Spectacularly steady Perry looking to make Masters history

Kenny Perry backed up his opening 68 with a bogey-free 67 that he said was one of the best rounds of his life. A couple more like that and he could become the Masters' oldest champion.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It doesn’t take much.

A puff of cigar smoke. The smell of fresh-cut grass.

Alone or combined, they take Kenny Perry back. Way back to the age of seven, when his dad Ken would sit on the range and watch his son beat balls.

“He would sit and smoke this big cigar, smoke would be flying and he would be sitting on a towel laying on the ground and he would be teeing them up right after another and I would hit them as fast as could I hit them,’’ Perry said, “and we did that hour after hour after hour.’’

Ken Perry sold insurance, but on the weekends, he beat his son. Not literally. Just on the golf course or in card games or on board games.

“He would just pound on me,’’ Perry said. “He says, ‘I'm going to beat you till I die.’ He was relentless. He was ruthless. He was a smart man. He knew it was going to make me tough. That's all he was trying to do was make me tougher.’’

That, he did.

Which explains why the kid who grew up in rural Kentucky, the guy who didn’t warm to the state horse passion because a neighbor’s Kentucy Derby entry made too much noise, the man who played his way into the 2008 Ryder Cup found himself tied with Chad Campbell at 9-under par 135 heading into the weekend here at the Masters.

Perry has driven the ball brilliantly this week and threw out a stress- and bogey-free round of 67 and put himself in position to either a) one-up a perfect 2008 Ryder Cup season or b) make up for the loss to Mark Brooks in the 1996 PGA Championship at Valhalla. Take your pick.

“Here I am at 48, doing things I probably shouldn’t be doing,’’ he said.

“ … You know what, everything is a bonus now, it really is. I'm just going through each and every day enjoying life a little bit. I think I can win. You know, I'm not going out there very casually. I'm burning inside, wanting to kick everybody's butt.’’

Ken poured it on. “I cried all the time because he just beat on me. And then he would laugh in my face as he was doing it.’’

But last September, they shared a special moment in Louisville when the United States finally won the Ryder Cup again.

“At the Ryder Cup when he came up and gave me that hug, you know, I told him, that was the greatest gift I could ever have given him,’’ Perry said. “That was pretty special for us as a father and a son.’’

Now this.

“Everything is just going great,’’ Perry said. I understand what I'm trying to do, what I'm trying accomplish it. Can I? I think I can. I really believe I can win this tournament. Will I? I don't know.’’

What we do know is when Perry sets his mind to something, it usually happens. Last year, his goal was to make the Ryder Cup team, so he tweaked his schedule and took heat for skipping the U.S. Open and British Open.

Here? Well he’s got a new driver in his bag that cost him 5-7 yards but gives him confidence. And, he’s putting with an old Ping Craze E -- a hand-me-down from a club member at Bent Pine in Vero Beach, where he worked decades ago as a young pro.

“I had three belly putters and four laying on the green and he gave it to me and the grip is all worn out and he handed me this putter and he said, ‘you need to use this putter, it's really going to help your game,’’’ Perry said. “So I grabbed the putter and threw it in the back of my truck.’’

The face is “real dead,” but perfect for his stroke. And age.

“At my age, I do have a little firing mechanism that wants to shoot the ball a little bit,’’ he said. “Well, the face is so dead on this putter, the ball … won't take off very fast when you hit it.’’

Perry hit 15 greens Thursday, 14 Friday. He needed 26 putts for his opening 68 and 23 for Friday’s bogey-free 67.

“That was probably one of the greatest rounds I've ever played, to be honest,’’ he said of the 67. “I just didn't have any nerves. I was so comfortable out there today. I don't know why. I don't know how to explain it. I don't know how I'll feel tomorrow or Sunday.

“But it was just easy. I mean, I knew I was going to hit the fairway. I had a confidence in my head. I knew I was going to drive it right down the middle of the fairway and I knew I was going to be able to attack the pins.’’

He and caddie Freddie Sanders, who have been together the better part of a decade, were in control. Perfect yardages, perfect decisions. Even in the blustery conditions.

“We had to really pay attention to what we were doing out there,’’ Perry said. “The winds were swirling.’’

If Perry can put together two more strong rounds, he could become not just the oldest Masters champ, but the oldest major champion ever. He would be 48 years, 8 months and 2 days old. Jack Nicklaus was 46 years, 2 months and 23 days when he won here in 1986, but Julius Boros is the oldest major champ ever. He was 48 years, 4 months and 18 days old when he won the 1968 PGA Championship.

No, Perry hasn’t had much success here in the past. He missed the cut five times in his first eight Masters and his best finish was a tie for 12th in 1995.

But he is playing well. He won the FBR Open in February and has four more top-10s in 2009, including a tie for eighth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.

And, well, there’s Ken. He’s always calling and telling Kenny he needs to win the Green Jacket.

Ironically, Ken won’t be here this weekend. The 85-year-old will be sitting at the counter at his son’s Country Creek Golf Course watching Kenny’s progress on the computer with the flat screen set up next to it.

And, no, he won’t fly or drive over. He has other things on his mind.

Mildred Perry isn’t doing well. The 77-year-old wife and mother is battling multiple myeloma.

“She and has really been fighting it hard,’’ Perry said. “We just got her out of the hospital again. She's really down. The medicine really keeps her beat down. I don't think he would want to leave her, tell you the truth.’’

So Ken will call and remind his son he needs to win a green jacket. He’ll challenge him yet another time.

Kenny finally got the better of his dad when was 14 and beat him on the golf course.

“You know how I did it?,’’ Perry said. “He was on the ninth hole at our course, a par 3, and he's 1-up on me. He says, "I've got you again."

“I hit a 4-iron in the hole for a 1. He made par and I finally beat him. And then it finally turned,” he added. “I finally started beating him here and there and finally it was regular.’’

And, yes, he rubbed it in.

This weekend there will be cigar smoke wafting across the course and the lush fairways will take him back to a simpler time.

To a father pushing a son. To a son learning what it takes.

And just maybe it will end with that Green Jacket.