Gimino: As fans go, Gregory really walks the walk
by Anthony Gimino on Feb. 21, 2008, under Sports
D.J. Gregory doesn't let cerebral palsy stop him from following his favorite golfers around the course.
Light clouds, a chill in the air, a soft breeze. A nice day for a walk. For D.J. Gregory, every day, through hot and cold, rain and wind, up and down, is a great day for a walk – and it’s getting better all the time.
The man who will see more professional golf in person this year than anybody else on the planet was back on the course Wednesday, sticking his black cane into the dirt path outside the first tee box and, in the best way he can describe it, starting to “wobble” down the course, knees locked with every step.
Never mind the back nine thrills by Tiger Woods, Gregory, born with cerebral palsy and an independent streak, might be the best story at this week’s World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.
He hasn’t missed a round on the PGA Tour this season and doesn’t intend to through the 38-week schedule, including the Ryder Cup.
That will be close to 2,800 holes – and this week’s stop at The Gallery Golf Club will be one of the most strenuous tests of the year. The five-day format calls for morning and afternoon matches on Saturday and a 36-hole final on Sunday. Instead of a regular 72 tournament holes, Gregory will walk 126.
“It never gets boring,” said Gregory, 30. “I love being out here.”
It started out as one man’s dream. It’s beginning to turn into an inspiration.
• • •
Gregory was 12 years old when his father, Don, took him to his first PGA Tour event, the Greater Greensboro Open in North Carolina. D.J. had become a golf fan, beginning to play one-handed when he was 9.
He wanted to go to the driving range to collect autographs. He knew the announcers, too, and tried to call out to Ken Venturi, who was in a cart.
“In a very faint tone of voice, I tried to get his attention, but it didn’t work,” Gregory said.
Fans behind D.J. called out on his behalf, and Venturi drove over to sign an autograph. Five minutes later he was back.
“Want to get in?” Venturi asked.
“Sure,” D.J. said.
Venturi drove across the driving range, allowing D.J. to gather autographs from all the players there. He then took D.J. to the first tee, set him up in the players’ tent and instructed the volunteers to make sure every player gave the boy an autograph.
“What are you guys doing at 3:45?” Venturi asked.
D.J. and his dad had planned to head home.
“You want to watch the live broadcast from the 18th tower?”
Don answered, “If I have to carry him up to the tower, he’ll be there.”
D.J. was definitely hooked. He still has all his souvenirs from that day. A glove signed by Payne Stewart sits in a glass box on his dresser at home in Savannah, Ga.
Home. Gregory hasn’t been there since the PGA Tour season began Jan. 3 in Maui. That’s more than 145 walking miles ago.
• • •
Gregory, who has a master’s degree in sports management from Springfield (Mass.) College, huffed and puffed as he continued his 18-hole walk Wednesday, almost always moving to keep up with the pace of play.
“It’s like he takes two steps for every one step someone else would take,” his father said. “As part of his cerebral palsy, his toes overlap in his shoes. It’s like they’re squeezed in there. He wears eight to 10 Band-Aids every day to minimize the blisters. He never talks about that.
“The walking is even tougher than what it looks like.”
His father was with him the first seven weeks of the season, but Gregory’s friends, many from college, will tag along now. Dana Rieger, an executive assistant to the UConn athletic director, is walking with Gregory this week.
“Some days are better than others,” he said of the physical toll. “After a round, obviously my feet are tired. As we get further along into this, my body is getting used to the grind of walking. I think I’m getting stronger.”
The PGA Tour assigns him to a different golfer each week. Using his unique access before and after rounds, and a tournament’s worth of observation, he then writes about the player and his week’s experiences at a blog on PGATour.com.
Gregory keeps tracks, among other things, of his miles, his beverage intake and his falls, which reached 10 last week. None on Wednesday. He will put everything together at the end of the year for a still-untitled book, although “A Long Walk” is one of the good suggestions.
He is following Aaron Baddeley this week. If Baddeley is eliminated, Gregory will walk with someone else – almost always outside the ropes so he’s not a distraction.
“The greatest story in golf is the march of D.J. Gregory around every single tour event,” Jim Nantz, the lead golf announcer for CBS, told The Arizona Republic.
Nantz had something to do with it.
• • •
When D.J. was 2, doctors wanted to put him in a wheelchair.
“He was army-crawling,” Don said. “His legs were scissored so tight you had to really pry his legs apart to change his diapers.”
D.J.’s parents looked for other options than a lifetime in the wheelchair. They agreed to have doctors cut his abductor muscles and his femurs and twist his legs so that his feet, which had pointed straight out, were headed in the right direction.
“As parents, you go, ‘Whoa, what are we doing?’ ” his father said. “Of course, now he complains that one foot was turned too much.”
D.J. made his way through all the walking devices, eventually needing only a cane when he was about 10. By the time he went to college, he turned down his dad’s offer of a cart to get around campus and declined the school’s proposal to have all his classes on the ground floor.
Just give me enough time, he said, I’ll get there.
• • •
Through Venturi, Gregory met Nantz and they became friends.
Gregory, a few years ago, came up with the dream of walking every tournament. He routinely went to several events a year. Last year, Nantz suggested Gregory pitch the idea to PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. Nantz delivered the proposal in person.
The PGA Tour tested the idea in consecutive late-season events to see how Gregory did and then gave him a green light.
Along the way this season, he has picked up sponsors that take care of air travel, lodging, apparel and some dining.
“I’m just grateful for this experience,” he said. “The PGA Tour has been absolutely fantastic to work with. Anything I need, it’s done. The players are fabulous. Each one has told me, anything you need, it’s done.”
Through his blog and media coverage, Gregory is fast becoming a celebrity. The Golf Channel is working on a two-part special.
“At Pebble Beach a couple of weeks ago on Sunday, it seemed like every five minutes somebody would stop me and say hi or tell me I’m an inspiration or tell me they really like what I’m doing,” he said.
When he started it was just D.J. and his dad walking the course at Kapalua in the first week of the season. In the second week, the Golf Channel showed him on the course during tournament coverage, telling his story.
“The very next day we had a man chase us down and shake our hands and tell D.J. he was an inspiration,” the father said. “He said he told his son that if that man can come out here and walk, then I’m getting my butt out and walk out there, too.”
D.J. recalls one e-mail in particular from a woman whose best friend’s daughter, suffering from cerebral palsy, is ready to go to college. The woman wondered how to talk to her friend about being able to let go.
“These are kind of e-mails he is getting,” Don said.
Clearly, D.J. isn’t just out for a stroll anymore.
This didn’t start as a fundraising walkathon, but Wednesday a link was added to Gregory’s PGA Tour blog to donate to United Cerebral Palsy, either on a one-time basis or based on how many holes he walks.
“This is bigger than I thought it would be,” Gregory said. “But if I can be an inspiration to people or help them out in any way, that is great. That is absolutely great.”
Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com
