Kenny Perry’s eyesight is back to normal two weeks after a scratched and infected cornea knocked him out of the PGA Championship. The 48-year-old Perry withdrew at Oakland Hills because of the eye problems - caused by a warped contact - after a first-round 79. “This is my third pair of contact lenses in my left eye, third one of the week, and it feels real good and I’m seeing pretty good out of it,” Perry said. “I’m excited and it doesn’t hurt. I don’t have any pain. My vision is good again.”

However, he was still a bit fuzzy on the retooled FedEx Cup points picture on the eve of The Barclays, the PGA Tour playoff opener at Ridgewood Country Club. He didn’t need great sight to see that A.W. Tillinghast-designed Ridgewood is a long and demanding layout at 7,319 yards and a par of 71. The tree-lined course’s three par 5s measure 588, 626 and 594 yards and there are four par 4s over 465 yards. The event is at Ridgewood after 41 seasons at Westchester Country Club. Steve Stricker won the playoff opener last year at Westchester, making birdie on four of the last five holes to beat K.J. Choi by two strokes. Next year, the tournament will shift to Liberty National in Jersey City.
With top-seeded Tiger Woods sidelined by a knee injury, Perry is effectively the leader with 99,500 points. Phil Mickelson is second at 99,250, followed by British Open and PGA Championship winner Padraig Harrington at 99,000. Lee Janzen, the last of the 144 qualifiers, has 92,070 points - only 7,430 behind Perry. Last year in the inaugural playoffs, the gap between No. 1 and No. 144 was 15,300 points. The winner Sunday will get 11,000 points - 2,000 more than a year ago - and US$1.26 million from the $7 million purse. Calgary’s Stephen Ames (No. 30), Mike Weir (No. 43) of Bright’s Grove, Ont., and Jon Mills (No. 137) of Oshawa, Ont., are all in the field. The top 120 players after The Barclays will be eligible for the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Mass. The field will then be cut to 70 for the BMW Championship in St. Louis and to 30 for the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

 Bob Tway withdrew Wednesday to caddie for son Kevin at the U.S. Amateur. Kevin Tway, a freshman at Oklahoma State, won his first-round match Wednesday at Pinehurst. … Ridgewood also was the site of the 1935 Ryder Cup, 1974 U.S. Amateur (Jerry Pate), 1990 U.S. Senior Open (Lee Trevino) and 2001 Senior PGA (Tom Watson).

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