Tuscaloosa tornado hit home for Ekey

MARION -- Kathleen Ekey brought a recent issue of Sports Illustrated to an interview Wednesday morning.

A double-truck photo showed the devastation to Tuscaloosa, Ala., wreaked by a tornado April 27 that killed 42 people in the college town.

Her finger scanned the page, then she pointed off the page, maybe a foot, with her index finger.

"Here's where my apartment was. There's where my car was."

Yeah, the tornado hit home for Ekey, a 24-year-old University of Alabama alum who will tee it up at the Ladies Titan Tire Challenge, Friday through Sunday at Hunters Ridge Golf Course.

She was away at the time, preparing to compete at the Symatra Classic in San Antonio.

"My mom called and said there had been a tornado in Tuscaloosa," she said. "Eventually, I got more word about what had happened. I watched a lot of TV that night at my host family's house."

It has been a little more than a month since that day, a day in which tornadoes and storms killed more than 300 in the South. Ekey still struggles to put her feelings into words.

"I don't know how to describe it," she said. "How do you describe when a place you live for three years ... you can't tell what is what, everything is gone.

"I still get goosebumps."

Amazingly, Ekey's apartment and car sustained minimal damage. Her 2004 Cadillac Escalade suffered just a brokwn window and a broken mirror.

The day after she concluded play in San Antonio, she returned to Tuscaloosa to retrieve her car and to join the University of Alabama women's golf team in volunteering in the community.

She prepared meals and handed them to those suddenly left homeless.

"There was one man," Ekey recalled. "He had nothing. He had nowhere to stay. There was no room in the shelters. I felt awful for him."

An Ohio native, Ekey started her collegiate career at Furman University, then transferred to Alabama, where she earned all-American honors.

Now she is in the LPGA's version of the minor leagues.

Ekey has played in four tournaments this year, making the cut in all of them -- including a pair of top-10 finishes. Her 2011 winnings of $6,178 rank 21st on the Futures Tour money list.

She ranks No. 1 on the tour in greens in regulation (78 percent), birdies (43) and subpar holes (45).

"My ball-striking is really good," she said. "Right now, (my fate) is all in my short game. That's all that's really holding me back from here to where I want to go."

Which, of course, is the LPGA Tour. The top 10 money winners will get cards for 2012.

Ekey wants to make the Tour, in part so she can lend some financial assistance to her college town.

"It went from being to Tuscaloosa to not being Tuscaloosa, all in about five minutes," Ekey said. "We don't make a lot of money (on the Futures Tour), but I do have an opportunity to do more."