Golf: Craig Perks' long road to stardom

Craig Perks thrilled the country with his win in the rich Players Championship but, as CHRIS RATTUE reports,
no one was happier than his mother.

At the age of 4, Craig Perks stood, with a suitcase in hand, behind the garage at his Palmerston North home.

"I'm leaving home, I'm bored," Perks told his mother, Dawne, who offered to get him some sandwiches for the journey.

At a similar age, Tiger Woods was already on the way to becoming the world's best golfer.

Perks didn't find golf until he was 10, after he'd already had some national success as a table tennis player. But once he did, table tennis and, it seems, just about everything else, went out the window. Golf became his overriding passion and all he wanted to do was be a professional golfer.

Fulfilling that ambition brought him 17 years battling poverty and all the other downswings of golfing life in America. But the 35-year-old Perks burst through to the other side in triumph this week, winning The Players Championship in Florida and earning the PGA tour's biggest prize, of $2.47 million.

"I've worked so hard and travelled to towns you've never heard of," said Perks after his first PGA tour victory. And hard work has been the foundation of his golf from the moment he took his first grip on a club.

His table tennis-playing parents had taken up golf for exercise after his father Bob, who died six years ago, had several hip operations.

Perks, whose idol was Jack Nicklaus, was soon skipping school to practise at the Manawatu Golf Club at Hokowhitu. Thursdays needed extra caution, as that was the day his mother played. He confessed to Dawne years later that he had perfected her signature and written a swag of notes to explain his absences from Palmerston North Boys' High.

"I can't imagine how many days he wagged. There were plenty. I think the teachers knew what was going on," says Dawne.

Perks was a wee chap at this point, lacking the strength to hit greens in regulation, and without the natural ball-striking ability of clubmate Grant Waite.

But the club's professional, Ross Morpeth, a mentor to Perks, says he had rare ability around the greens.

"Put a sand iron or a wedge in his hand from 100 yards now and I'd back him against any golfer in the world," says Morpeth.

"He's thinking about holing it from that distance and I've seen him do it plenty of times.

"When he started, he was a little guy with a long, loose swing who used to hook it, working the ball right to left. Sometimes I felt he was just pushing the ball. There were a lot of tee shots that didn't land on fairways.

"He had to make up for his lack of distance and it has helped to give him a brilliant short game. He can flop the ball down by the hole from anywhere.

"He had great imagination and a lot of skill - he did things you wouldn't dare put into a coaching manual. He had no fear.

"And now he's got a smooth wide swing which reminds me of Ernie Els."

The little guy is now quite a big guy and a voracious eater. Before the final round of last year's New Zealand Open, when he lost in a playoff to Michael Campbell, his caddy Morpeth was amused to see him scoff down a couple of pies and then find he was carting around what amounted to a mini larder in Perks' golf bag.

When he was asked what the fee would be to run some clinics at Hokowhitu, Perks requested fish and chips and pies.

His mother just says: "You should see him eat."

All this fuel did the trick in his mid-teens, when a growth spurt gave Perks new-found power, allowing him to adjust his game accordingly.

And success was coming. He was the national boys' champion, and a New Zealand junior representative for two years. At 18, Perks followed Waite to America to play for Oklahoma, then Southwestern Louisiana university, while gaining a degree in behavioural science.

Despite having a scholarship, times were tough. Over the years, Dawne, a midwife, and her husband, a bookkeeper, drip-fed about $40,000 to their son.

"I remember one time I'd saved for a new set of golf clubs but Craig rang and said he was desperate for some money so I sent it," says Dawne.

"[When Craig was born] we had two sons already, so naturally we were hoping the third would be a girl, but along came Craig and he's always been my baby.

"I would do anything to support him and help him to do what he wants to do. We are all so proud of him.

"I was ready to mortgage the house when he was having more troubles over the last few years."

Although times were always tough, the young New Zealander still managed to woo an American bride. Maureen is from Lafayette, home to the Louisiana university, where she had been studying law. They married in 1991 and now have a 5-year-old-daughter, Meghan, and 3-year-old son, Nigel.

Maureen, whose father is an accountant, has a hand in managing Perks' career. For many years that job did not involve handling a lot of money.

More financial support came initially from a Manawatu benefactor, Ian Shand. Later, Perks and nine wealthy golfers from the La Triomphe club in Lafayette each put a few thousand dollars into a fund once a year to back his career. One year, Perks did not have enough to put in his own share and his mum stumped up again.

"I was more than happy to do whatever I could ... but it was pretty tough, especially when you only got 44 cents in the dollar," says Dawne.

Perks turned professional in 1993 but it took him seven years to break free of the secondary tours and win a full PGA tour card through qualifying school. He had to re-qualify the following season after finishing below the top 125 money-earners.

Last year, though, he finished 113th, which gave him the comfort of not having to take on the cut-throat qualifying tournament for the right to play on this year's tour.

Now three magical final holes of golf at the Ponte Vedra Beach course have propelled Perks to about as high as anyone can go in golf at the moment - second to Tiger Woods on this year's PGA tour earnings list.

The Players Championship is regarded as the biggest tournament outside the four majors - the British and US Opens, the PGA Championship, and the glamour US Masters, which will be played at Augusta in two weeks.

Whatever lies in his future, Perks will never forget those moments in Florida when, as the 203rd-ranked golfer in the world, he chipped in for an eagle on the 16th, sank a 9m birdie putt on the 17th, then chipped in for par on the last.

"I had a little moment there to reflect, and I thought about the long road that had come to that point, all the sacrifices, knowing other people that didn't believe in me, but I always believed in myself," Perks said. "It's a moment I'll always remember.

"I've always prided myself on hanging in there and never giving up. This time, something good finally came of it."

Perks sees this first tour victory as a stepping stone, for with the money and the big tournament qualification comes a vital five-year tour exemption. This means he will now be able to manage his game without the constant pressure of having to earn enough money to qualify.

It will be a miracle if Perks repeats his performance at this weekend's $10m Houston Open - the sudden attention he has attracted has brought a couple of sleepless days, which have included 450 telephone calls.

But after making his way in the obscurity of American college golf and second-tier tours, Perks has announced himself as a potential star.

The question now is whether this humble but dogged character will again walk the final fairways with the biggest names in the game.

The Masters beckon and even though Perks' four Masters tickets have gone to his family in America, Dawne is still hoping to get to Augusta, courtesy of television's Holmes programme.

It was only good luck that allowed her to watch Perks' magical final round in Florida. She was due to assist with a caesarean section birth but, for the first time in her many years as a midwife, a paediatrician was not available at the allotted time. There was just enough time to race home and watch her son's walk in the limelight.

"Craig is the quiet one in the family," Dawne says. "The rest of us can't stop talking, but he'll sit quietly in the corner.

"But I noticed a real change when he came back earlier this year. He was more confident. When he had to qualify for the tour he sort of felt he didn't really belong yet. This year he felt he deserved to be there. It's made such a difference.

"He is a quiet guy who just wants to be with his family.

"But when Craig walks on to a golf course, he seems to grow 10 feet tall."