http://www.golfweb.com/story/7337501

Say What?
May 17, 2004 

Tim Petrovic on The Doors, playing the guitar and his hero Bobby Jones

Editor's Note: A year ago, Tim Petrovic had his best year since turning professional, pocketing $1,739,349 to finish 36th on the PGA TOUR money list. The Nationwide Tour alum via the University of Hartford also played in his first Masters recently, making the cut and tying for 41st. But golf was the last thing on Petrovic's mind when PGA TOUR staff member Laury Livsey met with him recently for another edition of Say What?

PGATOUR.COM:  What's in your CD player right now?

Petrovic:  It's usually something by The Doors.  But it's Clay Walker this week.

PGATOUR.COM:  Obviously you never met Doors singer Jim Morrison.  Have you met any of the other band members?

Petrovic:  Robby Krieger I met at L.A. this year.   He was with his dad.

PGATOUR.COM:  You've met a lot of famous people.  But was meeting him the biggest deal?

Petrovic:  That's the highlight.  Oh yeah.  I was doing jumping jacks inside trying to stay calm.   I had about a thousand  questions I wanted to fire at him.  It was cool.  He just sent me an e-mail congratulating me on making the cut at the Masters.

PGATOUR.COM:   How did you end up meeting Krieger?

Petrovic:   He and his dad, they're members at Riviera (Country Club, site of the Nissan Open) and they happened to be down at the driving range, and I saw him standing there.  I started squirming my way over in that area, and then somebody introduced him to me.  I'm 6-2, but he was about 10 feet tall when I met him. I've always said I wish I was 16 in the '60s.  But I was born in '66, so I'm a little too young.

PGATOUR.COM:  What's the quintessential Doors song?

Petrovic:  Well, L.A. Woman is there, and everybody knows Light My Fire.  But their first album (The Doors) was probably the best debut album ever.  When you come out with your best album as your first album, that's pretty good.  All their albums all pretty good, but their best one was the first one.  There are also a lot of songs people might never have heard before, like Peace Frog.

PGATOUR.COM:  Did you have a poster of Jim Morrison on your wall when you were a kid?

Petrovic:  I had two posters my freshman year in college. I had one of Jim, it was a 6-foot poster, and right next to him was Marilyn Monroe.  We had these bunk beds, and I had a small dorm room and the posters were right on the ceiling.  One night I was having a dream about something, and as I woke up the poster of Jim was peeling off the ceiling and coming down onto me.  I was like, whoa. It was one weird experience.  So Jim's been kind of in my face ever since.

PGATOUR.COM:  Are you musically inclined?

Petrovic:  Yeah, I play the guitar.  I have some sheet music I play. I have some Doors stuff, actually. I like music idols who have passed away. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.  He's gone.  So I have a lot of Nirvana's sheet music.  And I play some Eagles.  It's nice and relaxing. I just sit on the third floor of the house and strum away.

PGATOUR.COM:  Are you good at it?

Petrovic:  Yeah, pretty good. I couldn't be a lead guitarist. I haven't gotten to that stage yet.

PGATOUR.COM:  Have you ever played on stage?

Petrovic:  I sang on stage last year with Clay (Walker) at the Deutsche Bank Championship.  I went on stage and sang Margaritaville with him, so that was pretty cool.

PGATOUR.COM: Nervous?

Petrovic:  No, I was OK. But the scary part was when I came out, they handed me the mic and I had no idea what we were going to sing.  But some TOUR players were there, and they said I did really well.  So if golf doesn't work out I could pursue other things. You know, get a band together.

PGATOUR.COM: Any other heroes?

Petrovic:  Bobby Jones.  Hands down, no question about it. If I had a 6-foot poster of him, I'd put it up.

PGATOUR.COM:  Why Jones?

Petrovic:  He won all four majors in one year, which no one will do ever again, and he was consistently breaking par with hickory shafts and egg-shaped golf balls and doing it on putting greens that look like the first cut of rough today. It's unbelievable that the guy could keep shooting in the 60s every day. It's unbelievable the numbers he put up.

PGATOUR.COM:  So your dream foursome would have Jones and Morrison with you. Who's the fourth?

Petrovic:  Well, my dad's in there. I'd put Ben Crenshaw in there too. Make it a fivesome. Or a sixsome. I'd put Seve [Ballesteros] in.

PGATOUR.COM: But if you have three carts, which cart do you ride in?

Petrovic:  Ohhhh. I'd be torn between Bobby and Jim.  But I'd probably have to ride with Jim because I'd have to show him how to play -- to show him around the golf course without him getting distracted.

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http://www.tampatrib.com/Sports/MGADWS8Z9GD.html

Jim Morrison and The Doors hold a major fascination for PGA Tour player Tim Petrovic, according to two recent on-line stories about the player:


Petrovic Becoming PGA Tour's Stand-Up Guy
MICK ELLIOTT
Published: May 29, 2003

Lake Jovita's second-year PGA Tour player Tim Petrovic is talking about his breakthrough last year into the big time. It came with a second-place finish at Memphis where he missed a playoff by one shot and earned the first six-figure check of his career, a gaudy $410,000.

For the one-time pizzaman it was another chapter in a warm and fuzzy story. Only a few years earlier, while trying to keep his golf dream alive on the minitours, Petrovic worked in a North Tampa pizza shop. So did wife Juli.

Then last year as a 35-year-old rookie, Petrovic saw his perseverance pay off.

``I remember coming off the 18th green and my wife was coming down the hill,'' he said. ``I'd just missed the putt to get into a playoff. Tap it in and walk it off. You know, no big deal. But it was a big deal. I was pretty excited.

``Then she comes down the hill, all crying. I'm like what's the matter, what's the matter? `You almost won the tournament.' Then I told her how much I won and forget it. She's been shopping ever since.''

Petrovic smiles as he oversees the laughs earned by his storytelling. As he should. These are happy days in the Petrovic household, and there's more to it than the $900,000 earned this year with eight top-25 finishes, including a third at the Phoenix Open.

Golf recently figured out Tim Petrovic has personality and has been very busy lately letting him entertain.<

A Funny Guy

In just the last two weeks Petrovic has been featured in a national golf magazine and on television's weekly ``Inside the PGA Tour.'' He has cracked wise, shown off his fully restored 1959 Chevy pickup truck, talked about a fascination with Jim Morrison and The Doors, performed a couple of trick shots on his pool table and played the guitar.

``It was fun,'' he said. ``It was like `home with Tim on his week off.' I got to do whatever I wanted.''

Except that jokes - no matter how funny - and pool tricks will go only so far. For Petrovic's next act, he needs a victory to cement himself a place among golf's official personalities. He's working on it.

After a tie for 21st last week at Colonial, he has three consecutive top-25 finishes. He was on the leader board for much of the Byron Nelson two weeks ago, beginning with rounds of 65 and 66.

``I'm close,'' he said. ``This year I'm getting my second shot at all these golf courses. I have been happy with the way I have been playing on Sundays. If I can get into the hunt and stay close, I'll feel good. Kind of let it go and see if we can make some putts.''<

Didn't You Used To Be ...?

It might just be enough to distance Petrovic from his lingering notoriety as the pizza guy. ``I can hope,'' he said. Meanwhile, well, pizzas for everybody.

During the off-season Tim, Juli and their two daughters moved into ``our dream home,'' at Lake Jovita. Before the start of this season, he bought into a private airplane. ``Flying in a jet,'' he said. ``Right out of Zephyrhills.'' And to really splurge, Petrovic purchased an album by The Doors, allegedly autographed by Jim Morrison.

``I've got a lot on my plate,'' he said. ``I'm going to see how it goes.''

And enjoy the ride.

``I think I appreciate everything because I have been at the bottom and realizing how far I had to go,'' he said. ``I'm not complaining.''

That will keep 'em smiling.

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http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/5880654.htm

  Posted on Fri, May. 16, 2003  
The people's player: Petrovic still delivers
BY GERRY FRALEY
The Dallas Morning News
 

IRVING, Texas - (KRT) - No Tiger. No Annika. No Masters champion.

If a golf tournament ever needed an infusion of personality, it is the EDS Byron Nelson Championship.

Enter Tim Petrovic, the pizza-delivering, newspaper-tossing, cell-phone-selling, man of the people. Who else in this event went to pieces in high school after seeing guitarist Eddie Van Halen in a hotel lobby?

Petrovic made this event interesting on Friday.

He moved into second place with a 4-under 66 on the TPC. He stands one shot behind Vijay Singh, who had a 5-under 65 to the accompaniment of snores at the Cottonwood Valley course.

Anyone who ever blasted Van Halen on the car stereo as a kid or lived paycheck to paycheck as an adult should root for Petrovic in the final two rounds.

Petrovic has been there and done that and won't forget his past. He lacks the air of entitlement evident with many players.

"I appreciate everything, because I have been at the bottom and realized how far I had to go," Petrovic said. "I'm not complaining about no water on this hole or you need more restrooms here.

"This isn't Triple-A baseball. This is it. This is `The Show.' It's a privilege to play out here."

Petrovic, 36, turned professional in 1988 but did not play a full season on the PGA Tour until last year. In the interim, he played on every mini-tour known to man and, like every struggling big-dream artist, he scraped by with a bizarre collection of odd jobs.

Petrovic refined his game in a parking lot between pizza deliveries. He met his wife, Julie, while hawking cell phones.

He became a media mogul by delivering his hometown Hartford Courant in the dead of a Connecticut winter.

That was the worst of the bad jobs.

The printers' ink rubbed off on every bit of clothing. Customers complained about the paper not being inside the door. Petrovic's old Volkswagen strained under the load of the Sunday edition.

"I've got 600 pounds of paper in the back, and the Volkswagen is doing a wheelie," Petrovic said. "It's dark, cold. I remember delivering papers and freezing to death."

Newspaper delivery serves as a handy point of reference in Petrovic's life.

He earned $111,200 for finishing in a tie for 11th at last week's stop in Charlotte, N.C. What would that payoff be in newspaper-delivery terms?

"Do you know how many newspapers I would have had to deliver to make what I did last week?" Petrovic said. "I would be on Social Security by the time I made that much. It's pretty amazing."

Petrovic earned more than $800,000 last season, enough for him to indulge in an extravagance. He purchased an album by The Doors, his favorite band, that allegedly was autographed by Jim Morrison.

Not much else changed about Petrovic.

He knows the tour's courses, making him more comfortable in his second full-time season. Petrovic, who tied for 17th at 4-under in this event last year, has only one bogey for two rounds. He hit his first 16 greens Friday before slipping at the finish.

Singh said Petrovic is a "good ball striker . . . due to win." Petrovic is average off the tee but adept with his irons.

That skill has returned after abandoning him earlier this season, when he played too much trying to qualify for the Masters. He set the tone Friday by acing the second hold, a 192-yard par-3, with a 7-iron.

Petrovic has a pair of top-5 finishes this season. Each time, he played his best on Sunday.

"If I get in the hunt here and stay close or even have a lead, I think I will be OK on Sunday," Petrovic said.

There is no reason for him to be rattled. Pressure is not playing a tournament with a total purse of $5.6 million. Pressure is having to get a good tip from that next pizza delivery to fill the gas tank.

© 2003, The Dallas Morning News.

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