Ryder Cup drives Perry's great season

Kenny Perry is a man of his word.

Need proof? The PGA Tour's hottest player didn't let a little thing like winning the Buick Open on Sunday keep him from an appointment with the Healing Place Charity Championship on Monday.

Despite needing some time off after a grueling stretch in which Perry won twice in June, the personable 47-year-old made it to the Shoals around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday night and was one of the first to arrive at Turtle Point Yacht and Country Club on Monday morning.

During a brief interview midway through his round, Perry apologized for his late arrival.

"By the time I was done with the interviews and the press, it was probably 8 o'clock," he said. "I just hated that I held up the other guys from getting here in time to make it to the function."

During Sunday night's pairings party and auction, tournament host Stewart Cink called Perry to offer him the chance to pull out of the tournament. But Perry, who is almost a lock to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team, was adamant about playing.

"I wasn't going to let that happen," he said. "When I talked to Stewart, he said he understood that we were running late and wouldn't be able to make it to the function. That was good."

Everything has been good for Perry this season. He's added his name to what is becoming a long list of veterans who are showing up their younger counterparts. Perry, who turns 48 in August, has rebounded from knee surgery in 2006 and an off year in 2007 to play some of the best golf of his career.

"Jay Haas made the Ryder Cup at 50," Perry said. "I look up to guys like him and Fred Funk, who are still great players."

Perry's only goal this season was to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team. The event will be held in his home state of Kentucky in September.

"There's no reason I can't be competing with all of my experience," he said.

Perry admits he has been driven by the Ryder Cup, a goal he said seemed unattainable at the start of the season.

He has a simple explanation for that drive, too.

"I lost the 1996 PGA to Mark Brooks in a playoff there, and I need to go back there so that I can be done with it. It would be the icing on my career."

Perry said he doesn't expect any problems in sustaining his momentum as the countdown to the Ryder Cup continues.

After completing his round, Perry jumped in his rental car and headed home to Elizabethtown, Ky.

Along the way, he stopped in the Shoals and made a few hundred more friends.

Gregg Dewalt can be reached at 740-5748 or gregg.dewalt@timesdaily.com.