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Notebook: Back in Business Heath Slocum, rebounding from a major illness, is burning up the minorsBy Gary Van Sickle
In December 1997 Heath Slocum never imagined that in 3 1/2 years he would be
one of the hottest golfers on the planet. Back then it took all his strength to
do more basic things, such as dragging his aching body out of bed.
This year Slocum, 27, has won two of his last three starts on the Buy.com tour and come in third in the other. During that stretch he has gone 106 holes without a bogey. One more victory and he will receive a battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour. Even if that does not happen, Slocum is so far ahead on the Buy.com money list -- he has earned $232,390, $49,899 more than runner-up Jonathan Byrd -- that he's a lock to finish among the top 15, which will get him a pass to the big Tour next year. That's a far cry from the waning days of '97, when Slocum, only a year removed from his All-America senior season at South Alabama, was wasting away with an undiagnosed case of ulcerative colitis, a disease of the lower colon. "I actually thought the boy was going to die," says Jack Slocum, Heath's father. Watching his weight drop from 150 to 122 pounds in only a few months and needing to be fed intravenously was startling to the 5'8" Slocum, who had been a star athlete all his life. He had been the starting point guard as a ninth-grader at Milton (Fla.) High, and had won two of the first three college golf tournament he played in. After contracting colitis on Thanksgiving in '97, he didn't play golf again for a year and a half. "I thought I had simply gotten sick, but I stayed sick for four months," says Slocum. "When a specialist told me I had ulcerative colitis, I had no clue what it was. You don't feel like eating because everything goes straight through you. My stomach cramped, and some days arthritis ran through my joints and I literally could not get out of bed. I felt like a 60-year-old man, and I was 24." Slocum, who was living in Pensacola, Fla., didn't get out of the house much. When he did, it usually was to visit his doctor or a pharmacy. "I missed being outside," he says, "but anyone with colitis will tell you that you don't want to get too far from a bathroom." After his disease was diagnosed, Slocum controlled it with medication. He started practicing again midway through the '99 season and entered several mini-tour events, but he lacked the stamina to play well. The key moment in Slocum's recovery came in August 1999, when he was in Atlanta playing a series of mini-tour events run by his father, a longtime golf pro. While he was there, Slocum's stepmother, Kay, mentioned his condition to her gynecologist, who referred Heath to Dr. Jack Koranski, who specializes in colitis. He changed Heath's medication, and Slocum quickly improved. Able to work hard on his game without tiring, he reached the final stage of Q school last year. He missed earning a card by three strokes but clinched a spot on the Buy.com tour, on which last month he won the Greater Cleveland Open and finished third in the Dayton Open. Two weeks ago, he won the Knoxville Open. "Heath is riding a 50-foot wave now," says Knoxville runner-up Keoke Cotner. Even though Slocum is back to 150 pounds, he's not a long hitter, but he hits straight and is deadly with a fairway wood or a wedge. He can't wait for a crack at the big Tour, whether this year or next. "It has been a long time coming for him," says his father, "but he's right where he should be. He's got game."
Eucalyptus
Blight Earthquakes. Landslides. Wildfires. Droughts. Next up for California: a eucalyptus blight that threatens to ravage golf courses around the state. How bad could it be? At Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills, it looks as if a hurricane had blown through. Eucalyptus trees lay in ruin everywhere at the landmark club founded by tennis great Jack Kramer and home to the Nissan Open qualifier. The club has cut down 1,800 of its beloved eucalyptus trees and another 1,200 are marked for removal, turning its two courses from forested chutes into open links land. "Nobody's panicking," says David Kramer, Jack's son and the club's general manager. "There aren't any trees at St. Andrews, and last I heard they still play golf there." Still, the blight is serious. It's similar to the Dutch elm disease that devastated the Northeast in the 1960s and '70s. In California red gum eucalyptus trees from San Francisco to San Diego have been infested. The perp is a lerp, a pinhead-sized insect called the red gum lerp psyllid, the presence of which was detected in L.A. three years ago. The lerp strips the sweetly pungent tree of its leaves, making it susceptible to disease and giving it a bare, burnt appearance. Researchers believe the pest came from Australia, possibly along with smuggled agricultural products. Other Southern California courses have also lost trees, though not on the scale that Los Serranos has. Industry Hills, a 36\!hole complex east of Los Angeles that hosted U.S. Open qualifying in May, has cut down about 300 trees, and thousands more are dead, according to director of golf Dave Youpa. Revered courses like Bel-Air, Los Angeles and Riviera have predominantly blue gum eucalypti, which are less susceptible to the red gum lerp. In an effort to control the blight, a University of California researcher brought in a parasitic wasp, one of the lerp's predators in Australia, but the wasp didn't proliferate. One insecticide that stops the lerp is too costly and time-consuming to save more than a few trees. Results of a pesticide injected into the ground have been spotty. Even chopping down infected trees isn't cheap. Los Serranos will spend $500,000 on removal and replanting with Canary Island pines and ash trees. Ultimately, no eucalyptus may be safe. Janet Hartin, an environmental horticulturist at UC Davis, says that while the blue gum is more resistant to the red gum lerp, it is not entirely safe. "So there is some cause for alarm at Riviera," she says. —Tom Cunneff
Sponsors'
Exemptions As the 15-year-old Wongluekiet twins, Aree and Naree, teed it up in last week's Jamie Farr Kroger Classic in Toledo, one LPGA veteran was heard to say, "What are they doing here?" Duh. Longtime tournament director Judd Silverman has always given sponsors' exemptions to promising amateurs. In pro golf it's called investing in the future. When Tiger Woods was an amateur, he received invitations to play in the Nissan and Western Opens and the Byron Nelson Classic. Guess which Tour stops he hasn't missed since turning pro? Silverman's amateur invitees have included Vicki Goetze-Ackerman, Emily Klein, Grace Park and Meg Mallon. As a group they have won 17 LPGA titles, and Mallon never misses the Jamie Farr. In 1997 Silverman gave a sponsor's exemption to a 19-year-old Korean no one had ever heard of. Se Ri Pak returned last week to win the Farr for the third time in four years. Aree finished 51st and Naree missed the cut, but that's not what they'll remember about their week with the pros in Toledo. Issue date: July 16, 2001
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