Kite's Frustration in Texas Mounts after FedEx Kinko's Classic

No golfer is more beloved than Tom Kite in Austin, the Texas capitol where he grew up and made his home for the entirety of a Hall of Fame career in golf. Many of the 50,000 fans that ventured to the Hills Golf Course at the Lakeway Resort last week for the FedEx Kinko's Classic, a Champions Tour event, came to follow their local hero. Everyone in the gallery on the sun-baked track seemed to have their own personal story about the man, his feats on the course, hard work on the range and kindness outside the ropes and within the community.

Given that devotion, Kite's performance here - a four-way tie for 35th after posting 74-74-70-218, 12 shots behind eventual winner Denis Watson of Zimbabwe, left the golfer and his fans way less than satisfied.

"I had some times this week that I hit some great golf shots and played up to my capabilities," Kite said after a birdie on the 54th and final hole of the tournament gave him an up-and-down, 2-under-oar 70 in the third round. "But really, I have not played well for about a year. I am working on getting better, and I am not discouraged."

Kite's failure to win at Lakeway Resort extended a dubious streak in the Lone Star State. Kite, a former University of Texas star, has still never won as a professional in Texas; he is now 0-for-121 in his home state as a regular on the PGA and Champions Tours.

Kite has long been acknowledged as one of the best ball-strikers and most meticulous craftsmen in the history of tournament golf. He's had many top-10 finishes in the Lone Star State: six in the Texas Open, two in the Byron Nelson, five in the Colonial and eight in the Houston Open, where he was runner-up twice. He's never placed better than third in the three Texas tournaments on the Champions Tour, including this one in his hometown.

At last year's AT&T Championship in San Antonio Kite had the lead heading for home on the back nine in the final round. But he missed four short putts over the final six holes and ended up tied for third behind winner John Cook.

There's no explanation for why Kite hasn't won in Texas. "I don't understand it because, obviously, I know how to win golf tournaments in Texas because I won a bunch of them as an amateur," he said. "This week I never gave myself a chance to win, and that's what's really frustrating." At this year's FedEx Kinko's, Kite's week was doomed after nine holes after he carded a 5-over-par 41 before he even passed the clubhouse.

"It was ridiculous for me to have played the first nine holes on Friday the way I did," Kite said. "I sure didn't see it coming because I played well here in the practice rounds and in the pro-ams. I just have not been striking the ball well enough, and it is something I am working on."

Take away that troubled opening nine - where he posted four bogeys, a double-bogey and a birdie in a show of un-Kitelike inconsistency, his triple-bogey (ouch!) on the par-4 seventh hole in the second round and his play on the Hills' famed par-3 16th (he hit shots into its waterfall both Saturday and Sunday and totaled 12 strokes on the hole over three days), and Kite would have been contending for the title.

Instead, Kite spent hours on the range after both the first and second rounds, trying to find a way to work - and will - himself back into consistently good play on the course.

"I always hear about how I have never won as a pro in Texas, but that is something that the media has made bigger than it is," he said. "I have won a lot of tournaments (28 combined victories on the PGA and Champions Tour in 914 starts), so it's obvious I know how to win. Would it be great to win in Texas? I think you know that answer. I will just keep working."

Kite's next chance to break his Texas streak will come in October, when the senior circuit returns to the Lone Star State on back-to-back weeks in Houston and San Antonio.

Steve Habel is an Austin, Texas-based journalist. Since 1990, he has traveled around the globe covering news, business and sports assignments for various news bureaus, newspapers, magazines and websites. He also contributes to Business District magazine in Austin as managing editor and is the Texas football beat writer and a contributing editor for Horns Illustrated, the Austin-based magazine for University of Texas sports. Habel writes a weekly golf column for The River Cities Tribune in Marble Falls, Texas, and is a member of the Texas Golf Writers' Association.