Churchill Valley Country Club head pro Al Jackson has known Perry Graciano for many years.

"Perry can do it all," Jackson said. "He's very straight. He just has all the shots. He's a tremendous golfer."

If anyone should know Graciano well, it's someone at Churchill Valley. At 51, he has left his mark there the past four decades.

Graciano, who grew up in Churchill and lives in Fox Chapel, has won the men's championship at Churchill Valley 17 times since 1977. His most recent triumph amongst the members at the course came two weeks ago.

After defeating his brother, David, in the semifinals of the match-play event, Graciano beat Justin Scott in the finals, 5 and 3.

Scott, 24, had defeated Perry Graciano in the finals last season on the last hole.

"[Scott] is very good, very long and very young," Graciano said. "It was fun to have a rematch."

Graciano's semifinal was also a rematch of a pairing that has certainly played each other countless times. David is eight years older, and he has won the men's championship at Churchill Valley multiple times, defeating Perry in the process on some of those occasions.

Perry has teamed with David, who is also a member at Nevillewood, to win brothers tournaments. Their father, Richard, became a member at Churchill Valley in the 1950s, Perry said, and introduced his sons to the sport and the club.

"I think I was 10 years old when I started playing, and the first tournament I played in was the father-son tournament at Churchill," Perry Graciano said. "My father had to play with both David and I on the same day. It was a long day for him, but it was a lot of fun for us."

That helped start a lifelong love affair Graciano would have with the sport. A member at Churchill since his youth, Graciano played golf at Duquesne University after graduating from Churchill Area High School in 1975.

He would go on to enter some national amateur tournaments, placing in the top 10 of at least two, including the 1980 Southwestern Amateur championship.

"Mark O'Meara won that," Graciano said. "That's how long ago that was."

O'Meara, the champion of the 1998 Masters and British Open, is the same age as Graciano.

Graciano has since played countless Western Pennsylvania Golf Association events and those on other local and regional tours. He never gave up his amateur status.

"Through my final year of college and after I finally graduated, I played in four or five things around the country and played pretty well, but I didn't think I was long enough or good enough to make it a career," Graciano said.

At that point, work and family took over -- Graciano got married and had four children, one of whom, a son, is getting married this weekend in St. Louis. Family life took away from his tournament play, and over the past several years, Graciano has played more "two-balls" and "four-balls" and brothers and father/son events or scrambles.

Still, it's not uncommon for Graciano to put together a bogey-free round. This season alone, he has shot sub-65 rounds at both Churchill and Longue Vue in Penn Hills.

To hear Graciano tell it, the story of any of his most recent successes lies solely with his longevity.

"I just think I have been doing it so long, it's second nature," Graciano said. "Now I just step up and hit it.

"I'm not the longest player, but I'm not very crooked."

Graciano might only now play a couple times per week, but it's enough to impress people such as Jackson.

"He's quite a player," Jackson said. "He's a plus-four handicap. That means he owes the course four strokes every time he plays."