The next time Shane Bertsch plays in a pro-am and is asked by a duffer for a golf tip, the PGA Tour pro from Parker might first offer another piece of advice:
Under any circumstances, never head down wooden steps wearing socks without shoes.
“Don’t do it,” he said.
Bertsch, 39, fractured the fifth metatarsal — the long bone that connects to the little toe — of his right foot in November when his ankle rolled after stepping off the last step to his basement. Eight months and two surgeries later, Bertsch still can’t play tournament golf.
“It’s taking longer and longer for me to get back,” Bertsch said. “It’s a bummer missing all this time. But I’ve stopped with target dates. I was trying that earlier.”
Initially, surgery was not prescribed and the foot was kept in a cast for seven weeks. After the cast was removed, X-rays revealed that the bone had not healed properly. The first surgery, performed in early January, fused the bone with a plate and screws. An arthroscopic procedure this spring cleaned out scar tissue.
The pain subsided and Bertsch was finally able to stay on his feet for several hours. But another setback occurred recently when the Achilles tendon became inflamed after he practiced making full swings. He estimated this week that his right foot was still only about 50 percent functional.
“Walking is the hard part,” Bertsch said. “I just have to get it a little stronger and more flexible. I’m just doing a little chipping and putting, trying to nurse it back.”
Fracturing his foot was a classic case of adding injury to insult. Just days before the accident, at the PGA Tour’s season-ending event at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, Bertsch finished No. 126 on the 2008 tour money list — one place lower than is required for securing full playing privileges for 2009. Worse yet, Bertsch admitted that he had miscalculated his official earnings and thought — until two days before he teed up for the first round — that he had enough cushion to stay in the top 125, no matter what happened.
It was a misunderstanding. Bertsch had played on a medical exemption in 2008, after vertigo symptoms limited him to four PGA Tour starts in 2007, and erroneously believed that all money applied to retaining full playing privileges last year would count toward his ranking for 2009. The missed cut at Disney dropped Bertsch from No. 124 to the dreaded No. 126 spot. Former Colorado State player Martin Laird earned $49,680 at the Disney to leapfrog Bertsch and take No. 125.
Touring pros who finished the previous year in spots 126 to 150 can get into PGA Tour events, but they are well down the pecking order when tournament fields are filled. Bertsch hopes to improve his status this fall at the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament.
“That’s my biggest goal right now,” he said. “Obviously, it would help if I can get back to playing some tournaments before then. When that might happen, I can’t say for sure. But my spirits are up. And I sure am anxious.”
Zaremba acquitted.
Pueblo-based club pro Mike Zaremba, the 1995 Colorado Open champion, was found not guilty by a jury last week on all charges stemming from two invoices he had sent to the city in June 2007 for $9,000 apiece.
Zaremba, 54, took the stand in his defense and testified that the money was to compensate a course superintendent for completed and future work, and that Zaremba never intended to defraud the city or spend the money himself.
Footnotes.
The University of Colorado men’s golf team will host an annual fall college tournament at Colorado National Golf Club (former Vista Ridge) in Erie, beginning in 2010. CU previously announced that CNGC was awarded a 2011 NCAA men’s regional. . . . Former CU golfer Derek Tolan, a participant in the 2002 U.S. Open who recently turned pro, finished eighth (earning $900) last weekend at the Navajo Trail Open in Durango. His former college teammate Pat Grady earned $1,200 by placing sixth.
Tom Kensler covers golf. Contact: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
