Drag Racing’s Own Kenny Perry Hits Epic Shot At The PGA’s U.S. Open

Suffice it to say, there aren’t a whole lot of similarities that exist between drag racing and golf, besides perhaps the fact that neither is a poor mans sport by any means, and that both require a fairly considerable investment of time. But the one connection that our sport does have with the golfing world is veteran pro Kenny Perry, who has been known to put some pretty potent machines in the beams over the years.

Basically, if you’re a racer and you just happen to flip to a PGA Tour golf tournament on television and need someone to root for, Kenny’s your man.

Over the weekend, Perry, a 14-time PGA Tour winner and a Kentucky native who has been competing as a professional golfer since 1982, was playing in the prestigious United States Open Championship (where at age 53, he was the oldest player in the field of 156 players) at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, where he hit one of the most impressive in-the-cup shots you’ll ever see. 

During Saturday’s third round on the famous No. 2 course, Perry put his tee shot into the deep rough (the difficult tall grass where a shot can be hard to predict) at the 14th hole, leaving him with a long approach to the green. Perry grabbed a hybrid club and fired it out of the thick stuff, landed his ball on the green, and sunk it right in the cup, bringing about a roaring applause from the gallery that witnessed it. 

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Take it from this Editor, who can hit a 70 on a putt-putt course (one with nine holes at that) that such a shot isn’t easy in the least, and is every bit as much luck as skill. But Perry nailed it and punched his ticket right onto the weekend highlight reel. Unfortunately the eagle he scored on the 14th wasn’t enough to provide the momentum needed to win the tournament, as he finish tied for 28th at 7-over.

Although Perry has primarily been focused on his day job for the better part of the last decade, he most recently raced alongside good friend Billy Glidden with a 10.5W-tire Pontiac Grand Am, and can still be seen from time to time at races helping the Glidden’s with their Ford Mustang and taking in the action. Whether Perry will step back into the racing ring at some point when his golf career winds down remains to be seen, but if he keeps hitting shots like the one at Pinehurst, he just might have a future in the game.