Golf: Perks finished with school

Golf professional Craig Perks never wants to go through the harrowing USPGA Tour qualifying school again in his life.

He could not relax in it early this month even though he was eight shots to the good with two rounds to play.

"They were still the two most stressful rounds of my life," said the former Manawatu golfer.

"You could cut the tension out there with a knife.

"It's a cut-throat game and it's take no prisoners."

He finally finished a safe eighth and $US25,000 ($59,000) richer but avoiding the qualifying school is his motivation for next year's USPGA Tour.

"I plan to keep my card for the rest of my career."

Perks only had to go through the finals qualifying.

Compatriot Frank Nobilo also had to go through the earlier round.

The PGA Tour comes first, keeping Perks from the New Zealand Open at The Grange in Auckland next month, even though he was runner-up at Paraparaumu a year ago.

The open clashes with the $US4 million Hawaiian Open at Oahu, and Perks has to play in that, as well as the Tucson Open the preceding week.

Speaking from his home in Lafayette, Louisiana, Perks said he would love to be in New Zealand so he could get some practice in the sun.

The NZ Golf Association had arranged his airfares and Perks would have flown to Auckland "in a flash." But mid-January is bad for the US-based professionals, especially when Perks will not qualify for the exclusive Phoenix Open or the Bob Hope Classic.

- NZPA