Jun 29, 2008 - 9:48 PM
0 shoutsGRAND BLANC, Michigan (Ticker) -- Kenny Perry posted a number and let Woody Austin and Bubba Watson try and catch him. They couldn't.
Perry fired a 6-under-par 66 on Sunday and won the $5 million Buick Open by a stroke over Austin and Watson.
It was the second win of the season for the 47-year-old Perry, who also won the Memorial and is now making a march toward a berth on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, which will take on Europe in September at Valhalla in Perry's home state of Kentucky.
"I still can't believe I won. I feel like I need to go make a birdie out there to go win this tournament," Perry said. "Come January 1, my only goal was to make the Ryder Cup team, and that's really got me focused for whatever reason. It's at home in Valhalla in my home state and at a golf course that I lost the 1996 PGA Championship to Mark Brooks in a playoff; just feel like I needed to go back there.
"I want to go back, end of my career; it's the icing on the cake for me to be able to play at my age. I'll be 48 when it comes, and just in front of my home folks, just something I wanted to do."
Perry finished at 19-under 269 while Austin and Watson were still on the course. Watson missed a 12-foot birdie putt on 18 that would have forced a playoff but it was Austin who really let this one get away.
The winner here back in 1995, Austin made a move with three straight birdies starting on No. 12 and then got to 20-under with a birdie at the 16th. Nursing a one-stroke lead with two holes to play, Austin finished bogey-bogey and in a tie for second with Watson at 18-under.
"I threw it away. I didn't hit the ball close enough to the hole the last two holes to counteract my yips that I have when it comes to putting," Austin said. "Nobody's fault but my own, so that's two weeks in a row. So I've got to figure it out or I'd better quit."
Perry picked up $900,000 for his 11th career victory.
"I had multiple wins in '03, '05 and '08. My forties have been pretty good for me," Perry said.
Perry got to 19-under with an eagle at the par-4 14th hole, holing a bunker shot from nearly 30 yards. He followed that up with a bogey at 15 but moved back to 19-under with a birdie at 16.
"I've been hitting great bunker shots this week and I was very comfortable with the sand," Perry said of his shot on 14. "I knew I could get it up there within 10 feet of the hole. I wasn't trying to make it. I was just trying to get it up there to have a realistic birdie chance at it. And when I hit it, it took two hops and jumped right in the hole and really energized me and gave me a shot in the arm knowing that, you know what, we can win this golf tournament now."
After closing with two pars, Perry had to wait for both Austin and Watson to finish. Just before Perry missed a 30-foot birdie putt on 18, Austin had started his collapse with a bogey at 17 to drop to 19-under. Austin then three-putted from just over 60 feet on 18 to close his 68 and finish at 18-under.
That left Watson, who needed a birdie at 18 to force a playoff. It didn't look good as he pulled his tee shot way left into the trees. Watson snuck his approach under the trees and left himself about 12 feet for birdie, but he just missed to the left of the cup and Perry was the winner here for the second time.
"We thought it was going to break," Watson said of his final putt. "You hit it at that speed, to let it die in there, it was hanging up and halfway to the hole we knew it wasn't going to - unless it did some miracle, kick-in."
Also the winner in 2001, Perry joins Tony Lima, Julius Boros, Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods as the only multiple winners of this event.
"I've also been multiple winner at Colonial and Memorial. It's always nice to have your name associated with the greats of the game," Perry said. "It just lifts you up a little bit when you're associated with those kind of names, and that's a great feeling."
