Double P :: The Official Blog

Some recent ink from Tod Leonard at the San Diego Union Tribune:

"Golfer Perez seen in new light"
His first tour victory a year ago legitimized his pro talent

In their World Series championship year of 2008, Philadelphia Phillies fans must have done a few double takes when they saw No. 60 on the field during batting practice.

Was he a relief pitcher? A bullpen catcher? An overgrown batboy?

No, just a dude living his boyhood dream.

The Phillies all but adopted Pat Perez in '08, thanks to the pro golfer's friendship with outfielder Pat Burrell, who has since moved on to Tampa Bay. They gave the Torrey Pines High grad a locker, welcomed him to take BP any time he wanted, and awarded him with his own No. 60 jersey in honor of the lowest round he's shot on the PGA Tour.

In the clubhouse, Perez felt as much at home as on any golf course in the world. The fact that he got to ride the wave of a team on a title run made it that much sweeter.

"When they won it, it was so awesome," Perez recalled recently.

Perez is a guy who enjoys camaraderie -- craves it, really -- and if he's going to feel that on the golf course it will be in the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup. After getting a taste of contending for a spot on last year's U.S. Presidents Cup squad, Perez has made it a top priority to make captain Corey Pavin's American team that will play in Wales in September's Ryder Cup.

"I think I can bring a lot of humor, a lot of closeness, root for the guys," Perez said. "I'm almost a European guy."

Perez, 33, can consider such lofty aspirations because last year's victory in the Bob Hope Classic, which he begins his defense of today, has given him a confidence and stature he didn't previously own. He was ninth in the Presidents Cup points list last May and on track to make the team when he tore ligaments in his ankle stepping off a curb while running.

The injury set him back several months, and though Perez finished a respectable 49th on the money list ($1.72 million), it wasn't the year he'd hoped for after he got off to such a spectacular start with the first victory of his career.

"Last year was like my best-worst year possible," Perez said. "Getting injured, sitting at home watching everybody else win trophies and move on and do this stuff. ... It wasn't a good feeling."

The victory in the Hope was an incredible high for Perez, and it set off a celebration on the 18th green rarely seen on a professional golf course. It was almost like Perez was playing for a team, because dozens of his friends, including Burrell and fellow golfers Tommy Armour III and Jason Gore, waited inside the ropes as he tapped in for eagle after hitting an incredible 6-iron from 199 yards to 2 feet.

"It's about time," Perez kept repeating to himself that day.

Perez believed it was about time his considerable talent was legitimized with a victory. It also was about time the public saw a different side of a golfer with a reputation as one of the tour's biggest hotheads.

"Hopefully, people see that I'm not this crazy, angry guy walking around," Perez said. "They see that I can play, and that I belong, and that I'm a winner out here now. I just hope people see that."

The highlights of the Bob Hope now replace the lowlights from Pebble Beach in 2002, when a national television audience watched on Sunday as Perez, a rookie playing in only his fourth tour event, blew a lead and exploded with two episodes of club slamming. The fits were fleeting, but because Perez took so long to win, they were his only public image for years.

"As a friend, seeing him go through that, it was crushing," said Chris Bello, a close friend and former roommate of Perez's in San Diego. "He was always good and generous to me since Day 1, and to hear on the course what people were saying about him, it made me sick."

Those who are close to Perez say that amid the comfort and security of his friends he's funny, thoughtful and generous. People seem to seek his company because he makes them feel good. He has attracted a wide and loyal circle of friends, from race car driver Danica Patrick to Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain.

"He's real. He's straight up," Bello said. "A lot of people tell you what you want to hear. Pat calls it like he sees it. It comes from the heart. And whether he's around celebrity types or his regular buddies, he treats everyone the same. No one is more important than another."

Said Perez: "I'm pretty easy to get along with. I like to have fun, as most people do. I just attract people somehow and become friends with a lot of them. I really care about what they're doing, and I think they see that in me."

Among Perez's best friends is his caddie, Mike Hartford, who played on the Torrey Pines High School golf team with him. On a squad of kids whose games were mostly honed at country clubs, Hartford and Perez were muni boys who beat balls on the driving range of what was then a rather roughshod track at Torrey Pines.

"Pat had a great sense of humor -- very, very quick," Hartford said. "And he was such a good player. Everybody wanted to be around him because they knew he was the best in San Diego at the time."

Hartford earned an Economics degree at UCSD, is a former NCAA Division III Freshman Player of the Year, and won the 2000 San Diego City Amateur at Torrey Pines. When he got out of college, it was Perez who offered to caddie for him in five minitour Monday qualifiers. Hartford never made a tournament, but he didn't forget Perez's gesture.

"That's the kind of guy Pat is," Hartford said. "I don't know another player on tour who would caddie for his caddie like Pat did for me.

"I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that he is a very special person," Hartford said. "If people got to know him, they would absolutely love him. He has a knack for attracting really special people."

Pro golfers can see themselves in Perez's desire and hard work, and want to take him under their wing. In recent years, Armour and Steve Elkington have mentored him on how to take his mental and physical game to the next level.

Hartford said Elkington, the 1995 PGA Championship winner, counseled Perez about his comportment on the course.

"Elkington hammered home the point about when he watched Jack Nicklaus play when he was a kid," Hartford said. "He told him Nicklaus never disappointed the crowd."

Armour said Perez needed "serious life guidance."

"His patience threshold is not way up there," Armour said, "and that's what I've worked on him the most -- patience."

With the courses so primed for scoring, Perez didn't need much patience in last year's Hope. He opened with a 28 on the Palmer's front nine en route to a 61. He carded a 63 on the PGA West Nicklaus Private Course the second day to set the tour's 36-hole record at 20-under. He tied the 54-hole record at 25-under.

The victory march was hardly a waltz, however. Steve Stricker took the lead heading into Sunday's windblown final round, and Perez twice trailed by three shots on the front nine. It was Stricker, though, who suffered the heartbreaking collapse by shooting 77 to Perez's 69. Tour rookie John Merrick charged with a 67, but Perez staved him off.

That night, when Perez's gang retired to a nearby house to party, the friends would pause and stand mesmerized as the highlight of the spectacular final shot was replayed again and again on sports shows.

There is a lasting image Bello has of the celebration. Perez was dancing in the corner, alone, a satisfied smile on his face.

"The happiest I'd ever seen him," Bello said.