PGA Tour: Kenny Perry is a Man on a Mission

Kenny Perry had another strong showing last week at the AT&T Classic, finishing in second place and placing him 16th in the current Ryder Cup standings, a list that is more important to Perry this year than the FedEx Cup Points list or even the PGA Tour money list.

This year’s Ryder Cup will be played at Valhalla Golf Club in Perry’s home state of Kentucky.

Perry has had an above average PGA Tour Career. He has nine your victories and has played on the 1996, 2003, and 2005 Presidents Cup teams as well as the 2004 Ryder Cup team.

At 48 years old, Perry is undoubtedly looking forward to life on the Champion’s Tour, but there is at least one aspiration Perry still has and that is to make this year’s Ryder Cup team.

Perry was born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky and spent most of his childhood years in Franklin, Kentucky (where he still lives today) and attended Western Kentucky University.

After officially turning pro in 1982, Perry was sponsored by around 20 individuals from the Franklin area as he began his career on the mini-tours and attempted to make it through Q-School.

Despite earning nearly $23 million over the course of his career while playing on golf’s largest stage, Perry has remained a pillar of the Kentucky golf community.

Perry donates five percent of his earnings to Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, to provide scholarships for Simpson County students.

In 1995, Perry also took out a $2.5 million loan to design and build Franklin’s only public golf course which he has ensured to remain affordable to the citizens of Franklin.

Perry is a member of the Western Kentucky University and Kentucky Golf Hall of Fames.

Kenny Perry has been playing quality golf all season. He is 23rd on the money list, 20th in FedEx Cup points, and has moved up more than 30 spots in the World Golf Rankings in the past two weeks.

Although Perry is having one of his best seasons in recent years, he is still not quite where he wants to be on the one list he is most interested in—the Ryder Cup Points standings.

Twelve players are allowed to compete in the Ryder Cup from each team. Eight players are chosen based on their Ryder Cup points ranking and four additional players are chosen by the team captain.

Perry’s second place finish at last week’s AT&T Classic might have been disappointing, particularly the manner in which he lost in a playoff to Ryuji Imada.

On the first hole of the playoff, the par-five eighteenth, Perry went for the right side of the green in two to avoid the water lining the left side of the green.

Perry hit a very well-struck ball just right of where he was aiming.

Perry watched a quality golf shot turn into a disaster as the ball somehow managed to strike a pine tree dead-on, roll completely across the green and into the water.

Perry wound up bogeying the hole and losing to Imada by one stroke.

Although surely a very disappointing loss, Perry played his way closer to his ultimate goal—a spot on the 2008 Ryder Cup team.

If team captain Paul Azinger had to make his captain’s picks today, he would be hard-pressed not to include Kentucky native Kenny Perry on the team based on the way Perry has been playing the past couple of months.

Perry appears to be playing like a man on a mission this year

And his mission is clear—find a spot on the Ryder Cup team.

If Perry keeps playing the way he has been, he could very well find himself on Azinger’s 2008 Ryder Cup team, thus attaining his ultimate goal of representing both the United States and his home state of Kentucky.