Angry Perez makes big move with 66
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Pat Perez had just finished playing the round of the day Saturday at the Players Championship, where he carded a 6-under-66, which took him from making the cut on the number at 2-over to into contention, tied for 10th entering Sunday’s final round.
The 41-year-old Perez is 14 months removed from labrum surgery on his shoulder that wrecked his 2016 season and still smarting from his club company, Callaway, dropping him. Yet, he is in the midst of a career resurgence, having won once this season and coming off a runner-up finish at last week’s Wells Fargo Championship.
A year after earning only $47,840, Perez already cashed $3.34 million in winnings this season.
“Why has this year been so good for you?’’ he was asked after the round.
“I’m not really going to go into it,’’ the usually-loquacious Perez said. And then Perez got into it. “Proving people wrong, for one,’’ he said. “Two, I’m just tired. I’m tired of opinions. I just got past it all, and I have a whole different outlook at life after being gone for a little bit and really not one person caring, other than my caddie or my wife.
“When I came back, to be dropped by Callaway and to be kind of like told at 40, you can’t do it, you can’t come back, we don’t really believe in you, this kind of stuff, it really can get you upset. And it’s a hell of a motivator.’’
After missing eight of 12 cuts last season, Perez has played in 15 events this season with a win and eight top-20 results. His strong play this week has come as a surprise even to him, because he is not a fan of the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
“It doesn’t fit my eye on almost any shot,’’ he said. “That’s how it was designed. It makes it uneasy for you. There’s not a shot out there that I’m comfortable hitting. You know who loves it? Maybe the winner on Sunday? That’s about it.’’
After shooting 71 Saturday to stand at 1-under for the week, Rory McIlroy teetered on too much informa- tion when explaining about his new sleep habits in an effort to alleviate his ailing back.
“I’m trying to sleep on my right side and that’s sort of facing away from [my wife] Erica [Stoll] and she’s like, ‘Why? Are you not happy with me? What’s going on?’ ’’ he said. “I’m like, ‘No, no, it’s fine I’m just taking care of my back.’ ’’
McIlroy, who revealed Friday he’s going to have an MRI exam on his back Monday when he returns to Ireland, said, “I’m hoping that it just shows a slight little tear in the muscle or something like that, a little strain.’’
Rickie Fowler was making a steady move up the leaderboard, getting to 3-under, when he hit his tee shot into a tree on the 18th hole. The ball stayed in the tree and led to a triple bogey 7 that left him even for the week.
“You play golf long enough you’re going to see a ball get stuck in a tree,’’ Fowler said. “If the ball ends up coming out of the tree, I chip out and make five at worst. So, yeah, a little bit of a tough way to finish.’’
Jon Rahm, the 22-year old rookie sensation from Spain suffered his worst round as a pro Saturday with a 10-over 82. Rahm actually began the day in contention at 4-under and he ended it missing the secondary cut. He will play next at the Memorial in two weeks.
“Once I realized that it was 7-over through seven, I kind of went away,’’ Rahm said. “There were very few good things coming out of [Saturday] really, so nothing else I can do.’’
Dustin Johnson, the top-ranked player in the world who entered the week having won three of his last four starts with the only nonwin a runner-up last week, failed to make a Saturday move, shooting 74.
“I was playing pretty well through 12 holes … and just didn’t finish very good,’’ he said. “I felt like I was hitting better golf shots, hitting it a lot more solid, hitting it where I wanted to. I just got a couple bad breaks there and shoot a couple over instead of a couple under.’’