diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 3be1383ed32..53fd598b754 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -422,6 +422,7 @@ Release 0.21.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-2774  Spin in ReadWriteConsistencyControl eating CPU (load > 40) and
                no progress running YCSB on clean cluster startup                     
    HBASE-2785  TestScannerTimeout.test2772 is flaky
+   HBASE-2787  PE is confused about flushCommits
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-1760  Cleanup TODOs in HTable
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/PerformanceEvaluation.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/PerformanceEvaluation.java
index 65aafc07a0d..3b756878409 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/PerformanceEvaluation.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/PerformanceEvaluation.java
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ public class PerformanceEvaluation {
   private boolean nomapred = false;
   private int N = 1;
   private int R = ROWS_PER_GB;
-  private boolean flushCommits = false;
+  private boolean flushCommits = true;
   private boolean writeToWAL = true;
 
   private static final Path PERF_EVAL_DIR = new Path("performance_evaluation");
@@ -1250,7 +1250,7 @@ public class PerformanceEvaluation {
 
         final String writeToWAL = "--writeToWAL=";
         if (cmd.startsWith(writeToWAL)) {
-          this.flushCommits = Boolean.parseBoolean(cmd.substring(writeToWAL.length()));
+          this.writeToWAL = Boolean.parseBoolean(cmd.substring(writeToWAL.length()));
           continue;
         }