PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | Every year at its flagship event, the PGA Tour assembles all of the players making their first appearance in the Players Championship for a collective interview-palooza. There were 16 of them this year, including the 20-something rising stars you expect to see, such as Will Zalatoris, Robert MacIntyre, Doc Redman, Denny McCarthy and Xinjun Zhang.
Then there was the 46-year-old bald guy named Cameron from Australia. No, not Cameron Smith. Or Cameron Davis.
It’s Cameron Percy. You’ve heard of him; you just don’t realize you’ve heard of him.
Percy has been floating around on the periphery of PGA Tour relevance for so long you probably have never noticed. He’s like that parsley that garnishes your dish – you know it’s there but never really pay much attention to it.
The one chance in 164 PGA Tour starts that Percy had the chance to make us pay attention to him, Jonathan Byrd dropped an ace on the fourth playoff hole in Las Vegas in 2010. Eleven years later with $5.3 million in career combined earnings from the PGA and Korn Ferry tours, Percy is still hanging in there.
And here he was at Sawgrass, stringing together a series of birdies on his second nine Friday morning to climb into a weekend that excluded the likes of past Players champions Rory McIlroy, Webb Simpson, Rickie Fowler and Henrik Stenson. Percy wasn’t even sure how he got here, except that he got a call last Friday night and said he was in the field thanks to the PGA Tour adding 10 spots related to last year’s COVID-19 cancellation. That meant the 10 highest-ranked players in the FedEx Cup standings not already qualified got the nod, and Percy was sitting 89th when the cutoff happened.
“When you write down your goals when you’re younger than this, you think, ‘Yeah, I’ll be there,’” Percy said. “But it took a long time.
“I’m playing good this year, so I was thinking, all right, keep this up, maybe next year I’ll get to play it. Just with a few injuries here and there and age, I’m like, well, maybe that’s one event I’m not going to play. I never played the Arnold Palmer until last week, as well. So that was pretty cool.”
Percy is as likeable as they come, so it both shocks and pleases his fellow players to find him at the Players Championship.
“They know it’s my first time, so everyone has been coming up congratulating me,” he said. “It’s pretty cool. It’s like, ‘Is this really your first time?’ I’m like, yeah. They’re like, wow. I was hitting balls with Leish (Marc Leishman) and he was chatting to me. ‘Is this your first time? That’s awesome.’”
His game is as old-school as he is, built on relatively short accurate drives and consistency. Yet he’s a greens-in-regulation machine (ranks fifth on the PGA Tour) which keeps him going.
Percy’s family – wife, Katie and sons Liam, Ashton and Tyler – arrived Friday and showed up when he was playing the easiest par-5 on the property, the 16th hole. Percy immediately splashed his approach in the water hazard and made bogey.
“A bit more pressure to make the cut,” he said. “They arrived on 16 and hit 7-wood straight into the water. I thought, ‘Oh no.’ Then made a mess on 1 driving a foot off the fairway – whatever – and horseshoed out on 2. I was in trouble and then I just started holing putts.”
Percy holed birdie putts on 3, 4, 6 and 7 and next thing you know he was putting out to finish 1-under overall and fist-bumping his caddie knowing he was in the weekend. He’s also birdied the famous 17th hole twice already in front of the biggest galleries since COVID started.
“The way I putted I’m really excited for the weekend,” he said. “I really struggled on the par-5s so I’m kind of surprised I got in, to be honest. I was pretty nervous out there for some reason.”
Percy is very much an outlier on tour. He’s decidedly liberal in his politics, with a Twitter account filled with social issues that resemble nothing of his conservative peers. He’s also held employment outside of golf, including as a bartender and sports reporter.
His game is as old-school as he is, built on relatively short accurate drives and consistency. Yet he’s a greens-in-regulation machine (ranks fifth on the PGA Tour) which keeps him going. Already one of the shorter hitters on tour averaging only 280 yards off the tee, Percy is dealing with a wrist injury that makes it nearly impossible for him to go after most of the Stadium Courses par-5s in two. And he’s still suffering from lingering fatigue after contracting COVID-19 in December, costing him strength and distance.
“Late bloomer” is the phrase that describes Percy. Growing up in Australia, he played every other sport except golf until at age 15 he started using an old set of his grandmother’s golf clubs. He’s tasted professional victory with five wins in Australia including a pair of Tasmanian Opens and the 2014 Web.com Tour’s Price Cutter Charity Championship.
He’s qualified for only two majors in his career – the 2003 and 2010 Open Championships – and counts those as his career highlights before this week. That and playing with Tiger Woods when he won the 2009 Australian Masters – the week before that infamous Thanksgiving.
Yet 31 years on since he took up the game, he continues to hang on at the fringes of the most elite circuit in the world.
Perhaps his path would have been easier had he not talked Byrd into playing one more playoff hole as darkness closed in back in 2010 in Las Vegas. Percy ranked No. 1 on tour from 180 yards at the time, so he hoped he could stuff a perfect 7-iron close and win with a birdie until Byrd ruined that with his ace.
“Probably 10 years ago when I first got on tour, I didn’t realize how good I was if that makes sense,” Percy said. “I was playing unbelievable back then but just didn’t realize it because I hadn’t been exposed to the top. I just can’t hit the ball, especially out of the rough, anymore like I used to.”
Despite being only four years away from being PGA Tour Champions eligibility, Percy is leaning more toward retiring after this season rather than trying to continue to plod his way along on tour. Which is ironic considering 2021 is shaping up to be his best season. He held his first 54-hole lead in the Safeway Open last fall, was among the leaders after 36 holes at Pebble Beach and started Sunday in third place at Puerto Rico before tailing off at the end each time with a pair of T7s to show for it.
He currently ranks 95th in the FedEx Cup standings with a chance to improve that this weekend.
“I’ve never finished top 125. I’ve been close and had chances, but never done it,” he said. “I’ve got a chance this year. It would be nice to be exempt and be able to choose a schedule. I’ve never been able to choose a schedule. On my calendar I’ve got all these question marks – yes, no, maybe. It’s really hard to organize your life playing on conditional status. It’s a good thing to have, but harder.”
That uncertain life away from is something Percy is unwilling to continue now that his three sons are getting older.
“My oldest is 14 and I’ve been away half his life,” he said. “And my youngest is 9. It would be fantastic if I could travel with my wife and family and have a great time, but my wife’s at home in Raleigh (North Carolina) by herself.”
He joked that even if he won this week at Sawgrass, he might only utilize a few of the perks that come with a five-year exemption as Players champion.
“I think I might tee it up at the Masters and then in Hawaii in January,” he said.
For now, Percy is happy experiencing new things such as Bay Hill and the Players and if things work out, maybe his first shot at the Memorial Tournament or the U.S. Open, which he’ll try to qualify for this year since it’s at Torrey Pines where he frequently ranks among the top five in strokes gained tee to green.
“That would be great,” he said.