April 22, 2008 -- Unlike most of the guys teeing it up at last week's Athens Regional Foundation Classic on the Nationwide Tour, Donn Perno didn't dream of becoming a professional golfer. His dream was to play second base for the Dodgers, and he got closer than most to achieving that dream before he found a new passion on the links.

Donn Perno was an All-SEC baseball player during his collegiate years at Georgia. (photo: Jackson Spalding)

Perno spent his college years at the University of Georgia on the baseball diamond, lettering in 1986 and 1987. He was a member of the school's first College World Series team and an All-SEC performer in 1987.

Following that 1987 season, Perno was selected by the San Francisco Giants in the 39th round of the Major League Baseball draft. After one season of rookie ball in Everett, Wash., Perno was released. He spent a year on the coaching staff at his alma mater, where his brother David is currently head coach of the Bulldogs, before he realized that coaching baseball was not his future -- but he would remain a teacher, just of a different game.

Perno has always been a great athlete, competing in both football and baseball at Clarke Central High School in Athens, Ga. where last week's event was held. He was inducted into the Athens Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. Perno credits the transition from baseball to golf to his college advisor and long-time family friend B.J. Clemens.

"He is the one who got me into golf," said Perno. "I played with him and he said he knew a guy in the golf business. He set me up with David Epps who was the first pro I worked for at Summit Chase Country Club in Snellville, Ga."

Deciding to make the change was the easy part, but Perno quickly learned that he was starting from the ground up.

Perno now has golf as both his vocation and avocation - as a teacher and player. (photo: Jackson Spalding)

"I really had no clue what the golf business was about when I got into it, to be honest," he said. "But I liked what I was doing and got to work at some very good places for some very good people."

After his early years at Summit Chase, Perno went on to work at Ansley Golf Club and Cherokee Town & Country Club in Atlanta before relocating to Hawaii to become a pro at Kapalua Golf Club, situated on Maui's northwest shore. Perno's time in Hawaii not only helped him grow as a teacher, but as a competitive golfer.

"It was great experience. That was the place where I became a better player. I had the opportunity to play. It was a job where they stressed playing ability and wanted good players. It was something very odd in the golf business, but it was a good place for me."

Currently, Perno serves as a teaching professional at the Capital City Club in Atlanta. It couldn't be more unlike his childhood dreams of becoming a baseball star, yet the 44-year-old husband and father of one seems to have finally found his niche. He was quick to mention how supportive the club has been and how fortunate he feels to be working there.

"The membership here is the best I've ever been around. I've been treated unbelievably well, everybody is so supportive and everywhere I turned people [were] wishing me luck in the event."

Perno estimates that he conducts approximately 1,400 lessons a year, helping players improve their game. He was recently featured in Golf Digest for helping one of his students shave more than 15 strokes from his handicap in only one year.

Although teaching the game is an integral part of his life, Perno has found that golf also gives him an outlet for his competitive fire as well, which is why he returned to his hometown to tee it up with the guys on the Nationwide Tour.

Perno won the Georgia PGA qualifier to earn a spot in the field. But last week's event wasn't Perno's first foray into competitive golf on the professional level. In addition to a number of sectional PGA events and U.S. Open Qualifiers, Perno has twice qualified for the PGA TOUR's BellSouth (now AT&T) Classic -- in 1997 and 2002.

"Playing with those guys is a wake up call," Perno said of the experience. "I don't think people realize how they set the golf courses up (for tournaments). The greens become a lot firmer and a lot faster -- it's a totally different ball game."

Playing often with good friend and PGA TOUR player Billy Andrade also helped him prepare for the event. "You always want to test yourself against the best," he states, a personal mantra.

Perno missed the cut in Athens, but was thrilled to play in front of the hometown crowd, including his wife Lane, who was a volleyball player at UGA, and his three-year-old son Mac.

"I'm old enough now that I knew what I was getting into, but it is hard playing tournament golf when you don't play (regularly)," he said. "It was fun to be able to work on my game and once the section events crank up, hopefully I'll be able to play better in those because of it."

For now, Perno said he'll take some time off, filling his days with teaching rather than worrying about his golf game. Now that golf fans know to keep an eye out for this seasoned player, they should also take notice. For someone with a baseball dream, he sure has made a way for himself in golf