Sports - Golf

Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009

Perks wows kids

One call, that’s all. That’s all it took for 2002 Players Championship winner Craig Perks to agree to drive to the Coast and wow 30-plus kids at the Pepsi Junior Clinic at Windance Country Club recently.

PGA Tour official Mickey Bradley called Perks and told him about the opportunity to raise money for underprivileged kids.

“Hey, I like giving back,” Perks said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to play with Tiger (Woods) and Phil (Mickelson), and it’s only right that I should give back to this game.”

Perks now teaches and does some announcing at Tour events, most recently the President’s Cup. He made the long flight from New Zealand to Norman, Okla., in 1985 to play golf at the University of Oklahoma.

After earning All-America honors as a Sooner, he then transferred to the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana, Lafayette) where he again was named All-America in 1990.

After several attempts at the PGA Qualifying School, Perks joined the PGA Tour in 1999. He was runner-up at the 2001 Honda Classic, and he broke into the winner’s circle at the 2002 Players Championship.

Now, he is the Director of Instruction at Le Triomphe in Lafayette, and he likes to give his time to junior golf and worthwhile causes. Kids from Hope Haven and the Harrison County Children’s Shelter had never touched a club before, but that didn’t stop them from having a great time under sunny skies on the Windance range.

Perks went down the line and met each kid individually, teaching each junior the basics of setting up and swinging with tempo.

“This was a really great event,” said host professional David Lee. “Some of these kids can really play,” he said. Kevin Drum of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Golf Foundation was on hand to give parents free tickets to the PGA Tour’s Viking Classic set for this weekend in Madison.

@BR Body bold Lede colon:Mississippi Senior Open: The Mississippi Senior Open tees off Saturday at The Bridges Resort Golf Course. The event is open to all amateur and professional senior golfers age 50 and over before Oct. 31, 2009. Call Eric 463-4047 for more information or to register. Registration for the 36-hole event closes today.