Perry Revs Up His Game at the Hope

Ask Kenny Perry about his drives and you’re going to get one of two answers:

--Off the tee, he hits it a shade more than 270 yards with a strange-but-effective swing that looks as though he’s unfolding a card table.

--On the race track, he stuffs himself behind the wheel of his Chevy Nova and gooses it up to about 160 m.p.h. in a quarter-mile.

“It’s pure acceleration from zero to 160,” Perry said. “You’re not covering that much ground, but you’re covering it fast.”

Perry covered a lot of ground, but slowly, in last year’s Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. He needed five days and 90 holes and survived about as many amateurs as there are feet in a quarter-mile, but Perry finally took that victory run.

Perry, 35, said he needed the prize money to finish building a public golf course back home in Franklin, Ky., and wound up winning the Hope, tied for third at Pebble Beach and tied for second at Riviera, all in February. He wound up the year banking a career-high $773,388.

Now that he is back as defending champion in the $1.3-million tournament that begins today at four desert courses, and now that his Country Creek course is in business in Kentucky, Perry feels free to devote his resources to other worthwhile projects, such as drag racing.

It’s an intriguing mix, golf and hot rods, though Perry so far has managed to keep them separate.

The Perry who won the Hope last year by one shot over David Duval and two shots over Curtis Strange, Dillard Pruitt and Tommy Tolles was a golfer who had a large void in his life: He hadn’t been to drag-racing school.

In December, Perry corrected that omission. He parked his golf clubs and attended former world funny car champion Frank Hawley’s National Hot Rod Assn. driving school in Gainesville, Fla.

Actually, it looked more like a PGA Tour stop. Davis Love III, Bruce Lietzke and Jay Don Blake were there too. They all got their licenses, but Perry didn’t. He needed one more run, but had to leave school early for a golf commitment.

Perry said that was pretty hard for a golfer/racer to take. After all, there’s nothing to compare to that feeling you get behind the wheel.

“It’s such a thrill,” he said. “I’d rather do that than play golf.”

For one thing, it’s faster, but then again, just about everything is faster than the way they play the Hope. With so many amateur golfers in the field, slow play is routine.

Perry will play in the first group at Bermuda Dunes, along with Hope, Gerald Ford and actor Richard Karn. President Clinton will not play, and neither will George Bush, which means Perry won’t have to contend with all the distractions Scott Hoch faced when he teed it up with Clinton, the two former presidents and Hope last year.

Perry said he asked Hoch how he handled it.

“He said it was a hard thing,” Perry said. “Guys were running all over the place. I’m out there trying to make a living. I don’t need it. This is my job. But it’s also a lifetime experience.”

Hoch wound up shooting a first-round 70, but he was lost out there among the Secret Service agents, golf carts and reporters.

“All I can tell him is to have patience,” Hoch said. “It’s going to take a long time. The problem I had wasn’t with the presidents, it was Hope. He played every hole. He slowed it down to where it was so bad.”

Perry hopes for a different pace. He wants to play his way through five days quickly, so he can get back behind the wheel, where they tell you how fast you’re driving.

There is one other way.

“Speeding tickets,” Perry said. “I’ve had plenty.”

Golf Notes

Indian Ridge is the host course for the Hope and Tamarisk rejoins the rotation after a 10-year-absence, replacing La Quinta. The other courses are Indian Wells and Bermuda Dunes. . . . Atlanta Brave pitchers Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine join pro Lanny Wadkins in one foursome at Bermuda Dunes. In another, Kevin Costner, John Elway and Matt Williams play with pro Gary McCord. . . . Richard Karn, who is in the foursome with Kenny Perry, host Bob Hope and former President Ford, plays Al on “Home Improvement.”