Kenny Perry is one of the world's top professional golfers. Like many other professional golfers, Kenny Perry had LASIK eye surgery to correct his vision. Kenny Perry and other professional golfers, including Retief Goosen, Paul Parajeckas, Kevin Na, Paul Stankowski, Ian Leggatt, Vijay Singh, John Jacobs, Peter Lonard, Padraig Harrington, and Scott Hoch reportedly experienced problems after LASIK . Even Tiger Woods reported his vision was slipping after LASIK, and had another surgery in 2007.
May 8, 2008
PGATour.com
Excerpt:
Q. How frustrating is it to still be able to hit it as good as you do from tee-to-green, similar to Sergio I guess, and did not know what stick of dynamite you're going to have in your hand?
KENNY PERRY: Yeah, I complained about that the most. I just don't read the greens very good anymore. I don't know if I can't see, I don't know what it is. I tell sandy, my wife that, all the time I say I just can't see the line like I used to for whatever reason... That's just what I've been struggling with. You know, I've had two LASIK surgeries, I'm now wearing contacts. I wear glasses at night...
Q. Did the LASIK surgeries just not work?
KENNY PERRY: They say it gets worse if you get older, so I don't know.
When I was winning from 2003 to 2005, I didn't wear anything, I had LASIK and my vision was okay. I've really noticed within the last year, if I take my contacts out, I can't see very good. My contacts are just good for distance out.
Q. LASIK surgery was a while ago?
KENNY PERRY: It's probably been -- what do you think, Sandy, is it ten years since I've had it done? Ten years. And I had it done twice, I had it done once and then went back and had an enhancement done. Then I said I'm not doing that anymore.
Q. When was the enhancement?
KENNY PERRY: About a year later or two years later. They say you should heal up and once you heal up, it might not get sharp so then I did an enhancement and that was pretty good. The contacts, I started wearing them last year.
August 7, 2008
Golf.com
Kenny Perry withdraws from PGA Championship due to post-LASIK eye infection
Excerpt:
``I have had Lasik surgery and have been wearing Lasik lenses which have a hard center and flatten out at the end,'' he said after withdrawing. ``I had got some infection in there and my doctor said that I needed to let my eyes rest by keeping the contacts out.
``He gave me cortisone and steroids which were very painful and it was annoying and difficult to be to trying to fight a tough golf course and have my eye aggravating me at the same time.''
January 31, 2009
PGATour.com
Excerpt:
Q. Did you have issues with your eyes earlier in the week?
KENNY PERRY: I went to three doctors. I've had issues all year with them, all last year. I've had LASIK surgery twice. I'm wearing a LASIK lens because I have astigmatism so they're hard in the middle and soft on the outside, and it's a special built lens just for me. They told me when you look through your glasses you look through a 90, horizontal and vertical, they said after my surgery my eyes were like this. That's why I can't see very good in glasses. Actually, I've just signed on to transitional lenses this year. I met with a doctor for two days, and he thinks he can fix me glasses-wise, prescription-wise. I'm a right-handed right eye dominant, and my vision is -- my depth perception is off, but when I wear my contacts I'm okay, but they've been infected, I've been on Tobradex, it's a steroid, so my eyes have been really irritable this week. They said I had allergies out here, which I had never heard of eye allergies, but I've got some kind of deal where it feels like there's sand in my eyes. It feels like there's something in my eyes along with my contacts. It's been a battle.
Q. Were you close to not playing this week?
KENNY PERRY: No, I was going to play. If I had to play in my glasses, which I was originally going to do, I probably wouldn't have played because it's almost impossible.
Q. Does it affect anything out on the course for you?
KENNY PERRY: No, my vision was good today. When I can wear my contacts and they are not aggravating me too bad, everything is okay. I wore this pair all last year and they're okay.
December 4, 2009
PGATour.com
Excerpt:
KENNY PERRY: Well, you know what, like I said, I've had two Lasik surgeries. When you have Lasik surgery, you have to wear a special Lasik contact lens, which I have really bad astigmatism, which the center of my lenses were firm and the outside is soft, and you know, it scratched my cornea. I had to withdraw from the PGA a couple of years ago because one of them scratched the cornea.
They were just a pain. I got tired of wearing them, and this was just a new avenue for me, and I really enjoy the people with Transitions. I like their doctors. I kind of spent some time with them in the off season. Went down to Dr. Lambert, down in I think he's in West Palm, spent some days with him, and we really worked on my vision. And these were the best we could come up with, and to me I see just as good out of these as I do with my contacts.
In the past I never could see as well out of glasses as I could out of the contacts. But I've actually got lenses now that when I look down, my feet don't look real small. I don't see any depth perception. There's no -- whatever that is. Looking through that -- I had bifocals in them and all this. These are just straight lenses and everything just looks proportional. I don't feel like I'm on -- before I almost felt like I was on a downhill slope all the time.
So it was just something to try. I'm not the youngest kid anymore. And my vision's not that good, so to me, your vision's one of the most important things out there, so you've gotta somehow figure out something that you can -- and you know, I actually put them in play this week just to test and see if I can -- I'll put them in play next week at the Shark Shootout, see if I'll be ready for the first tournament of the year, and quite pleased. I'm ecstatic. My vision is going to be great. I've got other lenses that are amber, some are dark. So I'll have a lot of options to try.
March 17, 2010
PGATour.com
Excerpt:
You know, I represent Transitions, and it's been a great fit for me with all my eye troubles and LASIKs twice and trying to wear a LASIK contact lens. I've had to withdraw from a few tournaments with that scratched cornea deal. So it's nice to finally get a product on me that I can actually see.