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merican Pat Perez made light of his unexpected win at the CIMB Classic, the Tour’s 2nd event of the still young 2017-2018 season. Almost sounding like an accidental winner, Perez confessed “I think I’m the last guy that expected to win this week, to be honest with you. I did not think I was going to win this week.” His statement sits in stark contrast to his comfortable 4 stroke win at 24 under par at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club (par 72) in which he never allowed anyone within 4 strokes of his lead during Sunday’s final round. Shooting a 3 under par 69, he finished ahead of fellow American Keegan Bradley (20 under). Going into the final round the 41-year-old veteran Perez held a 4 stroke lead at 21 under par over Tour Championship winner and young American sensation Xander Schauffele. Perez notched his 3rd victory on Tour and more amazingly his 2nd win in 12 months over a 17-year career to earn the US$1.26 million winner’s take. The unconventional Perez expressed how he prepared for the event: “I watched the Presidents Cup and I drank a lot that week and ate a lot and hit balls, I planned to hit balls on Friday last week, once for a couple of hours and then we drank, I didn’t really know what to expect when I came over here, so I was just hoping to kind of stay alive in the heat.”

He did little to hide the fact he wasn’t a fan of the searing Malaysian heat and humidity. When asked what it was about Kuala Lumpur that keeps bringing him back every year he said: “Air conditioning. That’s it. No, I’m kidding. I love the course, I love the layout. I don’t love the heat, the heat’s unbelievable.” He managed to step on the gas all day despite the heat with birdies on holes 2, 3 and 4 and, following a blemish on 6 with a bogey, he birdied the par 3 8th and by the turn he had already posted 24 under par before the back nine. His pursuers Schauffele, Bradley and South Korea’s Sung Kang just couldn’t find the 5th gear they needed to get close. Perez commented: “I actually am a little surprised that someone didn’t come with 63 or 64 because the course was set up for [that]. There’s some long hitters that were near the lead, I thought somebody would shoot 63 or 64 today.”

Pat shot a 6 under 66 in the opening round and was 2 strokes behind the leader Australia’s Cameron Smith who shot an 8 under 64. Perez then took full advantage of the 4 hour rain delay during Friday’s 2nd round to follow up with a splendid 7 under 65 to move to 13 under and take the lead by 1 stroke over Schauffele after the 2nd round. Another phenomenal 8 under par 64 in round 3 took him to 21 under to maintain a lead of 4 strokes over Schauffele before the final round. Perez squarely attributed his win to his remarkable putting: “I putted unbelievably really. I didn’t hit it that great, I just made a whole lot of putts and that saved me because if I didn’t putt well I probably would have finished 40th.”

Early in the Fedex Cup hunt for 2018, he now sits in 2nd place after American Brendan Steele who won the 2017-18 season’s 1st event, The Safeway Open. After recovering from a shoulder injury, Pat won at the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico in November 2016, his first victory in 7 years.

Perez was asked how he would compare himself to the young stream of players on Tour to which he said: “This is my 17th year, so I’ve had to fight for my card every year. But for a guy like me, I’m always fighting to keep my card. So when you win, it’s like ‘take a little bit of time to go okay, I’m just going to relax for a little bit.’ But you can never really settle down too much because the game will just steamroll you. The players are too good. There’s a guy that’s going to win next week and all the focus will be on him and you have to keep going.”