THE GRINDERS
Jerry Kelly, 45, and Chris DiMarco, 43,
probably don’t top anyone’s list of golf super-
stars, but they have had long and remarkably
similar PGA Tour careers. Between them, they
have earned $46 million in official prize money,
almost equally split. And there they were again
Thursday, being interviewed side by side at the
Travelers Championship after posting opening-
round scores of 66 (Kelly) and 67 (DiMarco). “Hi,
Jerry,” DiMarco called out with a laugh over the
heads of reporters in the press scrum. “Hello,
Chrissy,” Kelly called back. “Pretty good tim-
ing for that man there.” The man in question
was me. I had traveled to Hartford specifically
to interview the two after noticing their below-
the-radar rankings on the Tour’s career money
list. They are part of what could be a vanishing
breed: what used to be called “journeymen,” if
the term can refer to millionaires.
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the PGA Tour not so long ago. Bill Smith, the
head professional, hurries to the table. “What
would you like, Dr. Sifford?” Smith says. We of-
fer to buy Sifford’s lunch but Smith says with a
laugh, “Oh, Charlie knows he can have anything
he wants here.” He settles on a bottle of water.
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GRIZZLED VETERAN
Kimberly Christian could not help but
chuckle earlier this week when she noticed that
the PGA Tour website had divided the Travel-
ers Championship field by age and listed her
husband, Gary, under the category of grizzled
veterans. “I don’t think so,” she said. “He’s the
40-year-old rookie.” After 14 years in golf’s
minor leagues, Gary Christian is the oldest first-
year player on the tour this season. But as he is
quick to point out, “It’s not like I’m some dodder-
ing old man with a walking stick.”
GENERAL BEATING
At 16, just months removed from taking up
golf, Nancy Taylor accepted a one-time bet from
her father: beat him in a stroke-play match and
she could have the family’s Volkswagen. Bob
Taylor, an Air Force general, teased Taylor when
she didn’t immediately take the challenge.
Finally, on Christmas Day, Taylor accepted the
bet after practicing hard through the summer and fall. She ended up beating him by two
strokes, carding an 84. That day, her father rode
her bike home; she drove the car. For the next
year, Taylor’s father pedaled to work. For Taylor,
it was the start of a career that would see her
play at Arizona State University, and on the LPGA
Tour from 1986 until 1998. l
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Dr. Charles L. Sifford
