ON LPGA TOUR: Saratogan Juli Christopher Hilton has earned the right to participate in the LPGA tour for 2004 by scoring four under par and tying for 17th in a four-day tourney sponsored by Q (Qualifying) School. That means she'll be playing in all the LPGA open events over the next year, some two or three a month.
It also means she and husband Shaun Hilton and their two youngsters, Mackenzie, 4, and Trevor, 2, will be traveling and living in their RV from March to September. Shaun is on leave from his information systems job and will caddie and help manage his wife's burgeoning career.
Juli played on a mini tour called the Futures Tour for the past three years. Before that she was the teaching pro at the Pin High Driving Range in Alviso and worked a variety of jobs at Poppy Ridge in Livermore. At Saratoga High, '89 grad, basketball was her game.
Juli didn't take up golf seriously until after her freshman year in college at USC, so she was obviously born with a beautiful golf swing. She earned a sports degree from the U. of San Francisco. After college graduation, she worked in garlic sales. Her uncle is Don Christopher of Gilroy.
And his name is synonymous with garlic: he was a founder of the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Juli's parents are Art and Noreen Christopher, and Art is active in the Saratoga Rotary. That club will sponsor a golf tournament fundraiser for Juli at Cinnabar Hills on Feb. 10.
The fee is $225. Checks may be made payable to Juli or Shaun Hilton, 15065 El Camino Senda, Saratoga. Juli's best career score was a six-under-par 66 at Decatur, Ill., in '01.
COMPOSER: Dr. Arthur Cooley, a Saratoga ob/gyn, is finding himself immersed in and passionate about a totally new pursuit—composing music. He's played piano for years, but realizes now that this was but a steppingstone to his real pursuit of composing.
The composing bug bit a year ago and since then the good doctor has composed some 15 pieces encompassing the whole musical spectrum—symphonic, instrumental, chorale. Recently completed were a string quartet piece, a symphonic movement and a piano concerto.
And the novice composer has been in touch with experts in the field to get welcomed critique and learn structuring he didn't know existed. "I know now it's not just a passing fancy," Cooley says. Besides composing, he's retrofitting his garage roof. All that hammering is good exercise for one's health, he maintains.
IRONMAN CLARIFIED: Brian Mulroe wants it made clear that Ironman events are triathlons, not marathons. In fact, the Ironman is the granddaddy of triathlons, being the most difficult one. The 26.2-mile run is but one-third of the event.
Mulroe's wife, Sheri, ran the Ironman Canada twice and worked for Team in Training for three years. Team in Training is the group that prepares participants for the triathlon and is its fundraising agency: it sends out coaches and pays the Ironman fee from money raised by participants.
Besides the entry fee, the money raised by individuals goes to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Brian himself started in one Ironman in Utah two years ago, but it turned into a partial triathlon. The swim part proved so dangerous the race was canceled after 10 minutes. And despite rescue attempts, one person drowned in the high waves. When the race was started later in the day everything was shortened, so it was not a true Ironman. Brian has competed in perhaps eight half-Ironman events and 30 shorter ones. Today he sticks mostly to bike racing.
Sheri Mulroe is a PE teacher at Carlmont High School in Belmont/San Carlos. She is also a cross country coach, and her team just won the Peninsula Athletic League title.
Brian is a sales rep for electronics companies, something that doesn't demand such fleet footwork as his wife's profession.
MIXING CAPITALS: I'm afraid I've mixed up two artist groups that are active in Saratoga. One is the SCA, Saratoga Contemporary Artists, whose website is www.scartists.org. They're the ones teaching art to Foothill School third graders to compensate for the elimination of the district art teacher.
The other group with similar initials is the Community of Saratoga Artists. They paint a la the Impressionists, working outside directly from nature. That group evolved from an art class.
TWO ENTICEMENTS: There are two reasons to stop by the Book-Go-Round, 14410 Oak St. Books for the Rare & Special Books silent auction are on display Jan. 1725, and Saratoga artist Dan Tellep's watercolors of local sites are hanging at the store during January and February.
The list of rare books can be viewed at www.BookGoRound.com. Mary Jeanne Fenn is BGR manager.
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By Mary Ann Cook