Double P :: The Official Blog

LA QUINTA - After Pat Perez had hit his dazzling 6-iron shot to 3 feet for eagle and given himself the pleasure of a champion's stroll to the 18th green in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic yesterday, the voice in his head kept repeating one thought.

"It's about time," he said to himself. "It's about time."

It was about time for a victory after 197 winless starts on the PGA Tour. It was about time he put Pebble Beach 2002 behind him. It was about time the public saw a different side of a guy who for so long has been known, rightly or wrongly, as the PGA Tour's Angry Young Man.

It was about time.

"It still doesn't feel like it actually happened," Perez said last night, a satisfied smile on his face and a half-empty beer bottle in his hand. "Once I get smashed tonight and wake up tomorrow and watch the highlights, then I'll probably realize.

"I put the work in. It's been just over seven years," the 32-year-old Torrey Pines High grad added. "It's about time. So I just thought I could do it."

The way he did it will likely be most satisfying when the hangover subsides. The week that began so easily with rounds of 61 and 63 turned into a bloody dogfight in the end.

Down by three strokes to Steve Stricker twice on the front nine, with the wind howling and swirling for most of the afternoon on the PGA West Palmer Course, Perez patiently fought to a 3-under-par 69 to win with a total of 33-under 327.

Stricker collapsed with a triple bogey on the seventh hole and a quadruple bogey on the 10th, finishing with a 77 - the second-highest score by a final-round leader in the Hope. Long Beach native John Merrick - eight shots down when the day began - made it interesting with a 5-under 67 and was tied with Perez until he bogeyed the par-3 17th hole.

When Merrick missed a birdie putt on the 18th, Perez, standing the fairway, had a one-shot cushion and 199 yards to the hole. The safe play would have been to bump the ball down the fairway with a wedge.

Some things haven't changed for Perez.

He pulled the 6-iron. "I don't lay up," he said.

Jason Gore and Tommy Armour III, fellow pros and longtime friends of Perez, stood outside the ropes and smiled.

"No surprise," Gore said. "That sucker was going right at the pin. It was totally awesome."

Legend Arnold Palmer, the tournament host, said to Perez before he handed him the trophy and the $918,000 check, "I don't know if you were nervous over that last shot, but I was."

Perez rifled his ball on a line to the front of the green, and it rolled up to tap-in range for the eagle that gave him a three-shot victory that will look like a cakewalk on paper.

"I don't know that I could hit that shot again, to be honest with you," Perez said.

It was a gutsy decision, considering Perez's history. Before yesterday, most casual golf fans remembered him for Pebble Beach in his rookie season, when he led the tournament going into the 72nd hole, only to slice his drive out of bounds and hook another shot into the ocean to lose to Matt Gogel with a triple-bogey 8.

In the years since, Perez's eyes had gone cold whenever the subject had been raised by reporters. It didn't help that there was no win to eclipse that memory. He shouldn't have to hear about it anymore.

"I hope so," Perez said. "If I got to answer any more Pebble questions after this . . . It's up to you guys. I hope you will drop it."

"What this tournament has done," said Tony Perez, Pat's father, "it puts Pebble, hopefully, in the background. Now we're going to look at this shot instead of those other shots."

Tony Perez had a word for it: "Redemption."

When Perez made his walk to the 18th green yesterday, the crowd gave him a warm reception, but the loudest cheers were coming from the dozens of friends and family members who had flown in for the day and flowed under the ropes to be at greenside when the final putt rolled in.

Major league outfielder Pat Burrell, who won last year's World Series with the Phillies and is a friend of Perez's from their neighborhood in Scottsdale, Ariz., opened a bottle of champagne. Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Brian Savage, another friend from Scottsdale, waved his broken, casted hand in celebration. Golfers Armour, Gore and Andrew Magee stayed to watch the trophy ceremony.

"This is the moment we all play for," Gore said, his eyes misting with tears. "Pat's like a brother to me. This is pretty incredible. It's been a long time coming. He's too good not to win multiple, multiple times."

Burrell, who recently gave Perez a Phillies jersey with his name on it and the No. 60 - for the score Perez had previously shot in the Hope - tried to walk away with the standard sign that had the last group's final scores. He gave it up only grudgingly.

"To watch what the guy has been through, to play as long as he has, and to come through like this, it makes it all worthwhile," Burrell said. "We're thrilled for him."