Kenny Perry hasn’t played since the 2021 Charles Schwab Cup Championship, but there was never a formal retirement announcement from the now-62-year-old.
The 14-time PGA Tour and 10-time PGA Tour Champions winner was still finishing in the top 50 on the over-50 circuit when he stopped playing.
But some things are just more important than golf.
In an emotional interview with SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, Perry revealed he retired to care for his wife Sandy, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s.
“I’ll let the world know: My wife’s sick,” Perry told Brian Katrek and John Maginnes on Katrek & Maginnes On Tap. “I’m her caretaker. And, you know, I’m going to take great care of her. And you know that Alzheimer’s is this terrible disease.”
Perry said he made the decision when he realized Sandy could no longer follow him on the golf course.
“I would chase her down, going down the wrong hole,” Perry said. “At the [U.S.] Senior Open two years ago, and it was a 36-hole complex, and she ended up going off on the other 18 holes.
“I realized right then, you know, it’s time for me to do something else. And it’s all good. She’s happy.”
He said Sandy is still very active and even “walks me to death” when the couple goes out for some exercise. She just has memory issues at this point.
In addition to caring for Sandy, Perry said he wants to be an advocate for finding a cure for the disease.
“I’ll probably start kind of being a spokesman for [it],” he said. “I’ll probably start looking into more of that and help other people who have the same conditions I’m looking into. You know, I’m trying to figure it out.”
Perry said he’s been to “every doctor in Nashville, Vanderbilt” looking for someone who can find a cure. He said there are only treatments to slow the disease’s progression.
“That’s all I want to do,” Perry said. “So she’ll know her grandkids and know me and just enjoy the rest of her life. I mean, we’ve worked so hard to get to this point, and I hate to see it to where she can’t enjoy it. You know, it’s pretty sad.”
