hr: Golfing

The guy who merely wanted to win enough to make the Ryder Cup team is now racking up victories at a rapid pace.

Perry beat Brad Adamonis and Jay Williamson in a one-hole playoff to win the John Deere Classic and escape with his third victory in five starts after bogeying the 18th hole Sunday.

The ball stopped 3 feet short and Adamonis was at 16-under 268 with the others. Perry, who was signing autographs, said he didn’t see the shot. While Adamonis and Williamson both hit approach shots into the pond on No. 18, Perry tapped in from 1 feet, 4 inches for par and the victory after his 24-footer stopped just short.

He picked the ball out of the cup and raised both arms, an ear-to-ear grin crossing his face.

“I told my dad I was going to make the PGA Tour and win a tournament,” he said in a Golf Channel interview. Perry (1-under 70), Adamonis (70) and Williamson (69) were one stroke ahead of Charlie Wi (69), Will MacKenzie (70) and Eric Axley (69) after 72 holes.

Williamson earned an invitation to the British Open and, unlike Perry, accepted it.

Like TPC Deere Run.

Perry pulled ahead at 17-under with a birdie on the par-4 14th, and stayed ahead with a putt to save par on the par-3 16th after a terrible chip from the fringe. After his tee shot settled about 19 feet from the hole, Perry overshot the cup by 16 feet.

Adamonis then missed a chance on the final regulation hole.

“I know there was a chance to win,” he said. I didn’t hit a very good putt, but maybe next time.”

Perry lost a playoff at the AT&T Classic in May and won the Memorial two weeks later. The galleries have been a little larger lately, too, and the PGA Tour even assigned him a security guard at the course.

It’s all new for Perry, who has played more than two decades on the Tour.

Not that he wouldn’t love to win a major, but his major goal at the moment is helping the U.S. team win the Ryder Cup at Valhalla in Louisville, about 40 miles from his birthplace.

“I play I hard, I play good, things will take care of themselves,” he said.