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| Tom
Kite, aged 47 does not have the swashbuckling attitude to his European counterpart.
He has though got just as much experience as Seve in Ryder Cup matches. He too,
like Seve, began playing in the Matches in 1979 and since has been a member of
the team no less than seven times. His record is 15 wins, 9 losses and four halves
and ranks him amongst the best in US Ryder Cup history. Arnold Palmer has the
most with 22 wins, followed by Billy Casper and Lanny Wadkins, the 1995 captain
with 20 each. Tom Kite also holds the record for the biggest individual margin
when he beat Howard Clark in 1989 by 8 and 7.
Tom is known to enjoy the challenge
of match play and has a tremendous competitive spirit.
"The neat thing
about match play is what I call the urgency. You have the feeling that it has
to be done right now, it can't be put off until tomorrow. When you feel that sense
of urgency, you know it has to be done right now. It's not like we can make a
bogey here because we have 54 holes left in the tournament. Every shot becomes
more and more crucial," he says.
"The best players rise to the
occasion when they sense that urgency. That is why you see the top players come
to the fore on the third and fourth rounds of a tournament and not the first two,
because there is not the sense of urgency that you are going to be eliminated."
Tom Kite has shown what a great player he is and was certainly instrumental in
the American team's win at the Belfry in 1993.
His approach and his motivation
and his inspiration to the American team will be a considerable factor at Valderrama.
From his past record he is a man that can rise to the occasion and it is certain
he will be encouraging the team to achieve their very best against a highly emotional
and inspired European team.
The Tom Kite story begins in Austin, Texas, and
he was just six years old when he began playing golf. His first tournament win
came at the age of 11 and such was his formative years in the game that it was
no surprise he carved out a distinguished amateur career. The pinnacle of that
was reaching the final of the US Amateur Championship in 1970 only to finish runner-up,
a shot behind Lanny Wadkins in Portland, Oregon. In those days the US Amateur
was a stroke-play event and Wadkins' 72-hole total of 279 is still a record.
The following year Kite and Wadkins were Walker Cup team-mates at St Andrews when
the US suffered only their second ever defeat, going down 13-11 to a GB&I
team that included the likes of Michael Bonallack, Charlie Green, David Marsh
and Roddy Carr, who is now Seve Ballesteros' manager.
After sharing the NCAA
Championship with Ben Crenshaw in 1972, Kite took the inevitable step of turning
professional and in 1973 he won the US Tour's Rookie of the Year award after claiming
two top-10 finishes.
From then on it was a story of steady upward progress
with his maiden victory coming in the IVB- Bicentennial Classic in 1976.
Between 1981 and 1989 Kite only once finished outside the top-9 in the money list,
and then he was 14th, but 1989 was his best ever year with three victories, including
the Players Champiomship, he never missed a cut in 23 events and his winnings
topped the million dollar mark at $1,395,278.
His unquestioned US Tour form,
that had brought him 16 titles as well as millions of dollars in prize money,
didn't seem to rub off to the majors. That was until June 21st 1992 when Kite
finally got the monkey off his back by winning the US Open with a closing par
72 at Pebble Beach. His three-under par 285 left him two strokes ahead of Jeff
Sluman and three in front of Colin Montgomerie.
Although his performances
since that day have generally been somewhat undistinguished by Kite's own high
standards, he has still won over $9 million in 25 years on tour and remains second
on the all-time money list behind Greg Norman.
Kite's two victories outside
the United States have both been in Europe, the European Open at Walton Heath
in 1980 and the Oki Pro-Am in 1996 on his way to running the rule over Valderrama
in preparation for 1997's big date. |  |
