D.J. Gregory keeps walking PGA Tour

D. J. Gregory

D. J.. Gregory, who has cerebral palsy, set a goal to walk every hole of the PGA tour in 2008 and was recently trekking around the Canadian Open, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail.

Gregory, 30, has been following one golfer every week this year to challenge himself and raise awareness for cerebral palsy; he works with United Cerebral Palsy.

His goal this year is both simple and complex. He means to walk every hole of every PGA Tour event. This is his 30th tournament. He falls. He gets up. The PGA Tour decides the player he'll accompany each week. Gregory works closely with PGA Tour official Doug Milne in particular.

"I've been a golf fanatic all my life," Gregory said while following Pettersson on the second hole. "I love coming to tournaments, and went to six or seven each year the last few years on my own, following players I know [Aaron Baddeley, for one]. I wondered what it would be like to go to every event."

The PGA Tour embraced the idea, but asked that Gregory walk two consecutive tournaments to ensure he had enough stamina. He tested himself at last year's Barclays and Deutsche Bank tournaments, where he followed Mark Wilson and Tim Herron.

"We decided to go ahead after those two weeks," Gregory said.

"I do a blog for the PGA Tour [at pgatour.com], and I interview the players I follow before the tournament and after each round," Gregory said. "It takes me about an hour to transcribe eight minutes of tape. I'm not a very fast typist."

His longest interview was 1 hour 9 minutes, with 2003 PGA Championship winner Shaun Micheel. Gregory said that transcribing interviews is the hardest part of what he does. Go figure. He thinks nothing of walking the four or five miles it takes to complete a course. If his player misses the cut, he walks with another player he knows for the weekend.