Where else in America do you see an exit sign on a major highway that pulls you off to exit and play golf?
Remember when the Ryder Cup was held at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky?
The 37th Ryder Cup Matches were hosted by native Kentuckians Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes. The United States captained by Paul Azinger won that year. I remember driving up to Louisville from Florida, passing by Exit 2 on Interstate 65 and seeing the sign for Kenny Perry’s Country Creek Golf Course thinking next time I am going to stop.
Fast forward six years and the same thing happened on the way up to the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla. This time I exited and drove in to see the golf course. Of course on the way down the winding road I drove slow and took quite a few pictures before even hitting the parking lot. Wouldn’t you? I mean it was as beautiful to me as Magnolia Lane at Augusta National. As soon as I drove into a parking spot who appeared next to me but Mr. Perry himself, the father of champion professional golfer Kenny Perry.
Mr. Perry simply appeared out of nowhere when I pulled into a parking spot at Country Creek.
What a nice man. He was so kind and treated me like any other golfer showing up at Country Creek—like family. In fact he took a couple hours, showed me the golf course and introduced me to his daughter Lydia. He offered to introduce me to Kenny who was downstairs regripping his clubs to compete in the PGA Championship. I declined not wanting to disturb a man hard at work at his profession. It was a remarkable experience and one I knew I wanted to write about some day.
Sadly, Mr. Perry passed over the winter and today I asked Kenny Perry a question about his father at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open. The question and answer is included below courtesy of Julie Winn and Kim Giel of Tee-Scripts Interviews. I thought Kenny’s words interspersed with pictures from my visit would be the best way to honor and offer a tribute to Mr. Perry.
If you are in that neck of the woods I would highly recommend an exit and stop to play golf. I look forward to teeing it up my next time through Kentucky!
Here we go with Mr. Perry & Son…
Off Exit 2 it is not far to Country Creek, follow the signs!
Q. I’m based in Florida, took the road trip up to Valhalla for that 2008 Ryder Cup (inaudible) passed it by. Back up there last year for the PGA and I pulled in, and kind of unique, I’m taking pictures going in so I pull into the parking lot. Your dad pulled up alongside in a golf cart and just hit it off with him, spent two hours with him. He took me out to see the house (inaudible) with your sister and the wedding. Your dad was a great guy, I knew him for two hours, felt like I knew him for his whole life. What did he mean to you, to your game of golf?
KENNY PERRY: Well, he was my hero, he was my hero. Here’s a man who survived the Battle of the Bulge. He told me he was in a foxhole for 30 days, didn’t take his boots off. He was dug in, it was frigid. He said the Germans were blowing ’em all up all around him. He’s lucky he survived, he said.
The entrance to Country Creek… gentle, spirited and handsome like Mr. Perry.
He’s a tough guy and learned a lot of life lessons from that man. He’s fun to talk to. I mean, he had a lot of stories. He had a lot of life stories and he was — he was really competitive. He loved to play golf, but he loved any kind of board game, card game. Back home in Kentucky Rook’s a big game, it’s a partner game. He used to beat me mercifully [sic.] I’d be six, seven years, eight, I’d be bawling, I’d be crying, I’d be throwing the game at him. I remember distinctly picking the games up and throwing them straight at him because I’d be so mad. It was amazing, and it made me the person who I am today. I’m a nice guy, but I want to beat your brains out when I get on that golf course. I’m very competitive.
With Mr. Perry and daughter Lydia in the old tobacco barn, now a fabulous wedding reception hall.
He actually — I was probably 10 years old and he worked at Life & Casualty Insurance at the time, it’s now called American General. He was a divisional vice president and he did a lot of the, I guess the social events at night. He would bring the people in. He would have to supply the wine and the beer and the whiskey and all that, so in our house we would have these huge stacks of whiskey by the refrigerator. My dad never drank. I was like, “Hey, Dad, I want to try some of that.” I don’t know what type of whiskey it was or whatever. He poured me a shot of that and he said, “Just pour it down, just go for it.” And man, it lit me up, I was on fire. I remember to this day I went screaming, running around the house going, “I need water!” I was only probably 10 years old, I wasn’t that old. I haven’t drank to this day. That just tells me how smart that guy was, he broke me of the habit early. I guess he had seen a lot of problems with alcohol. That was pretty neat.
Mr. Perry’s congenial personality will be missed but his spirit undoubtedly remains around Country Creek.
But he worked five days a week. I have three older sisters and a little brother and we didn’t have a lot of money, but our time together was on the golf course on the weekends. He loved to play golf. He taught me how to play, and he was pretty much my instructor all the way up to my freshman year in college and then Norman Head took over when I signed at Western Kentucky to play golf there. So played golf there at Western for four years. Norman taught me pretty much until he passed away about 15 years ago. Now Matt Killen kind of took over, who actually he taught Matt Killen for a while. Matt’s a great young instructor now. He was voted one of the top new instructors a few years ago, so very comfortable with him.
Mr. Perry with Kenny Perry’s first set of golf clubs. Proud Kentuckians but prouder father and son there is none to be found.
But Dad would always go with me — when I qualified for the Tour in ’86, Dad caddied for me and he would always have a cigar. He was probably in his bib overalls with his cigars right in the front pouch. That’s my dad, he loved to smoke cigars. Everybody tried to get him to quit. He passed away in November an d he was 90 years old still smoking. I said, “Y’all leave that guy alone, let him enjoy what few years he’s got left.”
But he would always chart — he would walk with me on every hole and he would chart every shot, every putt, and he would kind of make notes for the 18 holes and then he would write a little something down, and he handed me the score card at the end of each night for me to just kind of go over. He was basically trying to teach me course management a little bit, where he thought I could improve or get better.
You know, it was — me and him, it was a great relationship. I thought the world of that guy. It was pretty neat. And I miss him. Losing him in November was tough, but he went out — he taught me how to live and he taught me how to die. He was out with my sister. He’s 90 years old, still drove, still lived by himself. My mom had passed away about eight years earlier and she had multiple myeloma cancer, but I was really worried about him once I lost my mom. But shoot, he was tough. He took over everything at the house, he took over. But he was out to dinner, he was at Cheddar’s, he was with my sister and her husband and they said he just leaned his head forward and that was it.
Kenny figured it out pretty well on Friday opening up with a 2-under par 70. Mr. Perry had it figured out right all along in life…
He always told me, he said, “I don’t ever buy green bananas, Son. I don’t buy green bananas.” That’s the way he looked at life. I tell everybody he was probably mad because he didn’t get to eat his rack of ribs and his sweet tea he had in front of him. Amazing man. Hopefully I’ll take some of that energy and that competitiveness and try to figure it out come Friday.
