Perry adds 3rd title at final 3M event for over-50 tour
Venue switches to regular PGA in 2019
Kenny Perry created more drama than he wanted Sunday in the final 3M Championship.
He closed with a 3-under 69 for a three-stroke victory in the PGA Tour Champions event in Blaine, Minn., that is being replaced by the PGA Tour’s 3M Open.
Also the 2014 and 2015 winner at TPC Twin Cities, Perry, 57, matched Hale Irwin’s tournament record of three victories in the final edition of the event that started in 1993 at Bunker Hills.
“It’s an honor. Incredible. He’s one of the greatest players of all time,” Perry said.
Perry’s not done at the course where he finished in the top seven in all but one of his eight appearances, saying he’ll participate in the 2019 3M Open. Players in the top 50 PGA Tour career money list — Perry is 26th — can cash in a one-time, season-long exemption to return to the tour after they’ve lost status.
“This golf course fits me to a T. ... It’s going to be so long next year, I probably won’t even recognize it when I come back,” he said. “I’ll be back here hitting long irons while those kids will be hitting wedges.”
Five shots ahead after rounds of 66 and 60, Perry finished at 21-under 195 to win his 10th senior title and first since the 2017 U.S. Senior Open. He won the last of his 14PGA Tour titles in 2008.
After offseason shoulder surgery, Perry’s best finish this season had been fifth at the Insperity Invitational in early May.
“I was very nervous,” he said. “It’s hard to go out with a five-shot lead and be the hunted instead of being the hunter. It felt very odd out there. I didn’t want to give it away; I didn’t want to play too aggressive, I didn’t want to play too safe.”
He came out flat and mishit many shots.
Back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 6 and 7 — Perry had one in the first two rounds — coupled with a seventh-hole birdie by Glen Day dropped Perry’s lead to one stroke. Day had a bogey at the par-3 eighth and Perry rolled in a birdie putt at nine, pushing the lead back to three.
“That calmed me down and I was able to go out there and shoot a good back nine,” said Perry, who was 14 under on the back nine in the tournament.
Looking for his first win since the 2014 Quebec Championship, Wes Short Jr. was second after a 63.
First Tour title
Andrew Putnam won the Barracuda Championship in Reno, Nev., for his first PGA Tour title, holding off Chad Campbell by four points in the modified Stableford scoring event.
Putnam closed with a 22foot birdie putt from off the front of the green on the par5 18th when a bogey would have been enough for the breakthrough victory.
Putnam, 29, earned $612,000, a two-year tour exemption and a spot next week in the PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis. He also jumped from 55th to 31st in the FedEx Cup standings.
Fantastic finish in Fiji
India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar held off a record-breaking charge from Australian Anthony Quale to win the Fiji International in Sigatoka by one stroke while Ernie Els shot a 7-under 65 to finish a further stroke behind.
Bhullar, the overnight leader by a shot, produced his best round of the tournament, a 6-under 66, to move to 14 under at the par-72 Natadola Bay course. Quayle went lower, shooting a course record 9-under 63 to all but snatch the trophy and the winner’s share of a $1.2 million purse.
Bhullar and Quayle shared 11birdies and three eagles in a thrilling final-round duel while Els added an eagle and six birdies for his first top-10 finish since June 2016.