PGA: Craig Perks

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Craig Perks
Career highlights

2002 The Players Championship Winner
2001 Honda Classic Runnerup
1990 All-American at University of Louisiana
1986 All-American at University of Oklahoma

The story of Craig's playing career is a tale of dedication and perseverance. Born and raised in Palmerstown North, New Zealand, he came to the United States in 1985 at the age of 18 to attend the University of Oklahoma; he eventually graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana with a degree in Behavioral Science. He participated in Q-School in 1990, then returned in 1993, and every year after that before succeeding in 1999 and qualifying for the PGA Tour. He was forced to return to Q-School in 2000 where he again earned his Tour card. Good news: his Players Championship crown includes a five-year exemption.

Craig took up golf seriously at 13, three years after being introduced to the sport by his father. In fact, golf was a family affair for the Perks: "I have two elder brothers and mom and dad and we all played as a family. It was something we did on the weekend. It was how our family got together. Golf is such a lonely sport, and to be around family and friends while playing is something I really enjoy doing." Indeed, Craig lists "family time" among his special interests. He, his wife Maureen, and their children Meghan and Nigel reside in Lafayette, Louisiana.

The source of the story

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http://idirector.media.ibeam.com/rea..._inside13_1.rm

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Interview after Players Championship

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Craig Perks, who won the 2002 Players Championship on the PGA Tour, has been named the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year for 2002 in voting by panelists of the Halberg Trust, trust officials have announced.

Perks became the first golfer to win the award since the 1992 Eisenhower Cup team. He outpolled the captain of the New Zealand Tall Blacks basketball team and stars from cricket and rugby.

"I left New Zealand at a very young age and my dream was not only to play and compete on the PGA Tour but to win," said Perks. "That dream came true at the Players. To represent New Zealand on the world stage is something I can never forget."

Born and raised in Palmerston North, Perks left New Zealand in 1985 to attend the University of Oklahoma on a golf scholarship. Perks won All-America honors at Oklahoma as a sophomore, but transferred to Southwest Louisiana State and was an All-America there as a senior in 1990.

Perks joined the PGA Tour in 2000 and last year joined Jack Nicklaus and Hal Sutton as the only men to win the Players in their first appearance. He did that with an eagle chip on 16 Sunday, followed by a birdie putt on 17 and a par-saving chip on 18 for a two-stroke victory.

pga.com the source of the story

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UL star admits mistake, hopes to continue comeback.

In March of 2002, Craig Perks was on top of the world — or so it would have seemed.

The former University of Louisiana golfer pulled off a major breakthrough when he came out of the blue to win the Players Championship. He captured his first Tour victory at golf’s “fifth major” in exciting fashion, chipping in on two of the last three holes.

Instead of riding the wave of confidence after the $1 million payday, Perks decided to completely overhaul his golf swing — a decision he would later call a “big mistake.”

“When I looked at my statistics at the end of 2002, even though I was 36th on the money list, I was 195th in ball striking,” Perks said.

“There were only nine guys that hit it worse than I did. I knew I needed to do something. I think the way I went about it was incorrect. I should have just stuck with a method and made minor changes instead of completely overhauling the whole thing from day one.”

Perks did not register a top 5 on Tour for more than two frustrating years and hit rock bottom at the Masters in April when he double bogeyed his 36th hole from the middle of the fairway to miss the cut by a stroke.

“It was the lowest of the low,” Perks said. “I was just nearly lifeless. I just had no energy, I had no passion, no nothing.”

However, it was at the Masters where Perks may have made the best decision of his career. After playing with Adam Scott and Stewart Cink — tall, lanky players like himself — Perks decided he needed to offer himself up to their instructor, Butch Harmon.

The rest of the story

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Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. — Sometimes it happens this way at a golf tournament. You go out on the course to follow a player who has been a puzzling subject quite a time, and you run into Davis Love and Jim Furyk. What’s so unusual about that is, they’re leading The Players Championship. There were three 7s on the portable scoreboard when they finished the round, Love and Furyk in red, the other a dark shade. That belonged to the guy I went out to watch, who would be missing the cut in his 16th tournament in a row. And why, oh why, follow some guy who misses 16 cuts in a row? Well, it’s this way: When Craig Perks won this championship in 2002, he would have been a 1,000-to-1 shot at Ladbroke’s. He had been to qualifying school nine times. He had played the Hooters Tour, the Nationwide and whatever other tour he could get into. Now, he had won four times on the Hooters, but that tour’s alumni don’t win the big ones on the PGA Tour. (I might point out here, that that was a premise carelessly ventured before Chad Campbell came along.) Perks not only won here that Sunday four years ago, he won with one of the most exciting finishes I have ever seen. It had been a weathery weekend, and the players went out in threesomes the last day. Carl Paulson was the leader by a stroke over Perks, who had played three good rounds of 71-68-69, but to the gallery, he was no more well known than the guy who parked cars. The rest of the story By Furman Bisher The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Life on the PGA Tour has been anything but easy for former UL-Lafayette star Craig Perks since he won The Players Championship in March 2002. Since then, he had started 112 tournaments and made the cut in only 39. But he made a big one when it counted Friday, shooting a 6-under 66 to post a 36-hole score of 5-under 139. Perks had missed 19 straight cuts, including all 10 events that he had entered this year and the final nine of the 2005 season, before earning the right to play on the weekend. The rest of the story

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FORT WORTH, Texas - Four years ago, former University of Louisiana star Craig Perks was on top of the golf world. He executed one of the most exciting finishes in PGA Tour history to capture the 2002 Players Championship - the widely regarded "fifth major." Friday, after knocking it all over historic Colonial Country Club, Perks broke down outside the scoring tent. This fickle, downright evil game has turned the tables of one of the Tour's nicest guys. "Right now I've completely lost it. I have no idea what I'm doing," said Perks, slumped over and emotional after Friday's second-round 74. He finished 10 over for 36 holes, nine strokes shy of the cut at the Bank of America Colonial. Missing the cut isn't even the problem anymore. Perks has made a paycheck just once in 14 tries this year. The worst part for Perks, who has two under-par rounds in 30 attempts this year, is working harder than even on his golf game but seeing absolutely no benefits. "I've been working my ___ off for two years and it's just getting worse and worse," said Perks, a New Zealand native. "I'm getting ready to just pack it in basically." The rest of the story Roy Lang The (Shreveport) Times