Perry excels with hand-me-down $4-million putter

Paul Hargarten says he and his wife, Judy, will be in Louisville in September for the 2008 Ryder Cup matches.

So will Kenny Perry.

And that's no coincidence.

The two men -- the 83-year-old retired banker from Vero Beach, Fla. and the 47-year-old PGA Tour player from Kentucky -- have authored what might be the feel-good, golf story of the summer.

Thanks to Perry's putting.

And Hargarten's putter.

"It's amazing," Hargarten was saying the other day. "I can't believe it's getting so much attention. It was no big deal."

Not at the time, anyway.

The way Hargarten tells it, all he did was give away a putter that wasn't working for him.

It was Perry who turned that putter into gold, becoming the oldest player to win at least three Tour events in the same year.

"I wasn't making any putts with the thing, so I was going to put it in solitary confinement," Hargarten said. "Then Pat told me about Kenny's putting problems."

He was referring to Pat Gorman, longtime head pro at nearby Bent Pine Golf Club.

Hargarten is a member there.

Perry is an honorary member there, having worked in the club's bag room in the early 1980s, when he was just out of college and playing on the area's mini-tours.

And, as he does most winters, Perry spent a couple of weeks in Vero Beach in January, tuning up his game for the start of the new golf season.

But this year, more than most, he was struggling on the greens.

"Kenny was in a putter quandary at the time," Gorman said.

Perry had tried several different flat sticks, including the belly putter he used the last half of 2007.

Nothing felt right.

Not until he gave Hargarten's Ping "CRAZ-E" putter a test drive.

"I gave it to Pat and told him to give it to Kenny," Hargarten said of the standard-length, mallet-headed putter. "I figured: 'Why not see if it works for him?' It wasn't doing me any good, although that probably says more about my putting than it does about the putter."

Gorman offered the putter to Perry, who promptly tossed it into the back of his truck.

"I didn't think nothing of it," Perry said two weeks ago, during the John Deere Classic.

But as his frustrations grew -- after missing the cut in his first tournament, the Sony Open in Hawaii -- Perry decided to try Hargarten's putter on the practice green.

Immediately, he liked its soft, solid feel.

"It's the most stable putter I've ever hit through impact," Perry said. "I don't feel a lot of heel-toe motion through the impact area. It stays very stable, very balanced. And it's very dead.

"What I like about it is, I've got a little hit in my stroke. I want to hit it with my right hand a little bit, and the face of this putter is very dead.

"So it let's me whack at it like I want to, and the ball doesn't come flying off the face."

Whatever the reason, it worked.

Perry put on a new grip and began using the putter the following week. He hasn't missed a cut since.

In fact, he finished in a tie for third in his second tournament -- the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic -- and already has seven top-10 showings this year.

He has won The Memorial Tournament, Buick Open and John Deere Classic, his first Tour triumphs since his two victories in 2005. He has soared to No. 16 in the world rankings and currently is in second place in the FedEx Cup standings, trailing only Tiger Woods.

"I'm putting better than I've ever putted, period, in my whole 22 years out here," Perry said. "I'm making a lot of 4-, 5- and 6-footers for par to keep the round going.

"I'll make two or three birdies, then I'll hit that one off the green and chip it 6 feet past the hole. But I'll make the putt and keep the round going. That's been the difference this year. ... I'm not hitting it quite as good as I used to, but I'm able to manage and score just as well because of my putting."

It was after winning the John Deere tournament, in particular, that Perry attributed his victory to his putting.

"I've always felt that my ball-striking was what I won tournaments with," he said after the Deere Classic victory.

"Today, it was definitely my putter that won it. I was clutch. Whenever I had to make it, I made it."

Those putts, made with Hargarten's putter, have helped Perry earn nearly $4.5 million on the Tour this year.

And though Perry hasn't yet contacted Hargarten, Gorman said, "Kenny is planning to do something for Paul," probably at the Ryder Cup.

Hargarten says that's not necessary. Just knowing he contributed in some small way to Perry's success is reward enough.

"We were never great friends, but he's a great guy," Hargarten said.

"I'm just looking forward to seeing him at the Ryder Cup. I know how much it means to him to be on the team, especially this year, with the matches being played in his home state."

With Hargarten's putter.

"I'm as happy for Paul as I am for Kenny," Gorman said. "It's a great story."

Maybe the best golf story of the summer.

(Ray McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. On the Web at www.tcpalm.com.)