She ’ s been mostly injury-free lately after a series of hip and back ailments forced her to curtail her playing schedule during her last few years on the LPGA circuit . Back in 2012 , she had been hoping for one more season — it would have been her 25th on tour — when one final calamity prevented her from reaching that goal .
“ I had a cat bite bring me down ,” she said . “ We had gotten a new dog and I was holding the cat . The dog jumped up and went after her and the cat bit me on the left index finger . It now takes a left turn .”
These days , she can laugh about it , but at the time , there was nothing funny about spending four days in the hospital with a bone infection , followed by three weeks of intravenous antibiotics and many months of not being able to grip a golf club , let alone swing it .
Maryland . Tiffany and her husband , Brian , moved to Northern California several years ago , but they remain great friends with Tschetter and are always asking about the girls . Tschetter sees the Tysers whenever she ’ s in the Bay Area and loves the fact that Tiffany , a fine athlete who played college volleyball , took up golf herself and now is totally addicted .
Neither Lainey nor Kyra play golf . Lainey was active in ballet as a youngster , and even convinced her mother to perform a cameo several times in Nutcracker productions , including one year with a torn calf muscle . A year ago Lainey decided she preferred soccer to ballet , mercifully ending Tschetter ’ s dancing career just in time . And little sister Kyra has become a spelling bee whiz and has a great passion for rock climbing , definitely
“ They have 25 engineers in China and another 25 people in Oakland . I can tell you it ’ s keeping me busy . This working for a living is hard on your golf game .”
“ When I was able to play again , I was playing with a doctor and he looked at the finger and said ‘ that looks bad ,’” Tschetter recalled . “ I told him I probably could have lost the finger . He looked at me and he said , ‘ no , you could have lost your hand .’”
DREAM COME TRUE Tschetter has never lost her sense of humor . She ’ s led a truly intriguing life , growing up in South Dakota , where she ’ s considered the finest golfer in the state ’ s history , and playing college golf at Texas Christian University , where her team often practiced at Shady Oaks , Ben Hogan ’ s home club in Fort Worth , Texas . She and Hogan met on the practice range there and became great friends , and Tschetter even wrote a book about it a few years ago called “ Mr . Hogan , The Man I knew .”
Clearly , her daughters are now the main focus of her life . They were both carried to term by a surrogate mother , Tiffany Tyser , who was then living in suburban a pursuit her injury-prone mom also should probably avoid .
Despite all those physical problems , Tschetter still has a great passion for golf . And now it ’ s the same for that new fulltime job , even if she gets plenty of ribbing from her colleagues at 18BIRDIES over her rather limited business resume .
“ The joke at the company is that ‘ it ’ s Kris ’ s first job out of college ,’” she said . “ When I was hired , I went out there and met everyone . We were sitting around a table and when I was introduced , they talked about me having my first ‘ real ’ job and they all burst out laughing . Turns out I was the oldest person in the room .
“ But I ’ m having so much fun doing this . It ’ s really been a dream come true , to be able to keep playing and also doing what I would have done if I hadn ’ t been playing professional golf for 30 years . I ’ m very lucky , and very happy .”
And very much in the pink , you might even say .
J ANUARY / F EBRUARY 2017 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 23