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Father Knows Best
Kite passed along drive to succeed to his children
By Gary Van Sickle
 On a Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, Ala., last month, 10,077 people packed Coleman
Coliseum to watch what was no ordinary dual gymnastics meet. The Alabama women's
team, ranked second in the country, was hosting defending NCAA champ
UCLA.
The lead performer sets the tone for a gymnastics team, and in the floor
exercises the Crimson Tide led off with a sophomore who isn't the flashiest
athlete on the squad but is dedicated and consistent. The 20-year-old business
major, who is as solid in the classroom (a 4.0 grade point average through her
first three college semesters) as she is performing in the arena, came through.
All of her scores counted toward the team's point total, including a personal
best 9.825 in the vault, and Alabama scored a big win over the
Bruins.
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Kite, at 52 the oldest golfer to play his way into the Masters,
will be making his first start in the tournament since
1998. Darren Carroll |
She is Stephanie Kite, the daughter of Tom Kite, who didn't invent dedication
and consistency on the PGA Tour but came to symbolize those traits during a
highly successful 31-year career as a Tour regular. A man's character is often
reflected in his children's, and you can learn all you need to know about Tom
through Stephanie and his twin sons, David and Paul,
17.
"Steph has Tom's competitive nature and determination," says Christy
Kite, Tom's wife of 26 years. "Tom and I are fairly classic type A
personalities. We're organized, we make lists. Tom likes to say, 'If it's not on
my calendar, it doesn't exist,' and he means it. Steph is a fantastic student
and very well-organized. I guess that's in the
genes."
At five Stephanie took a city recreation gymnastics class, liked it and moved on
to more advanced programs. As a high school junior she was a Junior Olympic
champion in the vault for her Austin club. At Alabama she competes on a deep and
talented squad that went 12-3 in dual meets over the winter, lost the
Southeastern Conference title to Georgia by one tenth of a point but remained
No. 2 in the rankings, behind UCLA, going into this week's NCAA regionals.
"It's always exciting toward the end," Stephanie says. "This is
what you work for all year."
Her father is thinking the same thing about a tournament next week in Augusta.
For the first time in four years, the event is on his calendar. For the first
time in four years, the Masters exists for
Tom Kite.
it's funny that Kite became the oldest competitor to play his way into the
Masters. A stunning final-round 64 in the U.S. Open at Southern Hills last
summer lifted him into a tie for fifth and guaranteed him a Masters invitation.
"I never thought I'd get back in," Kite says. "I'm proud of that
finish at the Open. Tie for the second-lowest round ever shot at a U.S. Open? At
51? The course didn't give up many good scores that week, and I got one of them.
I was pretty pleased."
The Open route was one of the few roads left for Kite to take back to Augusta.
"I'm sure he needed to get back to the Masters so he could try to win it,
not so he could play ceremonially," says Davis Love III, who was
mentored by Kite when Love first came on Tour in 1986. "When he was 49, his
goal wasn't to be on the Senior tour; it was to make the Ryder Cup team. Tom
wants to stay competitive in the majors for the rest of his life. He
doesn't want to quit at 55 or 56. He is so determined to get the most out of his
game, the way he always has, it's almost hard to
believe."
david had a good weekend by any high school junior's standards. He flew to
Augusta on a Friday afternoon, hit balls on the Augusta National practice range
with his dad and had dinner in the clubhouse. He bunked in one of the club's
cabins and the next morning played 18 holes with his dad; Dave Phillips, Tom's
coach; and John Harris, a former U.S. Amateur champion who is an Augusta member.
Then the foursome played the first 10 holes again, jumped to the par-5 15th and
played in to the clubhouse. Father and son hopped on a plane and got to
Tuscaloosa in time to watch Stephanie and Alabama knock off UCLA. On Sunday
morning David and Tom were back in Augusta for more golf. They got in 27 holes,
playing the back nine twice, but couldn't return to Austin without a quick match
on the nine-hole par-3 course.
"I asked what he thought of the course," says Christy, "and David
said, 'I knew it was hard, but boy, is it hard!' Dinner at the club, the whole
atmosphere -- everything. David was definitely awestruck." David, a
scratch player, didn't break 80, but he did birdie the par-5 13th hole
twice and parred the devilish par-3 12th all three times. When his putt on the
16th green rolled 40 feet past the pin, Harris told him that the
greens would be three or four feet faster during tournament
week.
Augusta's greens were not as challenging as pursuing a golf career is when your
dad is Tom Kite. David will be compared with his father for as long as he plays
the game. "At this point David is not as driven as Tom is," says
Christy, who quickly added, "Well, that's not a fair comparison. No one is
as driven as
Tom."
At 5'8" and 135 pounds David looks like his dad, moves like him and has a
similar outgoing personality. A picture of David hangs on a clubhouse wall at
Austin Country Club because he's the current junior club champion. Cover up the
date, though, and you'd swear it was a shot from Tom's high school yearbook.
"He's not as good a player as I was at 17," says Tom, "but his
swing mechanics are significantly better than mine were, so his potential is
probably greater. He's progressing
nicely."
David has yet to win a match against his dad. "It's definitely getting to
me," the teenager admits. "I've been so close, it's not even
funny." He recalled one match in which Tom was one over par and David was
two under with two holes to play. Tom finished birdie-birdie, David bogey-bogey.
"Dad says it's going to take longer than I think, but it will be sooner
than he wants," David says. "He's not going to let it happen if he can
help it, but I think it might happen this
summer."
There have been no significant tournament victories yet for David, although his
most exciting moment came when he holed a seven-iron shot two years ago during a
televised father-son Silly Season event. This year it was no small feat just to
make the varsity for West Lake High, a school that has racked up three Texas 5A
championships since 1996. David's got the golf bug ... bad. He's usually on the
1st tee at Austin Country Club within minutes of finishing the school day.
He wants to play college golf and maybe become a pro. When he was in Augusta,
David got a look at the Crow's Nest -- the rooms in the clubhouse where
amateurs who qualify for the Masters usually stay -- and decided, "I want
to be there
someday."
kite is only five years removed from his third runner-up finish at the Masters.
"I scared the hell out of Tiger that year," Kite says jokingly about
his finish, 12 shots behind Woods's 1997 tournament-record total of 270, 18
under par. Another Kite joke is his stock answer for questions concerning what
it takes to win a major: "First, you've got to enter." As he slides
ever closer to playing the Senior circuit exclusively, that little joke has
never been more
apropos.
From 1976 through '86 Kite placed sixth or better in nine of 11 Masters. He has
a dozen top 10 finishes overall, including a heartbreaking tie for second
in '86, when Jack Nicklaus put together a stunning run at the end to win by a
stroke. "What are the odds of anybody, including Jack, playing the last 10
holes in seven under par? Give me a break," Kite says. "Jack shoots 30
on the back, even with a bogey at 12. It was ridiculous, the stuff that he did.
That was a tournament where I did what I was supposed to do to win. I remember
it like it was yesterday. I had 169 yards at 18. I wasn't sure I could get a
six-iron there but absolutely killed it, hit a beautiful shot over the bunker to
10 feet. That putt puts me in a playoff with Jack. I've got a birdie on 18 and
momentum, and he's coming out of Butler Cabin. Who knows what would've
happened?"
Kite's subsequent comment at the time sums up his career of Masters near misses:
"I made the putt. It just didn't go in."
On his first day of high school Paul Kite told his mother he was staying
after school to attend a forensics meeting. "I was so stupid, I was
thinking Quincy, M.E.," recalls Christy, referring to the old TV
show about a medical examiner. "I said, 'Forensics? What are you talking
about?' I knew he wasn't a scientist type."
In this case forensics was a competition in acting, speaking and debating. Paul
jokes that he plays in the NFL, but he means the National Forensics League. In a
family of type A personalities, he is the square peg. "We're not real sure
where Paul came from," Christy says jokingly. "He's not like anyone
else in this family." Paul and David are not identical twins; in fact,
David and Stephanie look more alike than David and Paul. There's another
significant difference between the brothers: "Paul has no interest in
golf," Tom says. "He is a wonderfully gifted kid with the ability to
entertain people. He's not afraid of performing."
What began as a 10-year-old's visit to an acting group for children has evolved
into a passion for the stage. Last spring he was in a one-act-play competition,
performing in You Can't Take It with You, and his team won the district
championship. In his school's recent production of A Midsummer Night's
Dream,Paul played the key role of Bottom and stole the show. Last month he
and a partner finished fourth in a state tournament for Love Letters, a
dramatic comedy about two pen pals whose lives are revealed through their
correspondence. Comedy is Paul's specialty, but this semester he won the lead
role of Constantine in The Seagull, a drama. "It's different from
anything I've ever done," he says. Paul typically doesn't get home from
rehearsals until 8 or 9 p.m. "When Steph was here, she was almost
never home," Paul says. "She'd get home from gymnastics at nine, do
her homework, go to bed, wake up and go to school. I think I'm turning into her.
I may have to leave my parents a note: I'm still
alive -- Paul."
Maybe this apple didn't really fall that far from the tree. Tom played himself
in an episode of The Simpsons. "Anyone can read a line," he
says of his own acting experience. Tom has also appeared in a few commercials
for the Senior tour, including the one in which veteran players ring his
doorbell, then hide in the bushes when he comes to the door. "He's a
natural in front of the camera," says Paul, who also gives his dad high
marks for a recent stint as Mother Ginger in the Austin Ballet's 2001 production
of The Nutcracker.In one scene Tom pulled a golf glove from his red satin
purse and a club from beneath his large red skirt and pretended to hit balls
during a dance number. "He'd hold up four fingers to indicate 'Fore!' He
was good," Paul says. "The audience loved
him."
Paul plans to study drama and theater in college, perhaps at a school in the
Northeast. "Even if I end up being a lawyer or a businessman, which I don't
see happening, I'm going to keep acting," he says. "I'll be in a
community theater somewhere because, you know, I don't think I can
stop."
Kite played in his first Masters in 1971, but he would be disappointed if
you suggested that this year's tournament might be his farewell to Augusta. He
expects to play well enough to earn an exemption for next year. (The top 16
finishers get invited back.) He's an achiever, not an overachiever, and has
already won two Senior events this year. "People call it a work ethic, but
golf has never been work to me," Kite says. "It's something I love to
do. When you're 10 years old and you're playing 36 holes a day in the summer,
hitting balls, putting until your back hurts, you don't think of it as work.
When you're an adult and you do the same thing, they say you've got a great work
ethic. Arnold Palmer is 72, and he's not working at golf. He's playing at
it."
That passion is what Kite has passed on to his children. "That's the trick,
find something you're passionate about and fall in love with it," he says,
adding how glad he is that his children have already done so.
They also share a passion for their dad's golf, and every family member intends
to see at least one round of the Masters next week. "In 1997 it was Dad's
last year of being exempt for the Masters because he had won the U.S.
Open," says Paul, "and I remember Mom saying, 'If he never comes back,
I want my kids to be able to experience the Masters.' It's the first one I
remember going to. Dad was playing well, but not incredibly well, and he
finished second. We didn't see it coming. As soon as we saw his name go up on
the leader board, though, with all those red numbers, wow. Some guy in the crowd
figured out that I was Tom Kite's son. He turned to me and said, 'That's
something you'll remember for the rest of your life,' and it really is. Seeing
his name on the board was very cool. Augusta is my favorite
place."
More than three decades after his first visit, Tom feels the same
way.
Issue date: April 8, 2002
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