Perry Earns First Title Since ’95

Kenny Perry was not thinking about the PGA Championship.

Making the Ryder Cup team and setting records were the farthest things from his mind.

Perry only wanted to win his first tournament since 1995 and the fourth of his career, which he did with a three-under-par 69 Sunday at the Buick Open at Grand Blanc, Mich. Perry’s 25-under 263 was two strokes ahead of Chris DiMarco (65) and Jim Furyk (66), who improved their Ryder Cup chances with strong performances.

Perry picked up a $558,000 check and 150 Ryder Cup points with the victory, but his 254 points aren’t enough to be in the top 25.

“I didn’t even look at the Ryder Cup, I’m so far behind,” Perry said. “I hadn’t won in six years and this was a very key win for me, especially with a five-shot lead.”

Perry began the final round with a large lead after setting a tournament record with a 22-under 194 total. He finished one stroke from tying Robert Wrenn’s 72-hole Buick Open record.

Perry became the first player on the tour this year to shoot a 29 for nine holes twice in the same tournament, which he did Friday and Saturday.

He was more proud of ending his six-year drought, however.

“I didn’t think I was ever going to win again, to tell you the truth,” Perry said. “It made me appreciate those three wins even more.”

Perry’s last victory was the 1995 Bob Hope Classic. He finished among the top 11 in four of his last seven tournaments.

Furyk picked up 85 Ryder Cup points to move from 11th to eighth, and DiMarco jumped from 16th to 11th, only 10 points behind Tom Lehman, who missed the cut.

The top 10 on the Ryder Cup points list after next week’s PGA Championship will make the team, and captain Curtis Strange will add two players.

Billy Mayfair set the PGA Tour nine-hole record with a nine-under par 27 on the back nine en route to a tournament record 11-under 61 Sunday to finish 17 under.

Mayfair also broke the tour’s birdie-eagle streak with eight consecutive holes under par on Nos. 9-16. He eagled the 401-yard, par-four No. 10 and birdied the other seven holes.

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For the first time in the 79-year history of the amateur matches, Great Britain and Ireland gets to keep the Walker Cup.

Luke Donald and Nick Dougherty led the charge by winning twice, including the first two singles matches as GB&I; rallied from a one-point deficit and defeated the U.S. team for the second consecutive time at Sea Island, Ga.

Trailing by one point going into the last day, GB&I; won three of the four alternate-shot matches in the morning en route to a 15-9 victory to retain the Walker Cup for the first time since it began in 1922.

The U.S. leads the series, 31-6-1.

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Bruce Lietzke broke out of the pack with birdies on Nos. 11 and 14 to capture his first career Seniors victory with a two-stroke victory over Doug Tewell at the 3M Championship at Blaine, Minn.

Lietzke, playing only his third seniors tour event since turning 50 on July 26, won $262,500, his second-biggest payday in a 26-year career in professional golf.

Lietzke started the final round one stroke behind the lead after Saturday’s 66 that included a hole-in-one on No. 4. He made five birdies and saved par with a 10-foot putt on No. 17 en route to a three-under 69 that left him at nine-under 207.

Tewell finished two back after shooting a five-under 67. That tied Tom Kite for Sunday’s best score. Hale Irwin, a two-time winner of the tournament, started the day with a share of the lead at eight under with Spain’s Jose Maria Canizares. But his roller-coaster round saw him miss several chances on the back nine, and he tied Canizares, Gil Morgan and Bruce Fleisher for third at six-under 210.

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Wendy Ward withstood challenges from Moira Dunn and Annika Sorenstam and set LPGA scoring records for a 54-hole tour-nament to win the Wendy’s Championship for Children by three shots at New Albany, N.Y.

Ward’s 54-hole total of 21-under 195 was a tour record for a 54-hole tournament, both in relation to par and scoring total. The tournament is normally a 72-hole event, but was shortened to three rounds to give players extra time to arrive from last week’s British Open. The victory, worth $150,000, was Ward’s third as a pro and ended a three-year drought. She closed with a four-under-par 68.

Ward, a 28-year-old Texan, began the final round with a four-shot lead over Dunn.

Sorenstam shot rounds of 67, 65 and 66, and Dunn closed with her second 67 to go with a 64.