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Kenny Perry
2009 Masters,
Augusta National Golf Club
Perry is no stranger to throwing away Majors, having snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the 1996 PGA at Valhalla where he had been leading by two playing the last before butchering the hole and losing to Mark Brooks in the ensuing playoff.
Once bitten, twice bitten. In the 2009 Masters Perry looked imperious through the first 16 holes on the final day before the old nerves came back. Leading by two and sitting pretty in the middle of the 17th fairway, he put his shot through the green then sculled his chip back off the front edge, finishing with a bogey. On the last, he inexplicably took driver and hooked predictably into the fairway bunker. After pulling his bunker shot way left of the green, he again overhit his chip, two putted and had once again thrown away a winning lead. No chance to screw up in the commentary box this time as he headed straight back down the 18th for a three man playoff with “Hangin’” Chad Campbell and the now twichy, no longer chain-smoking Angel Cabrera.
We all now know how Angel tried to throw it away in the first playoff hole with a dreadful drive into the trees and a slashed second that received some outrageous arborial assistance to get back on the fairway. However, the real culprit was Kenny himself. This time from the middle of the fairway, he again threw it away as the “King of Draw” somehow conjured up a high slice to miss the green right.
When the cameras showed good ol’ Kenny clapping as Cabrera sank his putt to keep the playoff going, it was clearly only going one way. With another pressure driven hooked approach to the 10th, the second playoff hole, Perry could only watch as Cabrera showed how to close a Major with a killer second that gave him an easy two-putt for the win.
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