Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005 | 7:04 a.m.
Ron Kantowski's column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
She has been touted as the chief American threat to Annika Sorenstam. So it can be assumed that Cristie Kerr's golf game is in great shape, even if she shot 75 in Tuesday's Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge at Lake Las Vegas.
Kerr also recently turned down six figures to pose in Playboy. So it also can be assumed she's in great shape in other ways.
That wasn't always the case.
Kerr was a golf prodigy when Michelle Wie was knee-high to a 7-iron, turning pro right out of high school in 1996. But she struggled with the expectations imposed on her. Always a big girl, she then struggled even more with her weight.
Like Wie, Kerr, 27, has always been a big hitter. Unlike Wie, she was a literal big hitter. "A four-eyed fatty," is the way she puts it.
By 1999, she was still winless and worse, making few friends on tour. Then her parents separated, and Kerr began eating even more to deal with her depression. Her weight ballooned to 185. Her self-esteem plummeted to the red numbers.
Then she decided to do something about it.
She hired tennis star Pete Sampras' nutritionist and began eating smart -- cereal for breakfast, salad for lunch, lean meat for dinner -- and working out. Ninety minutes in the gym, five or six days a week. She told Golf for Women magazine she still curses every time she sees a StairMaster.
"Nothing makes you sweat like that machine," she said.
The results were dramatic, multiplied by two or three. Kirstie Alley's got nothing on Cristie Kerr. Madonna, maybe just a little.
Kerr used to be a size 16. Now she's a size 4. She has knocked 60 pounds off her frame and several strokes off her game. And her self-confidence has shot to the top of the leaderboard, to where she can be difficult to get to know, or at least to interview.
And why shouldn't she be? She's a diva, and a self-made one at that.
That's something Kerr is very proud of -- even more proud of than the five titles she has won (including a marathon seven-hole playoff victory in the 2004 Takefuji Classic in Las Vegas) since she became an LPGA swan.
"Yeah, definitely," she said as she loaded her clubs into the back of her courtesy car in the SouthShore Golf Club parking lot. "I don't think I realized how hard it was until after I accomplished it, you know?"
Well, I sorta know. As I told Kerr, I was running on a treadmill, about 15 pounds lighter than when I started, when I saw her recent interview on the "Today" show where she discussed her weight loss. When I heard she had dropped 60 pounds, I started running faster. And increased the incline.
But inspiring others to be physically fit was never her goal.
"I just felt unhealthy," said Kerr, who is third on this year's LPGA money list with $1.3 million won, trailing only Sorenstam and Paula Creamer. "I felt really unhealthy, and my family was getting sick. So I did it more for health than I did it for golf. I think it just kind of snowballed into my golf game, which I guess, logically, it would.
"I think when you get stronger, you get more flexible. I think it allows you to control the golf club better, and you just feel good about yourself. I really think it's both (mental and physical)."
Still, like most sports, you don't need a membership to 24-Hour Fitness to get up and down for par. That was never better illustrated than at the 3-Tour Challenge on Tuesday when Kerr was grouped with the PGA's John Daly and Craig Stadler of the Champions Tour.
Daly and Stadler are built like offensive tackles and Daly couldn't walk from tee to green without lighting a cigarette. On the 15th, he almost needed a forklift to extract himself from a greenside bunker.
So by the time their group reached the insane closing holes, the ones where they have oxygen tanks next to the ball washers, Daly and Stadler were huffing and puffing like a couple of big, bad wolves.
Kerr marched right past them on her way to grandmother's house, as if she didn't have a care in the world.
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