Perry not giving up on his '19 Farewell Tour

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Elton John is on a farewell tour in 2019. So is rocker Bob Seger. And don’t forget golfer Kenny Perry. He may not be selling t-shirts to tournament attendees, but he is the midst of one last go-around, too.

Perry, 58, firmly established as a force on the PGA TOUR Champions (where he has won 10 times, including the 2017 U.S. Senior Open), decided to use his career top-50 earnings exemption this season to go back and compete at some of his favorite PGA TOUR spots. Innisbrook’s Copperhead is one of those tracks he loves, with Perry having played here 10 times since 2000. Friday, he was inside the cutline at the Valspar Championship with two holes to play before a double-bogey at the par-3 eighth (his 17th) would send him home early once again.

For those keeping track, that’s five starts and no made cuts this season for Perry, who a decade ago on the PGA TOUR still was a cash machine.

You know what? He may be 0-for-5, but Perry nonetheless is managing to enjoy himself.

When Jim Furyk, soon to be 49, talked earlier this week about staying competitive on the regular tour beyond his 50th birthday, he pointed to Perry, with a heaping of respect and a dash of amazement.

“When I think back,” Furyk said, “Kenny Perry was a stud at 48, 49. He was playing on Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup teams and not only playing on those teams, he was one of our best players on those teams.”

But Perry said Friday at Valspar that competing against the young guns on lengthy PGA TOUR layouts – Innisbrook’s Copperhead this week is a par 71 measuring 7,340 yards – is something he doesn’t possess the firepower to do any longer.

“My results tell me that I can’t play out here,” Perry, a 14-time winner who has made 648 PGA TOUR starts and has more than $32 million in career earnings, said after a second-round 72 left him at 3-over 145. “I don’t hit it far enough and I don’t spin the ball enough. I mean, I’m playing with Louis Oosthuizen, and his ball is spinning and dancing all over the place out there.”

When Perry won the U.S. Senior Open two years ago, he talked about struggling to find the motivation needed to get him playing good golf again. Asked if competing against the best players in the world was motivating him, he said, “Honestly, it probably works the other way for me. It just tells me that I can’t play out here. That’s OK. I love being out here, and love watching friends of mine like Scott Stallings and Justin Thomas compete. I’ve almost become a fan. I’m 58, and I still love to compete.”

Perry will return to the PGA TOUR Champions next week when it visits Biloxi, Miss., but he’ll soon be back for more action on the PGA TOUR. He wants to play Colonial, where he’s won, and Memorial, where he’s won, and possibly Hilton Head.

“I’m definitely playing the 3M, too,” he said, referencing the first-year PGA TOUR event in Minneapolis at TPC Twin Cities, which has undergone some significant changes to better challenge PGA TOUR professionals. “I’ve won that event three times on the PGA TOUR Champions – though it won’t on the same golf course.”