Golf: Perks' mum beats odds to win place at Augusta

Golfer of the moment Craig Perks' mother Dawne is off next week to Augusta National in the United States.

She leaves on Tuesday to watch her son in the US Masters. Perks took the last spot for the Masters by winning the Players Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida last week.

Tickets are scarce and his mother had feared she might miss out on watching her son in the biggest tournament of his career.

But word came through that he had obtained eight precious tickets.

The next problem came when she had difficulty getting an airline seat to Los Angeles and had given up hope. But a seat was found after much hunting around.

"I wanted to watch him in a PGA tournament, and always thought it would be somewhere like Greensboro," she said.

"I never thought it would be Augusta."

Her previous trips to see him play in the US have included three times on the Nike Tour and another to a national collegiate tournament when his University of Southwestern Louisiana team won a six-way playoff.

Perks met his wife, Maureen, at the university.

Since his big win, banners have been erected around the city of Lafayette celebrating it.

It has been a hectic time for Perks since his famous win.

"He has had hardly any sleep because the phone hasn't stopped ringing," said his mother.

He has found the constant media attention hard to cope with, but his mother told him it was the "price of fame" after his first big win.

But when he got to Houston he was warmly congratulated by some of the game's biggest stars, including multiple major champions Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and Nick Price.

- NZPA