Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
WILLIAM R. LEVESQUEGreg Kraft, who has lost his PGA Tour card, says tournament organizers should have warned players about valley fever.
CLEARWATER - Professional golfer Greg Kraft knew something was terribly wrong in early 2002.
His drives were falling short. He was constantly tired. At times, he could barely finish 18 holes.
Doctors suspected cancer. But after extensive tests, they finally told the Clearwater resident he had contracted a serious fungal infection commonly called valley fever, endemic to the desert.
Kraft thinks he got it at the PGA Tour's Tucson Open in February 2002.
This week, he filed suit in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court against the PGA Tour. Kraft alleges tournament organizers failed to warn players about the risk of contracting the infection.
The suit by the 11-year tour veteran also names as a defendant Omni Hotels Management Corp., which operates the resort where the tournament took place.
"The tour had a responsibility to its players," Kraft's attorney, Leonard Decof, said Wednesday. "They should have known about this. If golfers are going to be playing under conditions that could be dangerous or life threatening, the tour should know about it and warn them."
The fungal spores that cause valley fever live in soil and can be released when the soil is disturbed, a certainty when golfers play, Decof said.
The lawsuit says the tour also should have told players of the symptoms of the malady - weight loss, high fever, cramps - so they could get early treatment if they began exhibiting them.
It's easy to pass off the symptoms because they mimic the flu, Decof said. And because valley fever isn't well known outside the Southwest, doctors elsewhere often misdiagnose it, the lawyer said.
Decof said that because Kraft wasn't diagnosed quickly, he is at greater risk of suffering from the malady the rest of his life.
On Wednesday, neither Kraft nor Omni Hotels nor PGA Tour officials immediately returned calls for comment.
Decof said Kraft continues to be plagued by valley fever and was recently hospitalized because of it. It has sapped Kraft's strength, making it difficult to play well, Decof said.
Kraft, 39, earned $71,756 this year, placing him 220th on the PGA's money leaders list. Kraft has lost his tour card, and the PGA Tour has refused to give him a medical waiver.
Kraft's best season was 1999, when he earned $810,777 and finished 52nd on the money list.
Valley fever also is known as coccidioidomycosis (cox-SID-ee-OID-oh-my-COE-suss). The fungus thrives in arid places with hot summers and no winter frosts. In the United States, Arizona, California and Texas report the most cases.
The coccidioides fungus lives in soil, and can cause an infection by being inhaled. Some never come down with any symptoms. Others see the symptoms go away without treatment.
Kraft finished sixth at the Tucson Open, his lone top-10 finish of the 2002 season. The next week, he played in Miami and began to feel tired.
A week later, he withdrew from the Honda Classic. A visit to the doctor and blood tests followed, but nothing was found.
So Kraft went to the Bay Hill Invitational, where during the second round he could barely finish. The following week at the Players Championship, it was the same story.
"I was 100 yards behind everybody in my group," Kraft told the St. Petersburg Times in a July 2002 interview. "I couldn't walk . . ."
With three weeks of rest, Kraft returned to golf in April 2002. But after hitting a few balls in practice, symptoms returned.
"I started sweating, shaking. I had a temperature of 103," Kraft said. "I called my doctor, and he told me to get home."
That's when doctors noticed that the lymph nodes in Kraft's chest were five times their regular size, leading a doctor to tell Kraft he had every symptom of lymphoma. Biopsies disproved that.
Not long after, the real diagnosis came.