Former Ryder Cup star: 'I’m a fast player. I get my number I hit the shot and I go'

There's plenty of talk about slow play in the game so it's worth celebrating when players manage to get round in a great time particularly when they're 61 and playing on Champions Tour.

Kenny Perry is regarded as one of the quick players, he once played a PGA Tour event in two hours and 15 minutes, and he managed to play the first round of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in just three hours and four minutes and he was playing with a marker.

It helped that they were both playing well but it will have knocked spots off the other players in the field for time.

“I’m a fast player. I get my number I hit the shot and I go. I look at the putt, I hit the putt,” Perry said. “So I don’t really stress over that. So speed to me is more of a relief than a hindrance.”

The former Ryder Cup star, who is playing in his final event, was four under after eight before signing for a 68.

“Kristoffer Marshall, the gentleman that played with me, is one of my dear friends. He’s a member at Silverleaf and he just won the Arizona State Am, so he’s a terrific player in his own right,” Perry said. “I said ‘Is there any way I could get him to play with me because I really want to go out there by myself,’ and first they said let us talk about it. Finally they called and said, we’ll let him play with you, but he’s got to agree to be the marker all week.”

Marshall was round in an approximate one over par.

“I would say he shot around even, even to 2 over, somewhere around in that area.”

As for his PGA Tour effort of two and a quarter hours he added: “No. I was by myself. I didn’t even read a putt. I hit it on the green, I told him to take the flag out and I just smacked it and I just went to the next hole. I wasn’t doing any good, I was last place or whatever, going to get last place money.”