 |
| |
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
 Kenny Perry's homemade swing carried him to a second straight victory, and it was a typically smooth eight-iron that iced the Memorial
By Mark Wood
I have a suggestion for anyone obsessing about building a perfect swing: Take a look at Kenny Perry. This self-taught pro has an unconventional swing and a funky putting stroke, and all he's done is win six tournaments and $12.1 million in 17 years on the PGA Tour. Perry's combined statistics from his back-to-back victories at the Colonial and the Memorial were stupendous: He hit 83% of the fairways, 81% of the greens and was 8 for 8 in sand saves. On the greens Perry has a standard takeaway, but he loops the putter out and then back in toward the ball, forcing him to pull the ball slightly. In his full swing Perry stands up a bit during his backswing, giving the impression that he lifts the club, but his impeccable rhythm gets his club face square at impact -- the only place that matters. The key moment of Sunday's round came on the par-4 9th hole, when Perry flushed an eight-iron from 163 yards to a foot (above). That birdie, coupled with playing partner Lee Janzen's bogey, pushed Perry's lead to five and all but ended the tournament. Perry's success is a reminder that plenty of world-class golfers -- including Hogan, Jones, Nicklaus and Snead -- had idiosyncratic swings and that the rest of us can be successful too if we trust what comes naturally.
Mark Wood, 41, runs the Mark Wood Golf Academy in Fort Lauderdale and is a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher. Issue date: June 9, 2003
|
|
|||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Courtesy of CBS
