A year ago, Kenny Perry skipped the British Open because of a prior commitment to the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee. It's not often that a professional golfer would forgo a chance to play Royal Birkdale to tee it up at Brown Deer Park, but Perry had another motive: earning a spot on the Ryder Cup roster. This time around, Perry will travel to Scotland for next week's Open Championship, although he is now faced with more serious issues than accumulating enough Ryder Cup points. His mother is battling cancer, and he wasn't sure if her condition would allow him to play Turnberry.
[Perry] had planned all along to play this British Open ... [but] had second thoughts, however, when doctors put his mother in hospice. She has been suffering from multiple myeloma.After cruising to victory at the Travelers Championship two weeks ago, Perry spoke not only about his mother, but also his sister.
``Kenny had to wait to see what that meant,'' his agent, Alan Bullington, said Monday. ``He didn't know if that meant she had a month, a week, a year. He met with doctors, and she was stable enough that he felt comfortable leaving for a week.''
My mother's got multiple myeloma cancer. My sister's got breast cancer. There's a lot of sickness in my family. We're struggling. Sandy's (Perry's wife) mom's not doing very well. She's 80 years old. She's broke her back. She doesn't get around anymore. So you know, I'm just going to enjoy life right now. I'm going to try to help as many people as I can along the way, and I'm not going to worry too much about wins and losses and we're going to enjoy life a little bit.That certainly puts his Masters performance in perspective.
Of course, Perry isn't the only PGA Tour player dealing with bad news. Phil Mickelson's wife Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer in May, and yesterday we learned that his mom has been diagnosed with breast cancer, as well. Phil won't be competing in the British Open next week, and his return to the tour is still undecided.
