Sport’s fight against ALS continues

Kim Julian didn’t want to go to the barbecue six years ago. She wanted to stay home with a book, but her friends pleaded with her, so she agreed. At the party, she met a man who was a pro golfer who had just missed the cut at a Buy.com tournament in Springfield, Mo., and couldn’t get a flight out of town.

It was Aug. 12, 2000, the day Kim met her future husband, Jeff. Kim was always great with remembering anniversaries and important dates, but she had forgotten Aug. 12 this year until she was walking near her home in Newton, Mass., and noticed the leaves changing colors and falling.

“Then I remembered,” she said.

It’s because Kim Julian rarely forgets that makes a difference. Jeff Julian died in 2004, a victim of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease -- and Kim has devoted herself to raising money to benefit ALS research. Kim Julian and Tom Watson, whose caddie, Bruce Edwards, also died of ALS in 2004, have teamed up to fight the disease in a program called Driving 4 Life.

Watson will give a morning clinic Nov. 6 at Riviera Country Club and also play alongside those who sign up to take part. Details are at www.drivingforlife.org or calling (877) D4L-4249.

“There are not too many more important things in my life than fighting the disease that killed my friend,” Watson said.

Kim Julian said donations to the ALS Therapy Development Foundation at Cambridge, Mass., are nearly $1 million and that the four Driving 4 Life events scheduled may bring in $400,000.

“This gives Jeff’s death purpose,” she said. “That may sound weird, but it gives me a reason, since my husband died of this disease. It’s not about Jeff anymore. It was two years ago, but I meet ALS patients every day, come close to them and their families, and my heart is broken every time they die. I don’t know why I put myself through it. But I do it, and to help raise as much money as I can, for the best possible research, so one day we can say, ‘Great, we’re done.’ ”

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The PGA Tour’s “off-season” is a joke, of course: 17 days between the last day of the Target World Challenge and the first day of the Mercedes Championship. But it’s even worse on the European Tour: 10 days between Sunday’s finish of the Volvo Masters and the beginning of the 2007 season, the HSBC Champions, Nov. 9, in China. Tiger Woods has entered that one.

By the way, no one should be shocked if Woods announces today that he isn’t playing next week’s Tour Championship, because he’s apparently leaning that way.

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Most everyone who saw Joe Durant shoot 36 under to win the 2001 Bob Hope and set a PGA Tour scoring record for a 90-hole tournament knows he can go low, which is what he did over the weekend at the Disney, where he was 25 under and won by four shots.

Durant won twice in 2001 -- he also won at Doral -- but he hadn’t won since. Durant said his putting has improved, yet he’s ranked 133rd in putting on the PGA Tour, but first in fairways hit.

The 42-year-old said he was pleased to play well at the Disney, and that his sons Connor, 15, and Hayes, 8, were even happier, because they wound up spending 10 days at the amusement parks.

“We always dreamed about standing on 18 with Mickey,” Durant said.

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Remember Jos Vanstiphout, the sports psychologist who helped turn Retief Goosen into a two-time U.S. Open champion? Ernie Els remembers him. Els and the Belgian golf shrink used to work together, and now they’re teaming up again. Els has slipped to seventh in the rankings, despite six top-10 finishes in 16 events on the PGA Tour this year after coming back from knee surgery. He is playing this week in the Chrysler Championship.

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The quote of the week is from Annika Sorenstam, on whether she is planning to pose for a swimsuit calendar, as Natalie Gulbis did: “I don’t think so. Have you seen her calendar? I don’t think I would sell too many.”

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It has been a great year for first-year pro Troy Matteson, who won at Las Vegas and tied for second last week at the Disney, but it could have been even better. Matteson bogeyed the 72nd hole at the Disney and lost his solo second place, costing him $92,000. It also cost him six spots on the money list, from 36th to 42nd, and the top 40 at the end of the year are exempt into the Masters.

Matteson is one of four PGA Tour rookies to win this year (Trevor Immelman, J.B. Holmes and Eric Axley are the others) and one of eight to have made at least $1 million (Immelman, Holmes, Axley, Camilo Villegas, Nathan Green, Bubba Watson and Charley Hoffman are the others).

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PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem is the top-paid executive in golf, earning $4.067 million, according to a list compiled by Golf Digest. Two other PGA Tour executives make more than $1 million, according to Golf Digest, which also reports that Jim Nantz is television’s top-earning golf announcer at $4.375 million and that Nick Faldo makes $900,000. The highest-paid equipment/apparel/retail executive, according to the magazine, is Callaway Golf President and Chief Executive George Fellows, at $924,861.

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Duffy Waldorf, who missed the cut at the Disney, is 130th on the money list with $609,871 and playing this week on a sponsor’s exemption at the $5.3-million Chrysler Championship -- the last official money, full-field event of the year. Waldorf, 44, is about $41,000 behind Bubba Dickerson, who is 125th on the money list, the last exempt spot.

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Hale Irwin made it into the field at Sonoma Golf Club for the $2.5-million Charles Schwab Cup Championship, but because it’s the last official event of the year, his streak of 11 consecutive years winning at least twice on the Champions Tour will end. Irwin has won at least twice every year since he joined the Senior Tour in 1995.

Irwin, 61, is winless this year. He has made $746,144 and his string of earning at least $1 million started in 1996.

thomas.bonk@latimes.com