Kerr, Cristie

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Kerr, Cristie

Professional golfer

B orn October 12, 1977, in Miami, FL; daughter of Michael (an elementary school teacher) and Linda (a legal secretary) Kerr; married Erik Stevens (a developer), December 9, 2006.

Addresses: Contact—LPGA, 100 International Golf Dr., Daytona Beach, FL 32124-1092. Web site— http://www.birdiesforbreastcancer.com/

Career

A mateur career wins include: Florida State Junior Girls Championships, 1993, 1994, 1995; Dade County Youth Fair Tournament, 1994; Harder Hall Women’s Championship, 1995; Women’s Western Amateur Championship, 1995; Florida State Women’s Championship, 1995; South Atlantic Women’s Amateur title, 1996. LPGA wins include: Longs Drugs Challenge, 2002; Junior Orange Bowl Classic, 2004; Doral Publix Junior Classic, 2004; Women’s Western Junior Championship, 2004; Take-fuji Classic, 2004; ShopRite LPGAClassic, 2004; State Farm Classic, 2004; Michelob ULTRA Open, 2005; Wendy’s Championship for Children, 2005; Franklin American Mortgage Championship, 2006; CN Canadian Women’s Open, 2006; John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic, 2006; U.S. Open, 2007.

Awards: Named American Junior Golf Association Player of the Year, 1995; U.S. Curtis Cup Team, 1996; U.S. Solheim Cup Team, 2002, 2003, 2005; LPGAKo-men Award for breast cancer charity work, 2006.

Sidelights

O nce dubbed the Tiger Woods of women’s golf, Cristie Kerr hit the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour as a 19year-old rookie in 1997. After a meteoric rise through the junior and amateur ranks, Kerr was expected to take the tour by storm. Her initial performance, however, was underwhelming. Kerr teed off in more than 130 LPGAevents before securing her first victory, which finally came in 2002. As Kerr grew older and her maturity level began to match her skill level, she transformed herself into a formidable force on the green and staged a comeback by winning the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open and mounting a challenge to Annika Sorenstam’s reign as the queen of the women’s golf world.

Kerr was born on October 12, 1977, in Miami, Florida, to Michael and Linda Kerr. Her father was a teacher and her mother worked as a legal secretary. As a youngster, Kerr caddied for her father and took an interest in the sport. By age ten, she was playing. “I fell in love with golf the first time I had a club in my hand,” Kerr told the Miami Herald’s Mike Phillips. At the time, Kerr was already involved in another sport—bowling—and was one of the top-ranked youth bowlers in the state. She begged her father for golf lessons and at the age of 12, Kerr became the youngest person to ever quality for the U.S. Golf Association Junior girls’ championship. At 13, Kerr made her mark as the youngest qualifier for the Women’s Amateur Public Links championship, even making the two-day cut to appear in the finals.

Kerr attended Miami Sunset High School, where she anchored the boys’ golf team. As a girl competing with boys—some of whom did not want her to be a part of their team—Kerr had trouble fitting in. Because she was slightly chunky, classmates taunted her with jeers of “Fatso” and “four-eyes.” To get through this rough patch of adolescence, Kerr concentrated on her game and found she could get even with the name-callers by beating them on the golf course. In 1994, Kerr became the first girl to win the boys’ division of the well-respected Dade County Youth Fair Tournament. Kerr beat the nation’s top-ranked junior boy by a total of four shots.

As a teenager, Kerr spent her summers on the road, golfing with her dad and competing in various matches around the country. Funding Kerr’s junior golf career proved hard for her parents—they spent $50,000 on her golf in 1995. As the costs mounted, the Kerrs remained dedicated to financing their daughter’s dream. “We did it with everything we earned, with loads of credit cards, and with help from other family members,” Kerr’s mom told the Sun-Sentinel’s Randall Mell. “Every extra dollar outside of the mortgage, the electric bill, and the telephone bill was going to Cristie’s golf.”

By the time Kerr graduated from high school, she had won 22 of her last 25 amateur events and decided to forgo college to turn pro. She entered the tour in 1997. That rookie season, she competed in 27 events and not once finished in the top 10. Kerr played so poorly she lost her tour card and had to go back to “qualifying school” before she could play the next year. In addition to struggling on the greens, Kerr had trouble connecting with fellow golfers who found her cocky and temperamental. Intensely blunt, Kerr put off other players. Speaking to Golf World’s Ron Sirak, Kerr acknowledged that her immaturity got in the way of her career. “From a growing-up standpoint it might have been good to go to college for a year or two,” she said. “At the time when I came out here there weren’t many people my own age, so it was hard to be accepted by some of the older players, especially getting a lot of press and stuff.”

Tournament after tournament, Kerr failed to make her mark on the LPGA. In 1999, her parents divorced, and Kerr suffered through the season with back pain that forced her to withdraw from several events. Feeling down and out, Kerr decided to make a change. She hired a dietician and began working out, eventually shedding about 60 pounds from her nearly 5foot4inch frame. “I just wanted to change my image, how I felt about myself,” Kerr told the Palm Beach Post’s Craig Dolch. “I just got sick of being fat and not playing as well as I wanted to.”

The transformation followed Kerr to the golf course. In 2000, Kerr notched eight top10 finishes and placed second at the U.S. Women’s Open. She finished the season ranked fifteenth on the money list with earnings of $530,751—this was nearly double her earnings for her first three years combined. In 2002, Kerr grabbed her first LPGA victory, at the Longs Drugs Challenge. As Kerr moved from tentative newcomer to confident veteran, more wins came her way. Buoyed by three wins in 2004, she finished fifth on the money list. In 2005, Kerr grabbed two LPGA wins, following with three in 2006.

The year 2006 also saw Kerr marry developer Erik Stevens and earn an LPGA Komen Award for her work raising money for her charity, Birdies for Breast Cancer, which she founded after her mother was diagnosed with the disease in 2003. Kerr also stayed busy off the course with endorsements. Since rising through the ranks and re-imaging herself, Kerr landed deals to represent Lacoste, Titleist/Foot Joy, and Mutual of Omaha.

In July of 2007, Kerr entered the 62nd U.S. Women’s Open at the Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in North Carolina. She had not won all season. In the final round, Kerr faced tough competition from Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa, at the time the No. 1ranked player in the world. Kerr and Ochoa were tied with five holes remaining, but Kerr went on to secure the win, swinging her way to a two-shot victory. Kerr shot a 5under-par 279 to Ochoa’s 71-281. The win earned her $560,000. “This is a long time coming,” fellow golfer Natalie Gulbis told the Miami Herald’s Jeff Shain shortly after Kerr’s win. “She’s been arguably the top American player for many years.”