Golf Central

It was on this day in 1949, that in McKinney, Texas, Tom Kite was born. That's right, that Tom Kite - the one who looked like he stepped right out of a high-school chemistry lab and right onto the first tee of a major championship.

OK, Tom Kite was never a chick magnet. With an image that can only be described as pallid, kindly, ghost-white, freckle-faced, hair like a Brillo pad and Coke-bottle glasses, Tom Kite did not look like a future golf star. He never cared. He just took it to them time after time, and when it all stacked up, Kite (or as his mentor Harvey Penick might have said) was a winner, that's all that matters. Count up the score. And play "goff", as they say on the Plains of Texas.

So what's Kite's score? Let's see what bullying the funny-looking kid gets you ...

Tom Kite is in the World Golf Hall of Fame. He won 19 times on the PGA Tour and won the 1992 US Open in what were probably the most testing conditions seen in a modern major. How windy was it in the '92 US Open at Pebble Beach? People were blowing over sideways. Not Kite. He stood his ground and took the trophy.

Not only that, Kite was a money-winner, not a money-grabber. Kite's prime coincided, happily for him, with the increase in PGA Tour purses that TV exposure provided, and, as one of the best players of his era, he reaped the rewards. From 1981 to 1989, Kite was the PGA Tour's top money winner. He was the first in the Tour's history to reach the figures of $6m, 7m, 8m and 9m million in career earnings.

You do the maths. It was only this year that Tiger Woods, whose PGA Tour win total stands at 61, became the first man to pass $10 million in a season. Such was the platform that consistent winners like Kite built.

Always gentlemanly and a helluva nice guy, as befits his Texan upbringing under the wing of Penick, Kite was also at the forefront of some of the innovations that today's golfers take for granted. The third wedge in the bag? That was Kite's idea. So was having a sports psychologist along for the ride.

Not many American golfers can say they played on seven Ryder Cup teams, but Kite can. ... and he can also say he captained the defeated '97 one. But in typical Kite style, he accepted a crushing 1-point to the Seve Ballesteros-led European crew at Valderrama, with grace, even as the Europeans were celebrating in a style that they would have claimed disgraceful when the Americans won at Brookline in '99 ... But more on that later as the winds warm up for Valhalla ...

December 8th actually happens to be a great day to be born if you want to become a major golf champion, by the way. In addition to Kite, Jim Turnesa, winner of the '52 PGA, was born today in 1912; and in 1933, Orville "Sarge" Moody, whose only PGA Tour win was the '69 US Open, was born in Oklahoma.

Family planning architects, take note ... (mind you, Earl and 'Tida Woods missed the magic Dec. 9 dateline by 21 days with their son, what's his name.).

Today is a great day to celebrate if you are a chav, because today is the day that in 1892, Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End merged to form Newcastle United FC, now owned by Mike Ashley, who made billions by selling you and all your mates loads of worthless stuff that falls apart within a year. And the pundits worry about selling a club like Liverpool to American financiers, but they don't bat an eyelid about the sale one of England's great clubs to a man who made a fortune by outfitting a generation of juvenile delinquents. But don't worry about that, because after your ASBO runs out like the stuff you bought at JJB Sports, they give you new gear in prison ... Innat right!

That said, it's 'appy birf to a bunch of "actors", led by the venerable Kirk "Spartacus" Douglas (91) and Dame Judi Dench (72); followed by a lot of mere poseurs in Beau "Not Nearly As Famous As My Brother" Bridges (65) and John "Being John Cusack or R.E.M." Malkovich (53).

It's also musical b-days to Nick Seymour (48), bass player for Kiwi popsters Crowded House; Brian Bell (39), rhythm guitarist who looked so chirpy in that Weezer video for Buddy Holly; Bob's son Jakob Dylan (38) of the Wallflowers and no real fame other than a name; and Tre Cool (35), who has laid down some killer drum tracks for Green Day.

Oh ... and the better half reports that today is the 45th birthday of actress Felicity Huffman, who is famous for being on Desperate Housewives or something like that.

It also would have been birthdays today for the greatest player in Leeds United history, Billy Bremner, who might not have looked big but played much bigger, but ultmately found something bigger than himself in 1997; and for the great English poet John Milton, (b. 1608), whose epic poem Paradise Lost we were all supposed to read in school, but we all got ... lost ... somewhere ... before ... zzzzzzzzzzzz. ... the end.