8B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2007
LPGA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Golfer Mi Hyun Kim, of South Korea, holds the championship trophy after winning the LPGA SemGroup Championship golf tournament in Broken Arrow, Okla., on Sunday. She will donate $100,000 to help those in Greensburg.
Golfer donates winnings to Kansans
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BROKEN ARROW, Okla.
BROKEN ARROW, Okla.
— South Korea's Mih Hyun Kim announced Tuesday that she will donate $100,000 of her wins from the SemGroup Championship to benefit Kansans affected by a deadly tornado last week.
The donation to the United Way Greensburg Disaster Fund amounts
to nearly half of the $210,000 Kim won by defeating Hall of Famer Juli Inkster in a playoff Sunday at the LPGA tournament at Cedar Ridge Country Club The tornado destroyed Greensburg on Friday night and has claimed at least 11 lives.
"I was just happy that I won the tournament," Kim said. "I felt like I needed to do something for them.
Winning a tournament on its own was a good thing, but I just decided to donate some money."
Kim, 30, has won eight LPGA events and her career earnings on the tour total more than $6.5 million since 1999.
"Most of time, I get the money here and donate to South Korea. But, I want to help people here, too," Kim said.
Ex-champ's game suffers
PGA
BY DOUG FERGUSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
It was five years ago, his only PGA Tour victory, a finish that arguably remains the greatest in the 33-year history of this event.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla.
— His image hangs from a banner on the road into The Players Championship, a courtesy extended only to winners. He will always have a locker in the corner room set aside for champions in the sprawling clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass, right between Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.
"I look at it when I get down to say, 'Hey, I did that. I'm The Players champion. I won"_perks said.
More reassuring for Craig Perks than any of those status symbols is a DVD he keeps at home.
Trailing by one shot, Perks chipped in for eagle from 20 feet on the 16th hole. Then came the scary island green on the par-317th, where Perks holed a 30-foot birdie putt. And right when it looked as though he was on the cusp of a choke, he chipped in for par on the final hole from 30 feet behind the
"You're unbelievable," Woods told him that afternoon at the trophy presentation.
green.
Unbelievable takes on a new meaning now.
"I take a positive away from it, knowing I can do it," Perks said. "I know I can play well. I can compete with the best in the world. I just haven't done it."
Since that '02 victory at Sawgrass, the 40-year-old New Zealander has played 125 times on the PGA Tour and made 39 cuts, with only two of those finishes in the top 10. The last one was a tie for fourth at Colonial four years ago.
He plugged in the DVD at the start of the season to give himself a boost. Didn't work.
He has played five times this year and has yet to break par, much less cash a check. Perks is coming off a season in which he finished 254th out of 263 who earned official money on the PGA Tour. His lone payoff came at New Orleans, where he finished last.
Time is running out.
This is the last year of his five year exemption on the PGA Tour
and to The Players Championship. He will always have status as a past champion, and likely can get sponsor exemptions as one of the nicest, classiest people around.
Perks has heard endless references to being a "one-hit wonder," and he might end up being the poster boy.
Shaun Michele has not won since his PGA Championship in 2003, but he was runner-up at the PGA last year and reached the final of the World Match Play Championship last year in England. Paul Lawrie won the British Open at Carnoustie, then captured the Dumbell Links a few years later at St. Andrews. Ben Curtis won twice last year.
His banner will always be o. Champions Way. His nameplate will in the champions locker room.
There are few signs he is about to turn the corner.
"I'm proud to be out here playing, and to have won the event I won," Perks said. "A lot of great players have never won at all. I'm not pushing to get that second victory. I'm pushing to get my game back in shape."
The goal after this week will be to see it himself.
Chris O'Meara/Associated Pres
Craig Perks celebrates after making eagle on the 16th hole during the final round of The Players Championship in this March 24, 2002 file photo at Sawgren in Ponte Vedda Beach, Fla. Perks won the tournament at 8-under-par.