"People like to bring up dirty laundry, I guess."

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Bob Verdi writes about Kenny Perry's first remarks about the FBR Open incident.

Kenny Perry looks as though he has lost no sleep whatsoever over a "controversy" concerning an "incident" surrounding his victory at the FBR Open last February. In fact, he's somewhat puzzled that people are talking about it without talking to him.

Now I was out all day so I had only seen Verdi's take thanks to the readers who emailed the link to Bob's story. Only later did I read the transcript and the combination of Verdi's observation with the transcript probably won't make this go away.

Now, I know it's a bit unfair to Perry since there wasn't much he could say at this point that would help make the video more palatable. And it's perhaps unfair to parse his words from a transcript since the tone may have been tough to grasp, but sheesh, this is rough...

Q. Kenny, I know you talked about this earlier this morning. What do you suppose this playoff wedge thing from Phoenix has taken on such a life of its own on the Internet? I don't know that I've heard you talk about it. I was wondering what your take on all that is and why it won't go away.

KENNY PERRY: Well, I mean, I said the truth will set you free. I looked at it, and I thought it was crazy, my first impression.

I went to Charlie Hoffman, and I asked Charlie. Charlie, do you have a problem with it? That would be the only guy, if he had a problem with it, it would have really upset me, if he thought something was done wrong there.

You know, doesn't that mentality speak directly to something I wondered about recently: self policing gone awry to the point that the opinion of one's fellow competitors supersedes the Rules of Golf?

He said that's crazy. You didn't do nothing wrong. Patted me on the back. And saw the Tour came out -- I wasn't in the closed door. The Tour went in. I wasn't with the Tour staff when they made their -- they shot back with their remark saying, we saw nothing wrong. I mean, I just let it go.

That's life, isn't it? People like to bring up dirty laundry, I guess.

How is it dirty laundry if it is clearly not a violation?

Q. You were just trying to figure out how high the grass was and where the crowd was?

KENNY PERRY: You're allowed to.

To figure out how high the grass is? No kidding?

You're able to sole your club. Did you watch it? Did you actually watch that last hole?

Q. Everybody has seen it.

KENNY PERRY: I soled my club on the ball. Did you watch me sole it left of the golf ball? Then I went and hit the shot.

I don't think that quite describes how things transpired.

When you're in the rough, you just need to find the bottom so you can figure out how high the ball is sitting up in rough.

Find the bottom with about many stabs of the fire stoker? Sorry, here's the close up.

Q. You kind of hit a chunky running shot out of there anyway.

Oh, so the shot was lousy, therefore whatever precipitated didn't matter?

It wasn't like you hit some spinner that stuck it a foot from the hole, right?

KENNY PERRY: I hit it 25 feet from the hole. It's not like I hit a great shot. I mean, I don't know. What do you all think? Someone brings something up four months down the road. I didn't understand. We're going to go looking in the archives of all the players who have been on TV and see what they've done? I didn't understand that part of it.

That is a fair point that no one has been able to answer. Then again, the Super Bowl had started, so we now know just how many people were watching golf.

I've got a camera guy five feet behind me. He's right there looking. I turned around and looked at him.

If I thought I was doing something wrong, I definitely wouldn't have done it there.

Scribblers in attendance, did Kenny leave behind a large hole and a mound of dirt next to the podium?

Once that was -- I didn't hear nothing about it after that. There was nothing else said. So I just assumed it was dead. not after this press conference!

Q. When was this brought to your attention?

KENNY PERRY: When I finished the Sunday round at the Players. They came and told me about it. I was just stunned.

Q. Did they just walk up to you and say, by the way, you didn't cheat?

KENNY PERRY: No. They said you're going to have to answer some questions about this video. I didn't quite understand.

Rick George came and talked to me. And then I met with Alex Miceli. He was out there. And talked about have you heard anything about this video? Which I didn't know.

And then the Tour came out with their saying there was nothing been done wrong here.

After this press conference? Maybe not.

"What's up with CBS and Clark's wrists?"

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In this week's SI/Golf.com/Golf Mag/Golf Nation/No-Longer-Stuck-With-AOL opus, the gang kicks around Tim Clark's latest disappointing loss. Thankfully they don't dwell too much on his playoff approach shot that hit the 17th hole flag (a bad break but I'm not sure if it would have been as close as some thought), and instead discuss other issues related to Clark...

Damon Hack, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Clark pulled a LeBron James after the loss. He refused to come to the press room (though he did give a couple of quotes to Tour PR). He said he will take nothing positive from the loss and that he had a lot of work to do in closing out tournaments.

And...

Gorant: What's up with CBS and Clark's wrists? I always thought it was pretty common knowledge that he has a congenital condition that prevents him from turning his hands palm-up. That's why it's difficult for him to chip, but the CBS guys never mentioned that. They just kept saying he prefers to putt from eight feet off the green because he isn't a good chipper. Is this supposed to be an off-limits topic?

Herre: Interesting point. You'd think Peter Kostis would be all over something like that.

Geeze Peter, your own team is picking on you now!

IBF's 68 Has Clampett Dreaming Of Masters Return

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After a stunning opening 68 in Ian Baker Finch's first competitive round since 2001 (!!), sources inside the CBS back-up announcer trailer report that Bobby Clampett was seen optmistically searching Travelocity for flight info to next year's Masters just in case IBF should go on to win the Crowne Plaza at Colonial.

We love Ian and are thrilled about his great play. But you better not abandon us in April. We can't handle any more Hogan's Bridge references.

On a serious note, Ron Sirak puts the performance in context.

What Baker-Finch accomplished in the first round of the Crowne Plaza Invitational may not live in my brain as one of the most memorial moments I have witnessed, but it will linger in my heart as one of the bravest and most touching. His two-under-par 68 nearly 12 years after he shot a 92 in the British Open was a testimony to his courage as well as his considerable skill.

"I'm older now," he said after the round in which he made five birdies and three bogeys about fighting his nerves. "I just tried to stay in the moment. I never had second thoughts about doing this. Hey, I can still play the game." Of that there is no longer any doubt.

"It's a pretty seamless kind of change."

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Looks like there was a new type of rally killer in Geoff Ogilvy's sitdown with what remains of the working press.

First, the rally...Geoff talking about the nuances of the Colonial course changes:

GEOFF OGILVY: Yes, it's actually quite nice that they've made some changes that you kind of keep looking at going, did they change that, did they not change that? It's a pretty seemless kind of change. Most of them I think is better, the course is better for it. A few extra bunkers here and there. The tees, a lot of them they look like they've just gone down a couple of feet which gives it a different look and probably makes it play a little longer in some respects because you are down a little bit. They cut the back of some of the greens, the ball is going to run away from a few more greens than it did before. All in all, pretty good changes. I would still like to see a couple of trees in a few places come out of this course. Apart from that, it's one of my favorites courses and probably nearly every guy in the field, if you polled them, it would be in their Top-5. And they haven't done anything to damage that by changing the course. A lot of times they change courses these days, that can happen. So fortunately that probably improved it. It's nice.

Q. Hi, Geoff, I'm doing interactive marketing for the tournament this week running the Twitter for the guys. I have a question from one of the followers. What part of your game is feeling best this week and what part of your game might not be feeling the best that you need to focus on to be successful this week?

The followers taking priority over the writers? Oh I smell an emergency meeting of the GWAA Directors! Wait, the new prez writes for the PGA Tour, maybe not!

Later on, Ogilvy on how the changes will impact play:

GEOFF OGILVY: In some cases for sure. I don't know if the fourth tee went back, but it feels like it's longer than it was. It definitely went down three or four feet. I think which makes it almost feel uphill. But that's always been a hard hole. The third is going to play a little trickier off the tee. It looks exactly the same, but the bunkers are 20 yards further to carry. They are not such an extreme carry, but our line has changed 20 yards from where it was the last 10 years. So getting it into your head you have to aim it 20 yards further right than you have been for the last eight or nine years is hard. You are used to teeing it up right next to the right-hand tee marker and hitting a driver in the normal spot, r the 3-wood in a normal spot. That line is now moved over and that's hard to get into your head. When you change a golf course subtlety like they have here, that we've played so many times. 12 is the same. 12 we've always blown it over the left bunker. Not many guys will be able to get it over there now. So it's hard to get it in your head you have to aim it up the fairway as opposed to aim it over the bunker. So it's more that sort of trickiness. The par-3, 13, I think it might actually be easier than it was before, even though it's 10 or 15 yards longer. 14, it's adjusting to the bunkers that are on the inside of the dogleg, not the outside of the dogleg. You are so used to stepping it up, autopilot, the normal spot, your driving lines are going to change on the 14th hole. It's more awkward changes like that, rather than out and out difficulty.

"Cink To Miss Remainder of Season to Concentrate on Twitter"

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Nice Stewart Cink exclusive reported by Bob Smiley.

Speaking of Cink and Twitter, he posted this Monday:

Heading out for CrownePlaza. Looking forward to seeing the changes at Colonial. Some angst when they tinker with the great tracks.about 14 hours ago from Tweetie

I doubt there's much to worry about since Keith Foster, who did such a super job at Southern Hills, also did the Colonial work. The ASGCA website features this short interview with Foster about touching up a beloved classic.

Stanford Who? Daly To Return At Memphis

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It's a bit odd that John Daly is returning to the tour at the Memphis event considering some of the past events there, then again, what city doesn't have a Daly episode that might bring back bad memories? And besides, he'll serve as a great distraction from the memory that it was once the Stanford Financial St. Jude Classic.

PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said the tour does not comment on player discipline; it never confirmed that Daly was suspended and now cannot confirm that a suspension has been lifted.

Daly told The Associated Press over the Christmas holidays that he had been suspended for the second time in his career, and he said he found out two weeks ago while playing in Ireland that he had been reinstated.

"I don't really feel I deserved to be suspended," Daly said. "But I'm not going to dwell on it. I'm going to turn it into a positive. I'm getting my life back in order and I'm more organized."

"Campbell, who swings like Ben Hogan, managed a carry of 232 yards using an old balata ball."

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Thanks to reader Jim for the heads up on this note in Bill Nichols' Dallas Morning News coverage of the Nelson.

Pros go old school with equipment: Curt Sampson, working on a story for Sports Illustrated, drew a crowd on the practice range when he unveiled a MacGregor Byron Nelson persimmon driver. Everybody wanted to hit it. Vijay Singh went the longest at 253 yards, one yard farther than Colleyville's Chad Campbell. Campbell, who swings like Ben Hogan, managed a carry of 232 yards using an old balata ball.

"For it to resurface now would be laughable if it didn't involve a good man's reputation being called into question due to insufficient reasoning."

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Since Donegan's story Sunday and over 35,000 views of the video, a few writers have spoken out in Kenny Perry's defense.  Steve Elling and Scott Michaux both say it's time to move on, that cheating was clearly not Perry's intent.  John Hawkins also is fired up about Perry's reputation coming into focus.

The Perry situation didn't receive an ounce of attention when it happened at the FBR Open back in early February. For it to resurface now would be laughable if it didn't involve a good man's reputation being called into question due to insufficient reasoning.

Perhaps, but suppose a bigger issue is at stake here: the wink-wink, look-the-other-way blurring of certain rules that has become all too common in professional golf. (You know, the same sport where the guys don't need to be drug tested because they police themselves.)

After seeing the Perry video several players said something to the effect of, "that goes on all the time on the tour." (And we've all watched guys fix ball marks in their line without blinking, much less pointing out to their playing partner as a courtesy that they were performing major surgery on their line).

I point these out in the context of the Perry episode because I vividly recall as a young, impressionable lad, studying how tour players walked, dressed and behaved. For a few weeks after taking in tour golf at Riviera or Sherwood, I'd typically play better after absorbing the tempo, gentle grip and overall relaxed-but-focused demeanor exuded by such elite players.

Particularly fascinating was a player's care around the greens or when making a recovery shot from the rough or trees.  Both situations provided unique opportunities to get close and hear the conversation with the caddy and to observe their actions.

Consistently I was always fascinated by the manner in which they treated their ball. It was as if a meteor had landed off the fairway and they didn't want to get too close until they had to bat the thing back into play. I remember watching many players gently approach the ball--maybe stare at the lie or delicately lift away a leaf--but always treat a live ball as something to be careful around. Practice swings--if they even took one--were often a bit away from the ball and the player was typically cautious not to be seen as testing the surface in anyway by pressing their clubhead down behind the ball. Furthermore, when that final moment arrived many would just barely lay the club behind their ball.

And again, I'd take this image of gentle club placement for a few weeks and that absorption of studied, careful and gentle demeanor would lead to better golf. Then I'd eventually revert back to old bad habits.

So it's with that image in my mind that I watch Kenny Perry pull his club and walk up to his ball, jabbing away like he's armed with a poker, trying to jumpstart some stubborn logs. And as you can see in this longer version of the playoff posted, the mashing does not occur at the address position, as many defenders have noted. It happens in the moment that he initially arrives, long before the honor has been established or the shot is actually addressed.

 

I hope the takeaway from this is not to demonize Perry. The event is long gone and we'll never know just how close that clump of grass was to the ball.

However, let's hope this encourages tour players to take the rules and club grounding a bit more seriously. In other words, to take the rules of golf more seriously.

"It became a bigger story than who was winning the golf tournament"

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Brian Wacker files a nice follow-up to what continues to be one of the best stories in a long, long time: Lance Ten Broeck looping, playing, playing, looping and beating his man. And doing it with a piecemeal set of clubs on a tough walking course.

Ten Broeck, too, would miss the cut, shooting even par to fall two strokes short. He still made history, however, becoming what appears to be the first caddie to loop for a player and play in the same event. "It was really a big deal," added Parnevik. "A lot of players weren't even aware you could do something like that."

As for beating his boss, Ten Broeck knows better than to bite the hand that feeds him. "I'm sure he was embarrassed enough by it," Ten Broeck said. "I didn't want to rub it in."
Parnevik just laughed at that notion. "I don't know if I would have caddied for him [if he made the cut], but I thought about it," he said. "If he would have asked me to caddie, though, I would have for sure."