Perry wins Travelers Championship with record 258
June 28, 2009
CROMWELL, Conn. (AP)—There was no Masters-style meltdown Sunday for KennyPerry.
Perry shot 63 to finish with a tournament-record 258 and win the TravelersChampionship by three strokes over Paul Goydos and David Toms, two other golfersin their 40s.
The 48-year old Perry, whose bogey-bogey finish at Augusta kept him fromwinning the Masters in April, tied a course record with a 61 Thursday and ledafter each of the first two rounds here. But, he trailed by a stroke to Goydosheading into the final round.
He responded by shooting a 32 on the front nine and was up by five strokesheading to the par-4 15th.
Goydos, 45, made a 20-foot eagle putt from the fringe on 15 and birdied 16.But he missed his birdie putt on 17 to the right.
Perry birdied 15, and put the tournament away by making birdie on 17 afterhitting a 164-yard approach to within 8 feet.
“Everyone kind of asks about the Augusta hangover deal,” he said. “Iguess I kind of shoved that aside a little bit. So that makes me feel prettygood.”
Perry acknowledged he was thinking about the Masters as he played the backnine, and told himself to play aggressive.
“I knew that I had to keep making birdies,” he said. “I wasn’t going tolet up. I wasn’t going to play defensive golf. I learned something from thatmistake.”
Goydos said he felt he needed to shoot a 63 to win the tournament, butdidn’t start playing well until the 15th hole.
“I don’t want to run and hide from that,” he said. “He played like a guywho’s won 14 times. I played more like a guy who’s won twice, especially earlyin the round.”
Goydos made a 40-foot putt on the seventh hole, but gave two shots back whenhe bogeyed the par-3 eighth. Perry hit his tee shot to within 3 feet of the pin,and made birdie.
He went four strokes up by sinking a 16-foot birdie on the 10th, whileGoydos had another bogey.
Perry takes home just over $1 million with the victory, and has now won fivetimes in just over a year, the most of any player on tour. He has 12 top-10finishes over that span while making every cut. His 258 is tied for fourth-best72-hole score in Tour history. It beats the old tournament record of 259 set byTim Norris is 1982.
The win also moves Perry to the front of the FedEx Cup standings. It was his14th career victory, and he said he’s hoping to get 20 wins before he retires.
“It’s a pretty unrealistic goal,” he said. I just kind of threw thatnumber out there to see everyone’s eyes roll into the back of their heads.”
Toms, 42, shot his third 65 of the tournament to finish tied with Goydos at19-under par. He missed a 12-foot birdie putt on 17, after making birdies at 15and 16 to put himself into contention.
“I didn’t get off to the kind of start that I felt like needed to putpressure on the guys that were ahead of me,” Toms said. “I really felt like Ineeded to get under par pretty quickly to at least give them something to thinkabout and ultimately just got too far behind on the back nine.”
Ben Curtis, Ryan Moore and Hunter Mahan all finished two strokes behindGoydos and Toms to tie for fourth at 17-under.
“You’d probably think that anywhere from 15 to 20-under would probably winit. I watched the scoreboard a little bit. You got to kind of focus on whateverybody’s doing, to see what kind of shots you have to hit.”
Scott Verplank shot a round-best 62 Sunday, one off the course record thathe shares, and finished tied for ninth place at 15-under par.
“I knew I’d shot 61 here a few years ago, so obviously you know, I can getit going on this golf course,” he said.
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