Pat

Perez

The 46-year-old was arriving on the heels of five straight paydays but will sit this one out at St. George’s Golf and Country Club. He is 12-for-19 on the season with a trio of top 25s to find himself just inside of the top 100 in the FedExCup race. Perez has lost strokes off-the-tee in 12 of his last 15 measured events so there is still work to be done with tidying up the big stick but the rest of his game is still firing away.

The ASU alum was steady off the tee with 11-of-14 fairways hit today but his main weapon of attack was the putter. Before his day was over, he poured home seven putts from outside of nine feet including a 26'9" birdie bomb at the 10th. Perez gained 3.7 strokes putting on the round. “Yeah, it was getting comical because I said, why not waste all my putts I’ve made in one week. It was nice.” Perez had finished outside of the top 40 in five straight trips to Colonial Country Club but he does have four top 10s on his course resume, in 16 total starts.

Perez tossed together a solo 66th last week at the Mexico Open. The Arizona State product opened with a 67 but faded with rounds of 71-73-72 as the week progressed. He’s earned a payday in six of his last seven stroke-play events but landing nothing better than a T33 over that stretch. Gamers should remove him from all weekly consideration now that he’s pulled out of the Wells Fargo Championship.

Capturing a T-42 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a T-33 at The PLAYERS Championship, Perez has found his touch on the Florida greens. Following up a strong west coast swing which saw the world No. 188 collect back-to-back top-10 results at the Farmers Insurance Open and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Perez’s game appears to be in a strong spot heading into the Valspar Championship. Finishing in a tie for 29th last season, Perez gained more than four-strokes with the putter in hand, a performance he is very capable of repeating based on his recent play.

Pat Perez is coming off back-to-back top-10 finishes. He finished T6 at the Farmers and finished T9 last week at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The Arizona State product is familiar with TPC Scottsdale, but has not played well here over the past few years.

Last year Perez missed the cut and was forced to WD back in 2017. The jury is still out on if Perez is really “back,” but another top-10 finish would solidify that notion.

The 45-year-old checked in off a season-best T6 at last week’s Farmers, where he was T96 after R1 (72-68-67-68). If he were to hold on for another top 10 this week, it would mark his first time recording back-to-back top 10s since winning the now-defunct CIMB Classic in 2018 (Oct. 2017) as the 36- and 54-hole leader, and chasing with a T5 at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES (224 weeks ago). This was the Arizona State product’s 20th AT&T and a possible fourth top 10, first since T4 seven tries ago in 2015, and recorded laps of 70-67-69-68 (PB-MP-SH). For the week, he tallied 18 birdies against five bogeys, and currently ranks T5 in Driving Accuracy at 81.82 percent (45/55) and 7th in Greens in Regulation at 79.17 percent (57/72). The Scottsdale resident is in the published field at this coming week’s WM Phoenix Open. UPDATE: With the tournament complete, Perez finished T9.

The 45-year-old, who checked in off three consecutive missed cuts, improves to 2-for-7 on the season, supplanting a prior-best T44 at the no-cut ZOZO in Japan. This was his 20th Farmers and fourth top 10, first since T4 four tries ago in 2017, and his first top 10 on TOUR since T10 at last season’s one-time Palmetto Championship 13 starts ago. For the week, the Arizona State product signed for rounds of 72-68 (SC-NC), 67-68, totaled one eagle and 22 birdies versus 11 bogeys, and in the three measured rounds on the South, ranked 6th in SG: Approach (5.247), including a stellar 4.850 today, 5th in SG: Putting (4.888), and 71st in SG: Off-the-Tee (-1.577). He is the published field at this coming week’s AT&T Pebble Beach.

Perez went just 1-for-5 in the fall and that included a mid-tournament WD at the Shriners. Steady paydays are usually a staple of his diet so it’s a bit concerning to see him find just one cut made in the fall. A cold putter was much to blame for the slump as he lost 0.775 strokes putting per round in the fall, after gaining 0.372 SGP per round last season. The 45-year-old should make a few appearances on the West Coast but gamers may not want to re-invest until he proves his game is in order.

This is an odd one as Perez opened the week with a 4-under 67 but faded with three bogeys and a double today (with three birdies). He reached the 18th tee box in need of an eagle to make it through the cutline. He piped one in the fairway then found water with his approach shot, and that’s when he called it quits. Perhaps he was trying to speed up play for those behind him with darkness looming, maybe his foot really start to hurt so bad he couldn’t finish the hole, or maybe it was just pure frustration. Playing his 498th career event, this will go in the books as his 27th mid-tournament WD.

The 45-year-old, bogey-free for his last 42 holes, will play out of the penultimate twosome in R4 with first-timer Maverick McNealy, who’s bogey-free for his last 26 holes. He’s chasing his fourth TOUR title in 494 events, first since the 2018 CIMB 91 starts ago, where he was the 54-hole leader by four and won by four. Prior to that, he won the 2017 OHL Classic, where he came from one back (2nd) with 4-under 67 to win by two over 54-hole leader Gary Woodland. The Arizona State product, who began with 72-65, has contested all three, 3M Opens, with progressively better finishes of T53/2019 and T23/2020 (70-69-66-67). Today, he penciled five birdies, three from between 11 and 23 feet, on nine (of 14) fairways and 14 greens in regulation. The Phoenix native gained 2.144 on-the-green and posted a 4.306 SG: Total. (See link to post-round comments below).