I didn’t really need another reason to think some tour players were, as a friend of mine would term, “brown rings” but perusing the British Open stories this morning on Google News gave me one.
The guys blasting Kenny Perry for not playing in the majors are true products of the Tiger era…that is to say they came along at the perfect time when a high talent for playing golf made them very, no very very wealthy men…they deserve every dollar, no problem there.
But Kenny is old school. No one alive was more thrilled when the PGA announced the Ryder Cup would be played in his beloved home turf of Kentucky. He doesn’t live in Orlando or Dallas to avoid taxes…no he’s a Bluegrass boy who is proud of his home…old school
He said at the beginning of the year that at 47 all he wanted to do in his golf life was make the Ryder Cup team. He would have been a sentimental favorite because he lives a few long par 5′s from Valhalla but with the dismal showing the US has made in the last several mathches, that wasn’t going to get him on the squad. Captain Azinger aims to win these matches, no matter who he has to pick to do it.
No, if Kenny was going to make this team, he needed to earn it…and win tournaments. So he set his schedule with this his only goal…he committed to tournaments he thought he could do well in…and performed…and as he kept playing well…he honered those commitments…old school.
The players about to play Royal Birkdale are saying things like you can’t win if you don’t play, I’d never miss a major, we are at different stages in our games, his his choice, but wait…we’re not critisizing him
Not criticizing him?
Kenny won the Memorial, the Buick, and the John Deere…and has met his goal.
Why in the world would anyone care if he plays in the British Open or Milwaukee? The Tiger era gave all of you a place to use your skills for great riches…all the while not cracking a smile or saying anything remotely interesting…but I’m not critisizing you.
kenny is old school