2008 PGA Tour Award Series: Comeback Player Of The Year

Comeback Player Of The Year:  Kenny Perry

Heading into the 2008 season, Kenny Perry was one of those guys on the PGA tour who would make the cut in most tournaments he entered, have a few top 10-25 finishes and head home with around $1 million at the end of the year, yet you would not recognize him if he were hitting golf balls next to you on your local driving range.  Perry was the prototypical paycheck golfer.  

Kenny Perry is one of the many players on tour who have greatly benefited financially from the Tiger Woods factor.  Perry, along with hundreds of others over the past ten years or so, has quietly gone about his business of earning somewhere around $1 million per year on the course while staying well under the radar.

That all changed in 2008. 

As the season got underway, little did anyone know that Perry was entering the season as a man on a very specific mission. 

We did not know that at the age of 48, Perry had spent countless hours working on his game over the winter with one single goal in mind: to play his way onto the 2008 American Ryder Cup team. 

Perry grew up and continues to live in the tiny rural town of Franklin, Ky. 

Back in 1995, Perry bought 142 acres of land and personally borrowed $2.5 million to design and build a quality golf course that the citizens of Franklin could play at a reasonable price.

Perry has earned over $26 million over the course of his career and, at 48 years old, is surely looking forward to having some fun on the Champions Tour in a couple of years.

But Perry had one final goal that he desperately wanted to achieve before the end of his PGA Tour career: to play in front of his friends, family, and hometown fans at the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla Golf Club, just an hour and a half from Franklin.

Perry knew it was highly unlikely that captain Paul Azinger would chose a 48-year-old journeyman with one of his captain's picks.

There was only one way for Perry to make his way onto the 2008 Ryder Cup team and that was to play his way onto the team, a feat most would have thought to be virtually impossible at his age. 

Perry structured his entire 2008 schedule around his goal of earning enough Ryder Cup points to ensure a spot on the American squad. 

Perry committed to playing in many of the smaller PGA Tour events and tournaments that were played at courses he knew suited his game. 

Perry won the Memorial Tournament back in May and followed with wins at the Buick Open and John Deere Classic a few weeks later. 

Perry had seven top-10 finishes in 2008 and finished fifth on the PGA Tour’s money list with earnings of over $4.6 million, which more than quadrupled his 2007 earnings.

But more important to Perry than the trophies and the money was his ranking in the only list he cared about in 2008, the Ryder Cup Points list. 

Perry’s stellar play earned him more than enough points to find his way onto the 2008 American Ryder Cup team and achieve not only his goal for the 2008 season, but a goal that he had in his mind for a number of years.

Throughout the 2008 season, Perry received a lot of criticism for deciding to forgo attending both the US Open and the British Open, even while being statistically one of the top players on the tour. 

But what people didn’t realize was that in 2008, Perry did not care about the US Open, British Open or any of the majors for that matter, he cared solely about achieving his goal of making the American Ryder Cup team; a goal that he miraculously achieved.

In front of a thousand of his closest friends and family, all of whom Perry personally purchased tickets for, Perry went out and earned the American side 2.5 points in the Ryder Cup, including a very important win in his Sunday singles match against Henrik Stenson. 

Kenny Perry’s 2008 season was both amazing and inspirational. 

Perry walked off into the sunset, literally, with his family and friends at Valhalla Golf Club, just 90 miles from where he has lived his entire life.

Perry achieved his ultimate dream and got to share that dream with those closest to him. 

Winning the US Open or British Open could hardly compare to the feeling that Perry must have had after he won his singles match in the Ryder Cup and celebrated his success with all of his supporters.

At the end of a long career, Perry got to fulfill one final dream.  Very few people have that opportunity in sports or in life, and even fewer are able to capitalize on that opportunity. 

Perry was indeed the 2008 Comeback Player of the Year, but he also provided golf fans with the 2008 Feel-Good Story of the year.