Epileptic golfer looks for big break in Ultimate Game

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The putt was no more than 3 feet, and yet when J.T. Kohut finally lifted his head, he noticed a ball some 20 yards off the green. Then he wondered if he had accidentally dropped it off his shoe and it had rolled away. Then he glanced around and noticed everyone had that Macaulay Culkin look of terror from “Home Alone.” Then he knew he hadn’t dropped anything.

Epileptic seizures are defined as transient signs due to abnormal, excessive neuronal activity in the brain. Kohut will tell you they really stink during a guy’s backswing. He suffered one that day in Arizona while playing a mini-tour event. He whacked that 3-footer well past the pin and never remembered doing it.

“The stories about that one went on forever,” he said.

His is one of thousands of faces you don’t see in golf, those determined, nameless, struggling sorts fixed on one day being part of the PGA Tour’s gigantic shadow that exists only to occupy space behind the bright superstar that is Tiger Woods.

They just keep grinding away on undistinguished tours with prize money aimed to make rent rather than purchase another summer home, these anonymous players always working and searching and praying for one big break.

It could come for Kohut or another like him here this week. At its core, that is what the Ultimate Game should always be about — making the dream no longer seem impossible for one of those nameless sorts who need the aid of a sponsor to put up the $50,000 entry fee. Michael Jordan is doing so for a player this week. One of those lending financial support to Kohut is the wife of Wayne Gretzky, Janet Jones.

The field consists of 40 players, and all are chasing a winning purse of $2 million, a reward that possibly could alter the destiny of someone like Kohut, a 27-year-old from Simi Valley, Calif., who lives with epilepsy and all the issues it presents a competitive golfer.

Match play began Tuesday at Reflection Bay, and Kohut putted well enough to defeat Justin Peters of Plantation, Fla., 2 and 1. The field will eventually shrink to 12 for 36 holes of stroke play June 7 and 8 at Wynn Las Vegas. It’s not difficult to hope Kohut still will be competing.

How do you succeed at the thinking man’s game when at any second your brain might cause involuntary changes in body movement or awareness? How do you overcome countless demanding shots when one of the major factors that trigger a seizure is stress?

You focus more, impossible as it might be.

“Winning a tournament like this would help me so much,” said Kohut, whose condition is controlled with medication. “People talk about being more relaxed when they don’t have to worry about (finances). Well, that would really be me. It would make me more confident. There wouldn’t be as much stress.

“It’s impossible to stop (a seizure) but not impossible to slow one down. Mentally, I have to fight it if I feel one coming on.”

His reputation is one of being terrific in match play, able to wear opponents out for a day or two. But he has attended Q School three times and never made it past the initial phase. Never qualified for a PGA Tour event. Never sniffed the real thing.

If he is fortunate, Kohut can make $4,000 monthly on mini tours. There is food and gas and other travel expenses. There is rent on an apartment he shares with another golfer.

It might not be the life he imagined upon leaving UCLA after three years, when a battle with dyslexia in the classroom was ruining his game on the course. But it’s one he cherishes.

“There’s nothing that’s really keeping him from making it,” said George Gankas, a Westlake, Calif.-based teaching pro who works with Kohut. “He has the swing. He has a great short game. He’s one of the best match-play players I’ve ever seen. But you can’t go to Q School unprepared, and you can’t be prepared unless you have the money to do so correctly.”

The kind of money whoever wins this tournament will receive. The kind of money that can relieve stress better than a lifetime worth of massages and Feng Shui. The kind of money that could seriously reduce the chances of Kohut whacking a 3-footer to 20 yards off the green.

“I really believe once I get to the (PGA Tour), I’ll be a player who will stay there,” he said. “I won’t be a one-year type guy. I’m a grinder.”

He’s what the Ultimate Game should always be about — a chance for someone to realize the Ultimate Dream.

Ed Graney’s column is published Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.