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Reflections |
Tom Kite
Professional golfer
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The $7 million dollar man. The $8 million dollar man. The $9 million dollar man.
These days, a Tour player can make that kind of money by smiling in the right series of commercials or teeing it up with enough corporate big-wigs. But in the 1980s, that money was earned one way — on the leaderboard.
Tom Kite is known for many things — perhaps his 1992 U.S. Open victory at Pebble Beach stands out among the rest. But Kite also was the first Tour player to reach the $6 million, $7 million, $8 million and $9 million dollar marks. For almost six full years, Kite was No. 1 on the career money list.
Kite turned professional in 1972 after a successful four years at the University of Texas, where he and Longhorn teammate Ben Crenshaw tied for the 1972 individual championship. His career has included 19 PGA Tour victories, seven Champions Tour victories, seven Ryder Cup appearances, Ryder Cup captain in 1997 and a 2004 election into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Always a great wedge player, Kite was the first to play with three wedges in his bag.
Kite now plays on the Champions Tour and also works in golf course design. So far this season, Kite has six top 10 finishes, including a sudden death playoff loss to Jay Haas at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf.
— Seth Jones, senior associate editor
We moved to Austin when I was 13 years old. The superintendents at all the courses played, and there were a number of them who were very good golfers. So I met a lot of them playing in city tournaments. We’d be playing a round, and we’d discuss what they were trying to do. We had a putting green in our backyard, so my dad was always going to them to discuss what was going on with the green. A lot of times it was the best green in town. It wasn’t taking too many shots since it was just a putting green, plus, when we were on it, we were in tennis shoes. My dad and I both had a knack for (taking care of the green). He put it in the backyard for me, for my benefit, so I did a lot of work on it. (It was) old bermuda 328. Pretty light maintenance. Just kept it verticut and it didn’t take hours and hours. Verticut, aerify a couple times a year… it was low-maintenance compared to the ultra dwarfs. I’m sure many of the superintendents wish they still had bermuda 328; in my opinion it’s a superior grass, and it’s not nearly as high-maintenance as these ultra dwarfs are. There’s a tremendous amount of expectations that everyone has on a superintendent: the playability and maintenance of golf courses they see on TV, the pristine conditions — that’s what they want. It’s a pressure-packed job; you’ve got to be able to stand the heat. |
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