DUBLIN, Ohio - Every champ has a homemade swing and a demeanor straight from the front porch. A decade ago, he went into hock to build a public golf course in his hometown. You can play Kenny Perry's layout in Franklin, Ky., for 15 bucks. It helps to be a hacker.

"We're not a real high-end course," Gordon Collins, the pro shop assistant manager at Country Creek, said Sunday. We talked to Gordon because Gordon answered the phone. There's no switchboard at Country Creek. There's a pro shop, but no pro offering lessons to the membership. There is no membership.

Gordon Collins wanted to watch Kenny Perry win the Memorial Tournament Sunday, but the local CBS affiliate out of Nashville, Tenn., was showing a telethon for a children's hospital. Country Creek didn't have the right cable system. Collins can, however, sell you a bucket of 50 range balls for $3.

"We don't offer a lot of frills. The pro shop carries some basics. We just have people come out and play and have a good time," Collins said.

Hangin' on, havin' fun

Kenny Perry had a good time this week. The middling, 42-year-old pro, who had won four golf tournaments in 18 years, won the Memorial a week after winning the Colonial. How do you explain that?

"I don't think you can," Perry said. "I think it was just my time."

In the last two weeks, Perry has made golf look like an easy game. At least until the last six holes Sunday, when he laid bare that fallacy by making five bogeys and playing like he was late for the Country Creek club championship. The weight of instant notoriety made his knees buckle. "I was just hangin' on," Perry said. "Last week, I was excited. This week, I was drained."

Perry has a quirky swing that didn't come from the private club collection. It ditched him in the last six holes Sunday, but he had a six-shot lead. Until then, Perry played the way he usually does. "Always steady, never flashy."

There are players on the PGA Tour with country club swings and demeanors, people bearing that well-scrubbed look of privilege. And there are some like Kenny Perry, just a guy, who used to throw his clubs in the trunk like the rest of us.

He doesn't live in Orlando or Dallas or some gated, made-for-golfers mansion community. He still lives in Franklin, a little burg about 35 miles north of Nashville. He cuts his season short every fall, so he can go home to help coach his son's high school golf team.

Perry and his brother-in-law borrowed $2.5 million to build Country Creek, so his home county would have a public golf course. He designed it for slicers. Lots of left-to-right holes, "wide open," Perry says, "most of you (media) guys could play it." Perry plays it when he's home. Collins says he shoots "low 60s."

If you're interested, it's 6,574 yards from the tips. It's about four hours from Cincinnati, on Kenny Perry Drive. You can see it from I-65. "We have people come from all over," Collins said. "Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee. People from Nashville say they can play here faster and cheaper than at home."

Y'all come. Bring your slice.

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E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com