Jim Thorpe On Golf and Giving

Photo courtesy of Carlton Wade

Jim Thorpe gets ready to sink the winning putt at the FedEx Kinko’s Classic in Austin, Texas.

By Bill Ernst

Jim Thorpe—committed to golf, family and God—put his money where his faith is sooner than he expected.

Jim Thorpe is one of the top golfers on the PGA Champions Tour. Although his golf career hasn’t always been exemplary, golf has always been a part of his life. (And, of course, so has the name he shares with that other Jim Thorpe, the famed Native American star athlete of the early-mid 20th century.) The ninth of twelve children, Thorpe grew up next to the Roxboro Golf Club in Roxboro, North Carolina, where his father was a greenskeeper.

Golf’s "bad boy"
The ninth of twelve children, Thorpe grew up next to the Roxboro Golf Club in Roxboro, North Carolina, where his father was a greenskeeper. Young Thorpe’s early involvement with the game revolved around golf hustling—playing and wagering on rounds with shady characters for large sums of money. His early PGA days were sometimes as noteworthy for his off-the-course gambling exploits and outbursts of colorful language on the course as it was for his play.

In 2001, Thorpe earned $1,827,223 on the Champions Tour—just $100,000 less than he made in two decades on the regular tour. But things have changed in just four years. On April 17th, Thorpe stood before the congregation of the Crossings Community Church in Lake Mary and promised to donate $250,000 over the next three years. In an unexpected turn of events—and perhaps an angel in his golf bag—Thorpe won $247,500 at the FedEx Kinko’s Classic in Austin, Texas. And with that, the promised three years were reduced to three weeks. He delivered the check on Mother’s Day.

While his largesse to his church may have raised eyebrows among those who knew Thorpe from his years on the major tours, the people who know him best weren’t surprised. Thorpe regularly attends services with his family. They and others close to him know him as a man of strong convictions, and determined to help the less fortunate.

Thorpe likes to contribute to Crosswoods Community Church because "many times when you give, you don’t know if funds are used properly. But with his ministry, I can see what’s happening there. Later on later this year or early next year I’ll put together a golf tournament to encourage people to give that way."

Thorpe at church with Charae and Pastor Wilkins.

Family and faith
Thorpe and his family—his wife, Carol, and their daughters, Sheronne, 28, and Charae, 16—moved to Heathrow in 1996 after 20 years in Buffalo, New York. They’re now building a new home in Heathrow Woods. "It’s a bigger lot and a little quieter," he says. (Thorpe also stays in touch with his daughters, Monica and Darlene, from a previous marriage.)

Thorpe visited Heathrow for many years to see his long-time friend, Mike Lewis, a financial advisor and now his agent. Lewis, who spoke to Thorpe by phone nearly every day, encouraged him to make the move to Florida. "Everything was booming here in Seminole County," says Thorpe. Lewis also mentioned that the Senior Tour was three or four years away, and being in Florida could afford Thorpe the time to work on his game and get it back in shape. "It was an excellent move."

Since moving to Florida, and through his friendship with Mike and Amy Lewis and his wife’s influence, Thorpe began to attend the Crossings Community Church, and Pastor Keith Wilkins played a major role in his life in the past six years. "He is a teaching minister vs. a preaching minister," says Thorpe. "You know where he’s going—from point A to point B–and he explains it very well."

The two have talked many times about life’s tragedies and obstacles. "Just when you feel life is going well, it’s then that life throws a block in your way," says Thorpe. "Pastor Keith helps you to deal with it. It’s a real pleasure to know him."

Attending church has made a difference in his life, he says—in the way he thinks, perseveres, and makes decisions. "I may get down on myself if my game goes a little ragged, but I don’t get mad. I don’t go out there with the idea that I should make that $50,000 or $100,000 every week —I go out there with the idea that 'Thank God for what the Lord has blessed me with,’" Pastor Keith has taught me that and he has had a great impact on my entire family . . . I can’t tell you enough about what he’s done for me," he says. "Having a mentor on the ministry side in your life, like a Pastor Keith, can carry you a very long way."
Someone else who has had a profound impact on him, and for much longer, is Carol, his wife of 32 years and a highly accomplished woman. They met in 1973 in Savannah, having just returned from graduating from the American College in Leysin, Switzerland. (She later received a graduate degree in Urban and Environmental Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.) Thorpe, divorced for several years at the time, says it was love at first sight.

All these years later he happily proclaims that Carol is "a wonderful person." And he believes she’s the backbone of his career. "She’s the one who told me things I needed to hear vs. things I wanted to hear. When I made excuses, she didn’t go for the excuses," he says. "She was there through the rough times, and now she’s there for the good times. If there’s such a thing as the 'perfect’ wife, then she would be the perfect wife from pretty much every standpoint."

He continues: "We can sit down and discuss things. She helps me to put things in perspective. Two or three years ago I played in a golf tournament in Boston. On the 18th hole I three-putted from four or five feet but won the tournament [and] won about $103,000." But he was upset about the 3-putt. "Afterwards, as we traveled down to Foxboro . . . I was quiet and had a disgusted look on my face. Finally she said, 'If someone had told you a week ago that you would win 100-plus thousand this week, you would have gladly taken it. So just be thankful.’ Once I thought about it, it made sense. It wasn’t like I was trying to three-putt that green—it just happened."

While Carol was in Europe studying, Thorpe earned a scholarship to Morgan State University in Baltimore as a running back. But his heart wasn’t in college. His oldest brother Chuck was in the PGA tour, and Thorpe had his eye on a career in golf, too. He jokes that he went to college to play football and pinochle. "Those are some of the mistakes that you make early on, and hopefully don’t [they] come back to haunt you later on in life."

Big brother Chuck, who played the former Champions Tour as well as the PGA, had a big influence on his younger brother’s career, putting him in a position to want to pursue golf. Although the younger Thorpe won more tournaments and money, he feels Chuck was the much better player. Being the more "level-headed" of the two, he says, Thorpe knew what he had to do to succeed. "Chuck knew what he had to do, too. He just never did it. He never really dedicated himself the way that I did." For example, "I knew I had a very unorthodox golf swing, so I knew that I had to work twice as hard to make it work."

Thorpe, Arnold Palmer, Dana Quigley, and Bruce Fleisher.

Thorpe would take the time and trouble to prepare himself. "I’d research and talk to a lot of people about things that I knew were coming up, like finding out what PGA qualifying school or the PGA tour would be like," he says. "Don’t get me wrong!" he’s quick to add. "I bet my horses and stopped at casinos and that sort of stuff. But I had it under control."

And he wouldn’t change a thing. "Of course, we would go back and make changes after we made mistakes and now know better." But he feels he is a much better person today. "I owe a lot of people credit," he says, but "self-experience is the best experience," and he feels that he’s gotten much of that.

Giving back
Today, Jim Thorpe is doing fine on all fronts. "I had an OK career on the PGA tour, but on the Champions Tour I’ve had a marvelous career," he says. "I’ve made more money than I had ever dreamed of making. It’s put me in a position where I can try and do things for those who are less fortunate."

That’s one of the real pleasures he gets out of it, he says: that he and Carol are able to give to the ministry and to the Boys and Girls Club of Seminole County. "We’re in the process of packing boxes of clothes and shoes to send to the Red Cross to help some of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The PGA tour, corporate America and Foxwoods Resort and Casino have allowed me to do those sort of things."
"I’ve always wanted to give my family more than I ever had, because I grew up poor. So [now] I’m able to give my children things I never had, and am still able to give to [others]. It makes you feel good."

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