Julian's Journey Continues
 

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2002 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
Julian's Journey Continues
By Mercer Baggs - February 04, 2002

The dénouement was different, but the story was nonetheless special.

Jeff Julian didn’t get the opportunity to walk up the 18th Sunday at Pebble Beach. The 40-year-old who suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease shot rounds of 77-78-74 to miss the cut in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am by a baker’s dozen.

Disappointed? Not remotely so.

“I want more,” he said emphatically as he walked off the ninth hole, his 18th of the day, at Spyglass Hill.

Julian will next undergo chelation therapy, an alternative method that is supposed to decrease mercury levels in the body, an element that can trigger ALS - the proper name for his disease.

He’ll then spend some time with his 11-year-old son, Keegan, who will be on vacation from his school in Vermont.

If things go well, he hopes to play again in March, maybe April. The BellSouth Classic, held April 4-7 outside of Atlanta, would be perfect.

“I’d love to play there,” he said.

This was Julian’s first PGA Tour event since the Michelob Championship in October, the time when he first discovered he had ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Julian suffers from “Bulbar” ALS. The corticobulbar area of his brainstem, which controls the muscles of his mouth and tongue, is severely affected. Fifty percent of ALS victims die in the first 18 months. His is more serious.

Jeff speaks slowly, and with slurred speech. He uses his hands to stretch and move his cheeks and jaw. And when it’s cold, as it was this week at Pebble Beach, his teeth chatter uncontrollably.

Julian is also a man without professional status. He first joined the PGA Tour in 1996, and then again in an abbreviated 2001.

Jeff and his wife, Kim, hope to get in the neighborhood of 20 sponsor invitations this year, just like the one he received from Pebble Beach tournament director Ollie Nutt.

“One of the happiest days in my (professional) life,” Julian later said.

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