Tracy Hanson: Life On The Lpga Tour Driving Miss Tracy Love Of Golf, Not Money, Pushes Hanson

Tracy Hanson would like her friends back home in Rathdrum, Idaho, to know that her fledgling career as a professional golfer isn’t as lucrative as it might seem.

About her official earnings - an impressive $300,422 in less than two full seasons on the LPGA Tour she says:

“Remember, those aren’t net earnings. With taxes and expenses taken out, it isn’t as much as it seems, but it’s still pretty good money.”

Especially when you throw in some modest endorsement dollars from Orbit, a company that produces semiconductors; Izod Club, a leading manufacturer of golf apparel; and Henry Griffitts, a custom club-making company based in Hayden Lake, Idaho.

But according to Hanson, 25, her expenses - even when sharing the cost of a motel room and rental car with a fellow competitor - can range from $800 to $2,000 a week.

This week’s stop in the Seattle area for the 15th annual Safeco Classic, probably pushed the high-end of those limits, considering Hanson flew her sister, Debbie, in from Vermont and entertained an entourage of nearly a dozen friends and family members for four days.

And her monetary reward? $0.00 - minus her $100 standard LPGA entry fee. “Actually, the entry fees are the cheapest part of being out here,” Hanson said Friday afternoon, after her second-round 71 at Meridian Valley Country Club left her one stroke below the cut line and out of the money for only the third time this year.

“But I’m not complaining. This is a great way to make a living, traveling around and playing golf. I can’t imagine me doing anything else.”

Neither can her parents, Tom and Marcella Hanson, who made the trip from their home in Twin Lakes Village to catch a rare glimpse of their youngest daughter competing against some of the biggest names in women’s golf.

Tom, a real estate appraiser, who first brought Tracy to the Safeco Classic when she was 10 years old, said he remembers the wonder in her eyes when a veteran touring pro they had been following honored her shy request and autographed a golf ball she was carrying.

“I think that might have been when she first set her sights on becoming a professional golfer,” he said. “She was looking up all wide-eyed. I think she was amazed someone like that would take the time to sign her golf ball.”

Marcella Hanson saw the competitive desires in Tracy surface early, and she admits the contrast between the personalities of her two daughters caused some interesting moments around the house when they were growing up.

Debbie, a year older than Tracy, was more “the cheerleader type,” says their mother.

“Boy, did I get two opposites,” Marcella Hanson said. “One’s frilly and the other’s strictly a no-nonsense type - ‘just give me the facts,’ Tracy always says.

“It was tough when they were growing up, because they were just a grade apart. Debbie was older, but she’s not a competitor, whereas Tracy is very competitive.”

Hanson’s mother stopped short of using the “tomboy” label, but admitted Tracy was active, aggressive and a real handful from a very young age. And she added that she’s completely satisfied with the career path she’s chosen.

Hanson, a two-time all-state guard for Lakeland High School, thought about playing basketball - as well as golf - at the next level after graduating in 1989. Kansas University tried to lure her east to do just that.

But Hanson, according to her mother, decided she could not make a living playing basketball without traveling overseas. So she spurned KU’s offer and enrolled at San Jose State University, where she could concentrate on golf and play all year long.

As a Spartan, she won 10 collegiate titles and helped SJSU to the 1992 NCAA team championship. She won the 1989 Women’s Western Junior tournament and the 1991 U.S. Public Links and was a member of the 1992 U.S. Davis Cup team.

She turned professional in 1993, but still ended up skipping back and forth across the ocean while competing on the WPG European Tour, in which she won rookie-of-the-year honors in 1994, and the Asian Tour, where she won the 1994 Indonesian Open.

She earned her LPGA playing card in October 1994.

She competed in 26 events last year and won $124,527, with her best finish coming at the GHP Heartland Classic, where she tied for fourth.

In 23 events this year, she has earned $175,895 and currently ranks No. 27 on the LPGA’s official money list. Her best finish came in the Oldsmobile Classic in East Lansing, Mich., where she finished alone in fourth place just a week after missing the cut at the U.S. Open at Southern Pines, N.C.

Hanson hasn’t played well recently because of recurring back spasms, but she seemed encouraged by the 1-under-par 71 she turned in Friday despite the chilly, rainy conditions that plagued the second round of the Safeco.

She is convinced the physical part of her golf game is sound enough to win on the tour, but she admits she needs to put herself in position to win a few more times so she can hone her mental toughness.

Hanson’s caddy, Kenny Struckman, is convinced his player will survive no matter what the future throws at her. And he backs up his opinion with 11 years of club-toting experience on the LPGA and European Tours.

During that time he has carried clubs for Helen Alfredsson, JoAnne Carner and Laura Davies, and he has watched a lot of young, talented women golfers fire their best shots at the best in the world - and then fall back.

Hanson, he insists, will stay.

“For her age and considering she’s only been a professional for three years, she’s way above average for her class that came out of (qualifying) school,” Struckman said. “If she stays healthy, there’s no reason why, in five or six years’ time, she can’t be one of the top players on the tour.

“I mean that shouldn’t even be a question.”

If it was, he contends, he’d be carrying someone else’s clubs.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 4 Color photos