Thorpe came to play, and work, and play  PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator SONOMA, Calif. -- Jim Thorpe barely made it into the Charles Schwab Cup Championship this week, and, if he hadn't qualified, there's only one place he'd be.  Laid-back Jim Thorpe enjoys a cigar on the course. (Halverson/WireImage)
"Las Vegas," he said with a chuckle. "It's been a tough year, and that's my way of relaxing and having fun." He may be a bit of a gambler, but he doesn't cheat. "It's a little suspicious," Mark James teased him after Thorpe fired a round of 64 at the start of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. "You play alone and shoot 8-under par." But it was all legit, as Thorpe made nine birdies to vault into first place on the leaderboard. Eduardo Romero eventually tied him for the lead, while Mark James sits two back at 6-under par. For the third time in the last five years, Thorpe is tied for the early lead in Sonoma, a course that suits his game so well "it's a shame we can't play all 30 events here," he says, "I could probably be a multiple winner, you know?" Thorpe made it into the field at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship -- which allows the top-30 players on the 2007 Money List onto the Sonoma Golf Club course -- by just $4,000. He held off Tom Jenkins, "Jenky" as he calls him, for the No. 30 spot to make it back to California to defend his title from 2006, when he won by two strokes over Tom Kite. Thorpe also won in 2003. Since he was the last man to qualify in an odd-numbered field, Thorpe was given the option of playing with a marker or going it alone. For the first time in his career (that he can remember), he played by himself, something he wishes he could do for all four rounds since he finished in under two and a half hours. "I thought I would need to see somebody else putt and see the ball roll, and from the first hole, it never bothered me - after I got into my rhythm and that sort of stuff. "...I think it was absolutely perfect. The pace was good, didn't have to wait for nobody, the greens were perfect. Maybe I could get lucky tomorrow and play [in the last group] by myself." He credited longtime caddie Tony Shepard -- "we are just like husband and wife," Thorpe says, "we fight and scratch and claw, but the bottom line is I know he's in my corner" -- with keeping him from getting out of control. "Because he knew I was going to play fast, he was walking slow and talking about how his wife and son are doing and how are my daughters doing. I realized right away what he was doing, so I slowed my pace down but once I get them burned, I like to go." When Thorpe started to torch the back nine by making two straight birdies on Nos. 10 and 11, Shepard let him loose and watched him rack up a string of seven birdies on the back nine.  Jim Thorpe only made his way into the Charles Schwab Cup Championship by $4,000. (Rogash/WireImage) The friendly banter between caddie and player was some of the first Thorpe can remember exchanging this season as he's struggled with keeping his chin and spirits up. In his first start of 2007, Thorpe tied for second at the MasterCard Championship but has only cracked the top-10 two other times. The 58-year-old could bookend his lukewarm season with a high finish this week. "I've been in a major funk...I mumble to myself a lot when I'm playing bad, and you're getting yourself more flustered than you really need to. Whether we win, lose or draw, just by me getting here from where I came from and knowing the way I was playing, it's a win for me already." Like any player approaching age 60, Thorpe is struggling with aches and back pains but doesn't expect to quit the Tour any time soon. This is his ninth straight year in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship and adds that "...guys like me and Dana Quigley," he says, "you probably will have to use a wheelchair to take us off. We are going to play until they chase us away." The struggle to fix the "boo-boos", as he calls them, during his rounds has dimmed his on-course mood, but he quickly brushes off an opportunity to use his age as an excuse. "When you are used to being in contention and that sort of stuff and people saying, 'Well, you're getting older,' I say, BS, I don't feel no different than I did when I first came on the Champions Tour. I have aches and pains and that comes every 12 months or so when you have another birthday. Despite being down on his golf game, he hasn't let it completely stunt his personality. Thorpe's post-round interview runs the gamut of topics, including sex, Vegas and the sometimes hard reality of being black in a white man's golf world, but he keeps his stories to a PG rating. The ninth in a family of 12 children, Thorpe grew up next to Roxboro Country Club in North Carolina, where his father was the course superintendent. After a stint as a running back for Morgan State University's football team, he found his way onto the PGA TOUR where he won three times. Since joining the Champions Tour, he's earned a dozen victories and could be headed for another one. No matter how he finishes -- and he knows that a lead on Thursday doesn't mean he's won it, it only means that he hasn't put himself in a position to lose -- Thorpe's just grateful to be in Sonoma. "I'm happy to be here," Thorpe said. "...getting here was harder than trying to win a golf tournament."
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