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Perry Cruises On
Champions Tour

NAPLES, FLORIDA | Kenny Perry has more to celebrate this time. Perry ran away and hid from the field on Sunday at the ACE Group Classic to win his second Champions Tour event of his short career.

Perry’s first Champions Tour victory was at last year’s SAS Championship, near Raleigh, N.C. But the win was tinged with sadness because of the death of his sister during the tournament weekend.

In the triumph, Perry set a new Champions Tour scoring record for low 36 holes, posting 64-62 – 126 during the first two rounds. And he added a 70 in the final round for a 54-hole total of 196, 20-under par at the Talon Course at TwinEagles Golf Club.

Perry won by five shots over Bernhard Langer on a windy Sunday in southwest Florida, where breezes climbed upwards of 25 mph. Langer was second alone at 15-under 201, shooting 70 in the final round.

round, but the wind finally took its toll coming home on Sunday and Mize could only limp home with 75 and a seventh-place finish at 12-under 204.

Perry took a three-shot lead over Mize going into the final round thanks to a Saturday second round that featured 11 birdies and a bogey for a l0-under 62. Perry was 8 under for the day, having birdied three in a row when he three-putted the par- 4 15th hole and his lead was down to two shots. But he made consecutive birdies on the final three holes to break the Champions Tour 36-hole scoring record.

Langer, who won this event last year, started with 66-65 in the first two rounds and played steady golf on Sunday when the breezes were taking their toll on the leaders.

Bill Glasson turned in the best Champions Tour finish of his career by posting one of Sunday’s best rounds, a 4-under 68. Glasson finished at 14-under 202, tied with Lehman and Mike Goodes. Lehman started Sunday four shots behind Perry but could only manage 72 in the final round. Goodes shot 69 on Sunday.

Mize birdied two of the final three holes on
Saturday to keep Perry within his sights. Mize
took the first-round lead by two shots over
Perry and Tom Lehman with a 10-birdie 62 of
his own. Mize shot a 5-under 67 in the second
Jay Haas was sixth at 13 under, one shot
ahead of Mize in sixth and David Frost was one
back of Mize at 11-under 205.

RESULTS

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA | Skip Kendall wasn’t very happy with the wedge he hit into the 18th green in the final round of the Pacific Rubiales Colombia Championship Sunday – and the 25-foot birdie putt he left himself to a back-right pin as a result.

After all, he was locked in a three-way tie for the lead at the Nationwide Tour’s season-opening event at the nearly 100-year-old Country Club of Bogotá in this South American nation’s capital and wanted to get one close.

But he felt better about his chances when he walked onto the green, even after co-leader Andrew Svoboda had stuck his approach about six feet from the hole.

“It was one of those putts I felt I could get
a good line on,” the 47-year-old Kendall said.
“And all I had to do after that was put a
good stroke on it.”
Which he did, playing his optic
yellow ball to break about a foot
left-to-right. It dropped straight into
the hole for birdie, earning Kendall
an exuberant bear hug from
his local caddie Donaldo
Davila – and then the
championship when
Svoboda missed
his putt on the
low side.

“To do what I did here today makes me really happy,” Kendall added. “I had thumb surgery last year and didn’t play very much. So, I am really

pleased to open the season this way.”
Kendall played well all week on this leafy
and occasionally damp Bogotá track, which
measured just a hair over 7,200 yards and
where tight, tree-lined fairways and testy, el-
evated greens put a premium on shot-making.

Kendall kicked the week off with a 1-under- par 70 and followed that with rounds of 67 and 66, respectively, posting seven birdies on Saturday to go into the final tied for the lead with Svoboda.

“I really like this course,” said Kendall, who
has now won four times on the Nationwide Tour
and earned more than $9 million in a career
that has included nearly 600 starts on both
the PGA and Nationwide circuits. “It fits my
eye well and reminds me of the old-fashioned,
He did, and the result
was an even-par 71 that
was just good enough to win.
RESULTS