Kenny Perry’s consistent play from Thursday through Sunday is what set him apart from everyone else at this years U.S. Senior Open. This victory is Perry’s second at the Senior Open, putting his name among golf legends such as Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as winners of multiple U.S. Senior Open wins.
Going into Sunday at the top of the leaderboard there is no room for mistakes. Out of today came one player who made hardly any mistakes, and another player who made at least one too many. Right from the first hole, Kenny Perry set the tone for the final round. He birdied his first hole of the day, tying him for the lead with Kirk Triplett. Perry’s only other birdie of the day would come on the par five 6th, but it was enough to bring him to -16 for the tournament and he would never look back.
Triplett recorded four birdies for himself today, but it was not enough to make up for his mistakes that began early on. Canceling out his four birdies were five bogeys, four of which came on the front nine.
Despite his poor play through the first half of the day, Triplett was able to put pressure on Perry in the last few holes. With only two strokes separating the two golfers going into the 18th hole, Triplett’s great second shot put pressure on Perry to make his third shot from the edge of the green. Neither Triplett nor Perry would make birdie on the last hole, but it was enough for Triplett to feel like he made Kenny Perry earn his victory rather than have it handed to him.
Perry has struggled recently on the Champions Tour, but he attributes some of his success this week to some of the new, technologically advanced, clubs he just started using. The first club is his new vertical grooved driver. He says that the vertical grooves on the club face change the way his ball spins and allows him to hit more fairways. Perry barley missed the fairway this week, so it’s safe to say that the new driver is working. The other change he’s made to his golf bag is his putter. Kenny added a brand new putter to his bag on Wednesday, and decided to put it to use on Thursday. The putter is made by French company, ARGOLF, who Kenny says employs NASA-esque engineers to design their clubs. Perry was white hot with his putter for a good majority of the weekend, so it’s safe to say he wont be changing the make up of his golf bag again any time soon.
This is Perry’s ninth win on the Champions Tour, the last coming in August of 2015 at the 3M Championship. He will walk away from the Salem Country Club of Peabody, MA with $3,750,000 in his pocket. For Kenny, winning one Senior Open was sweet, but adding his name to the trophy for a second time is even sweeter.
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