Kenny Perry is probably one of the more sympathetic golf choke stories in the past twenty years.  At age 48, he had a great opportunity to become the oldest winner of the Masters.  Sporting a two stroke lead with two holes to play, Perry bogeyed in to land into a 3 way playoff in which he eventually succumbed to Angel Cabrera.

via Getty Images

Having come off of a 2008 season in which he won three times, made the Ryder Cup team and starred in his home state, and was arguably the hottest golfer in the world for a while, it seemed like people have a ton of respect for Perry in defeat at Augusta.

He had a presser yesterday at the New Orleans PGA Tour event to talk about what has happened in the 10 days or so since Augusta.  Per usual, Perry was graceful.

On the outpouring of hand written letters to him:

A lot of emotions, lot of tears shed, lot of smiles, lot of celebration. I received almost over 600 emails. I received hundreds of cards and letters. People who genuinely cared.

And the letters all started out, I've never written a letter like this, but I just felt compelled to write to you.

A lot of them started that way. I had letters where 'I'm sitting here with my 7- and 10-year-old son, and you taught my kids a lot about sportsmanship.' Just neat.

That's a big deal because I don't even write with a pen anymore.  Seriously.

On what he did when he left Augusta National:

I drove home from Augusta. Got home about 4 in the afternoon on Monday afternoon. And I didn't sleep at all Monday night, and I got in my car about 5 a.m., and I just drove for about three hours. Just drove out to the countryside. You know, being thankful for everything after that that's happened to me. It really was.

I wasn't sorrowful, but I just contemplated for three hours just driving around in the country. I live in a small, rural town, it's a farming community, lot of cattle. Lot of horses, very peaceful, very serene. It was just kind of my time to just kind of reflect, and it was all very positive. It was good.

Then, last, an interesting response to a question wondering if he considered not going to New Orleans to play this week.

I thought about not coming this week, but that wouldn't have been right for this tournament. You know, I really love coming here. I love the people here, and this is a great run event. And it's very relaxed and very peaceful place.

I think if it had been a high-stressed atmosphere, more of a major world event, I would have seriously considered kind of, you know, not coming. But this event to me, I love supporting it. They do such a great job.

When I first read the comment, I thought he was going to be contradictory compared to his statement about appearing at the Tour Championship after the Ryder Cup last season.  But, his second paragraph clarified things well.

I still feel for the guy, but it seems like he is handling this about as well as anyone could.