Missing the cut at last week’s Sony Open in Hawaii was not a shock to Kenny Perry. He has been coming from the Kentucky cold to Waialae Country Club more than 20 years and never finished higher than 33rd.

What did surprise the 2013 Champions Tour Player of the Year was how out of place he felt in the PGA Tour’s first full-field event of 2014.

"I played with Derek Ernst and asked him how old he is," recalled Perry, 53. "He said 23. I told him my youngest daughter was 2 years older than he was. I have kids who are 25, 27 and 29, and a few grandkids, and I played with a guy who was 23 and just starting his life and his career."

Perry saw Sony as a warmup. The seniors tee off their 35th season Friday in the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. They return Sept. 19-21 for the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship at Kapolei.

This week’s tournament of champions has a field of 41. All have won over the past two years or a major in the past five, with eight exemptions given to guys like Hale Irwin and Ben Crenshaw.

Perry won three times last year, including two majors. He had 18 top-25s in 20 Champions Tour starts, with a fifth at Hualalai. He has been a golf pro more than 30 years, and it would be tough to find a year when he played better, though he won three times in both 2003 and 2008.

"That last year I also made the Ryder Cup team and played nicely at Valhalla, but still, two major wins is a great accomplishment," Perry said. "It ranks up there with anything I’ve done on the PGA Tour. I won 14 times there, with no majors. I lost two playoffs, at the Masters and the PGA at Valhalla, so I had my chances. It’s nice now to have a major title associated with my name."

It is nice for many people to see it. Perry has always gone above and beyond off the golf course. He donates 5 percent of his winnings to Lipscomb University (Tenn.) to provide scholarships for Simpson County students. Nearly 20 years ago, he borrowed $2.5 million and bought 142 acres to build a public course in his hometown of Franklin, Ky. It costs $28 with a cart to play on weekdays and is designed for duffers.

Perry has now won nearly $32 million on the golf course — 13th on the career list. The loan is history. His new focus is on the final years of his career, on a tour where the quality of play initially "staggered" him.

"How good they played and how low they shot," says Perry, whose goal in life when he first started golfing at 7 was to win a tour title. "My first (Champions Tour) event was at the Woodlands and I’d played a bunch of tour events there. I shot 6 under, but lost by 13 to Fred Couples. I thought, ‘Uh-oh, I’m in trouble.’ "

He has grown comfortable with the seniors’ 54-hole dash — "the PGA Tour is more like a mile run" — and grown more aggressive. That should serve him well at Hualalai, where the past 13 champions had an average score of 20 under. A score in the 70s leaves you off the leaderboard on the course designed by Jack Nicklaus.

Perry can live with that, for a few more years. He calls himself a "very competitive person." But soon, you will be more likely to see that competitive fire coming out at his grandkids’ games.

"I want to play a couple more years and then go back to coaching Pee Wee baseball and basketball and do it all over again," Perry says. "That’s the circle of life, isn’t it? I’m looking forward to closing out my competitive days and hanging out with my family. I’m tired of sleeping in a hotel room after 30 years. I’m ready."

Four of the past year’s top five finishers on the Big Island ended up leading the season-long Charles Schwab Cup points list. Perry won the Cup, followed by Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples and David Frost.

John Cook beat Frost in a playoff at Hualalai a year ago. Langer was third — closing with a 64, followed by Couples and Perry.

Langer and Perry tee off last on Friday, at 1:10 p.m. Frost and Couples are at 1 p.m. and Tom Watson and Nick Price just ahead of them. Mike Reid goes off solo at 9:50 a.m. in the first tee time.

LOCAL ACES