NOW CRAIG PERKS - one of 2002's
MAJOR WINNERS - GIVES UP
UNEQUAL STRUGGLE

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
As Ian Baker-Finch found out, winning one of the world's major tournaments does not guarantee that you will be able to play at that level for ever more. The Australian's skill suddenly deserted him and he retired prematurely and is now working in the TV commentator's box.
Last week, Baker-Finch speculated that former US Open winner Michael Campbell from New Zealand - his forefathers came from Scotland - was now on that same downward spiral. Two days later Campbell shot a second-round 85 in the Aussie Masters and missed the halfway cut by miles.
Now another New Zealander, another major tournament winner, Craig Perks, pictured above, has decided to retire after eight seasons on the US PGA Tour. In golfing terms, Perks has "lost it" ... for good.

CRAIG PERKS' LOCAL PAPER CARRIES THE FOLLOWING "OBITUARY":
The tall man who won the US Players Championship at Sawgrass, Florida, in 2002 has cried enough after making only one halfway cut in the past two years.
It became too much of a slog for the expatriate Manawatu professional so he has taken up a job at his home Louisiana course afforded him by the Titleist company's performance institute.
"I played as hard as I could for as long as I could and it wasn't working," Perks said. "I have no feeling at all, no regrets. When you give it all for so long and you aren't competitive, it wasn't a hard decision."
He hung in and did make some putts at his last event at Disney in Florida.
"I didn't have any problem saying that was my last event."
He walks away having played in three US Masters, three British Opens, one US Open and one USPGA, eight majors in all and earning $US3,360,000.
He was recently talking to friends from the US PGA Tour and asked those to raise their hands if they'd won a tournament. Most had played well and not come close.
"I bagged the big prize. Now I've stepped aside I've done a lot of reminiscing and it's not something you appreciate when you're right in the midst of everything. I accomplished more than I thought I would."
Perks was runner-up in a Honda Classic and had top placings at Doral and Disney.
While it has cost him plenty to travel the United States for the last two seasons and not have any cheques coming in, he said he and his wife put money away when the sun did shine.
Returning to the Nationwide Tour was not an option for him, probably only to quit in a year's time. He said the Nationwide was for younger players on the way up or those younger (than him) trying to retrieve their US PGA Tour cards.
"I didn't see the point. I wanted to play at the highest level and I struggled playing 15 events this year," he said. "I had completely lost my game. I pretty much had the yips off the tee."
Today's young guns just get up and blast the ball long distances. Perks couldn't risk doing that because he was 50 metres behind them and in the trees.
And he says, for a 40-year-old (Perks will be 41 on January 6), unless you're Vijay Singh, golf is getting on the down side and you feel the bumps and bruises.
He is proud to have left Palmerston North, New Zealand for the United States on a golf scholarship, had 14 years as a professional and worked his way up from the Hooters Tour. Many of his contemporaries are still there.
"I can't be disappointed. If I'd done anything different I probably wouldn't have done anything different," he chuckled.
After winning the Tour Players Championship, with the world's strongest field, and finishing 26th on the US Tour order of merit, he tried to change his game to go to another level. How many times have we heard that over the years?
In hindsight he said he should have realised he'd just had "a hell of a year".
And as things got tough, he didn't have a support team around him, just he and wife Maureen.
"I wanted to give it everything I had but in so many events I was struggling to make the cut. Missing cuts is harder than winning."
Now he will be teaching at his home La Triomphe club in Lafayette, working on a new Titleist golf fitness programme involving hi-tech video gear tailoring players' physical weaknesses and strengths to their game.
The club is building a facility for him and he'd like to conduct seminars around the country and perhaps in Australia and New Zealand.