, second-highest total of all time behind Sam Snead’s 82. Of course, none of those have been since he’s turned 40 (he’ll turn 42 on Dec. 30). Given his shaky health the last few years while undergoing a series of back surgeries, there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to add to that total.

On the flip side, there is certainly hope he can continue his chase of not only Snead’s win total, but Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors. Nicklaus, Snead, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Lee Trevino all won major titles after turning 40 – Nicklaus and Hogan, in fact, won three majors each after 40.

Since 2011, the Open Championship has been won by 40-somethings four times -- Stenson in 2016, Mickelson in 2013, Els in 2012 and Darren Clarke in 2011.

Asked last week about Woods, Els urged patience in light of the 14-time major winner’s back problems, but added, “If we can do it, he can certainly do it.”

Legendary range rat Vijay Singh has the most wins by a player in his 40s since 1970, with 22. Kenny Perry is in second place with 11, and Steve Stricker won nine times. Perez, Armour and Woods would love to emulate any of them, and Perez is clearly off to the best start.

Given truth serum, though, all three would probably take Fred Funk’s 40s.

The likeable, straight-hitting Funk won five of his eight TOUR titles after turning 40, including THE PLAYERS Championship in 2005, when he was 48. He played in the Ryder Cup that year and made the 2003 and 2005 U.S. Presidents Cup teams at ages 47 and 49, respectively.

“I got comfortable in my own skin,” says Funk, now 61 and the father of an aspiring TOUR pro, former Texas golfer Taylor Funk. “I was determined to work hard and see how good I could do.”

Funk had good role models when it came to work. His mother, Ruby, ran a labor-intensive custom drape-making business. His older brother, Bernie, worked hard at jobs ranging from the fire department to the civil air patrol. Fred got his first job as a paper boy when he was 8. He later worked as a newspaper delivery driver and the University of Maryland golf coach.

By the time he got out on TOUR, Funk was in his early 30s, and when he kept progressing into his 40s, he was keen to make up for lost time. “Whereas a lot of the guys my age, they’d come straight out on TOUR after college,” he said, “and they were maybe burnt out.”

Not Funk. He kept at it. As for Perez, he’s a harder worker than he lets on.

“I'm such a different person than I was 17 years ago, even like five years ago,” Perez said after winning the CIMB. “I'm learning how to play the game and learning how to play my own game and stay within myself and that kind of stuff. I'm a late bloomer.”

Just as dogged persistence can fuel successful 40-somethings, so, too, can a change of heart. Jay Haas, who wanted to be active on TOUR upon the arrival of his son Bill, rededicated himself to the game and racked up eight top-10 finishes in 2003 at 49, when he made his second Presidents Cup team.

With eight more top-10s in 2004, Haas made his fourth Ryder Cup team at age 50.

“Jay is an example of a change of mindset,” Funk says. “Because when he reignited his drive, he went to a level that he was never at before and made those teams. He flipped a switch.”

Kenny Perry also rededicated himself late, with the goal of making the 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team that would face Europe at Valhalla, in Perry’s beloved home state of Kentucky. The results were astounding: Perry won three times on TOUR at age 47, getting to 14 victories so suddenly he began to talk about reaching 20. (He ended with 14.)

“I guess 47 is now the new 30,” Perry said at the time.

His turnaround spoke to his focused work but after winning the 2008 John Deere Classic, his third victory in seven weeks, he cited guile, too. Asked if a 27-year-old Perry would have won that day at TPC Deere Run, he gave an emphatic no.

“I wouldn't have had the nerves to handle all that,” Perry said. “Knowing my golf swing was out of sync and out of kilter. I knew my putter was so good. I knew if I get it on that green, I would have a chance to make a putt. I couldn't have won like that 20 years ago.”

Jack Nicklaus won the Masters at 46. Two months later Raymond Floyd, 43, won the U.S. Open, the last of his four majors. Mark O’Meara won the 2008 Masters and The Open at 41, going from a nice player (and a Pebble Beach specialist) to a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Last week Rod Pampling returned to the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, where he was the defending champion after breaking through the year before at 47. Asked about winning during a season that was dominated by players in their 20s, Pampling called it the beauty of golf.

“We might not feature as often as the young guys do,” he added, “but when we're there, we have a chance. We know how to win, so the experience comes rushing back. So the key is just when it comes, you know, we're prepared for that and we can, hopefully, take advantage of it -- which we did last year.”

This week’s stop at El Camaleon Golf Course, a roughly 7,000-yard par 71 Greg Norman design that wends through mangrove jungles, limestone canals and oceanfront stretches of sand, seems particularly 40s-friendly. It’s even 50s-friendly. Funk won there in 2007 when he was 51.

Perez, whose second win ties him with Mickelson and Stenson for most victories by players 40 or older since 2013, won’t have to think back too far if he gets into contention. Neither will Armour, whose Sanderson Farms win was the 20th by players in their 40s in that time span. The two recent winners will both play Mayakoba. Hoffman will be in Mexico, too, as will D.A. Points, 40, who won the Puerto Rico Open last season.

Take note, Tiger. Being “the old guy” isn’t a bad business these days.